Joanne Harris never fails to bring her readers into a different world. I absolutely loved The Gospel of Loki, so I bought The Testament of Loki the day it came out. I wasn't disappointed. ( )

I really enjoyed Harris’ Gospel of Loki. It was an excellent reimaging of the familiar Norse myths from Loki’s perspective. However, I’m willing to bet that this follow-up will split fans over the change in direction. Gospel was firmly set in mythology, and the characters and locations all fit with that. We met all the familiar and not so familiar gods in Asgard, all through the eyes of a less than trustworthy narrator. Testament is also told from Loki’s POV, but is still a radical departure from the first book. It is a direct sequel that reveals how Loki escaped his imprisonment by Chaos that came with Ragnarok – he escaped through Dream into a video game!

Jumps is a seventeen-year-old girl who suddenly finds herself host to the God of Mischief after playing a new video game, “Asgard!” At first, she thinks she is going crazy. But when she rushes to visit her friend Evan, she and Loki discover that he is hosting Odin! And Odin has a plan to return the gods (particularly himself) to their former glory, but he needs something from Loki. I was initially put off by the abrupt change from myth to modern setting, especially since Gospel read like a traditional adult novel, and this is definitely YA. I didn’t like so much focus on everything that was wrong in Jumps’ life. She’s an outsider/misfit in school, with extremely low self-esteem, an eating disorder and she cuts herself. That’s a lot to pack into an adventure story that is otherwise very lighthearted. And, it is all resolved much too easily for such weighty issues.

However, I really enjoyed Loki’s reactions to “our” modern world: Chocolate! Pizza! English Exams? Harris is still faithful to the character. And, his growing connection with Jumps was very good. They grew to respect and even care for each other and worked together to accomplish their goals. Loki swept into her life like Mary Poppins, leaving it for the better. The best part, though, is the plot involving Odin, Mimir’s daughter Gullveig-Heid, and Loki. There are lots of twists, betrayals and threads that extend from Gospel and tie into Runemarks (which was published first but comes after Loki’s books in the chronology).

Overall, I ended up liking the book much more by the end than I had when I started. I hope Harris does more books with Loki. ( )