This series has surprised me once again by not going in the direction that I thought it would and I LOVE IT. While the Raven Rings series might initially sound like it would be standard young adult fare, it is anything but. This review will contain spoilers for The Rot, but also the previous book in the series, Odin’s Child, so proceed with caution! 

The book starts off with Hirka adjusting to her strange new life in England. You may recall that at the end of Odin’s Child she travelled through a Raven Ring to her homeworld so the Blind would no longer be able to invade Ym. Hirka has learned some English and has been living in a church thanks to the charity of a priest, helping out with day to day tasks. Unsurprisingly, she’s constantly shocked by this new world she originated from, with the cars whizzing around, cell phones, and the need for identification, credit cards, etc. The only thing she has left is her quickly dwindling supply of herbal remedies and Kuro, the raven, who is getting sicker by the day. Hirka isn’t as safely anonymous as she first assumed - people are after her and she is forced to go on the run with Stefan, a guy who’s been hunting the Blind on Earth.

This is a complicated story with more than one twist that really subverted my expectations. For one, Hirka is Graal’s (the leader of the Blind, and brother to the Seer) daughter and while this initially disturbs her, he turns out to not be a huge monster the way he’s portrayed. Or at least that’s how it seems right now (I am hugely skeptical about this). The Seer himself was trapped inside Kuro and came through the rings with Hirka and he wants vengeance against his brother, so he’s trying to use both Stefan and Hirka to build an army to topple Graal. Hirka’s playing both sides, total double agent sometimes and… geez, there really is a lot going on in this book! It really kept me hooked! 

On the flip side, we have Rime’s POV in Ym as well. He’s the Ravenbearer, though the title is all but meaningless after he and Hirka basically toppled an important chunk of Ymish society. I like Rime, but man is he daft sometimes though it makes sense because he’s a measly nineteen years old. He makes some dumb decisions because he’s quite focused on getting Hirka back since he’s madly in love with our flame-haired tailless girl. His POV chapters really kept me uncertain about Graal’s overall goodness because of how he interacted with Graal’s agents and the history with Urd in the previous book. 

The plotting of this series is turning out to be far more intricately detailed than I could have expected and I am delighted. I feel like I can’t predict what will happen next because so far I’ve been wrong about so many things! Yes, it is marketed as young adult, but it will definitely appeal to folks who typically only read “adult” fantasy. I can't wait for the release of the third and final book in the trilogy! I’m hopeful for an early 2022 release of the final book.

This book was easier to read than the first one. the writing was better and it flowed easily.

Graal's point of view was a great addition, very interesting and enjoyable to read. My girl Hirka! i missed her and she never disappoints. She's definitely the one with the best character arc.
The last few chapters were interesting and messy in a good way, enjoyed the chaos and plot-twists.

What bothered me the most is how rime is still the same. he's unaware of his true status and unwilling to adjust his life and habits into what his country and people need. he's still stuck on how and why Hirka left, which, after putting my appreciation of their romance in Odin's Child aside, was quite frustrating. Also someone should tell him that if one doesn't want people to think they're insane then one must simply not act insane.

I wish the relationships between the characters were explored in more depth. The dynamics were introduced but then completely abandoned, with no significant growth as the plot progresses. This was especially obvious with Rime and Damayanti.

Overall, this book didn't have the same element of excitement Odin's Child had, the bar was high and I don't think it even got close to giving us what we wanted.

When i've enjoyed the first book of a fantasy series i'm always scared to read the next one in case it doesn't live up to my expectations. This book was perfect!!

I loved being back in this world and loved the new characters we were introduced to. I also loved learning more about the characters we met in the first book.

This is a great fantasy series and i'm excited to see what happens next.

I cannot get over how obsessed I am with this series. AND THE WHIPLASH. I need book three.

Now an actual review.

I loved the integration of our modern world into the magic and laws of Ym. Seeing our world through Hirka's eyes really drives home how much we waste and misuse on our planet, in terms of resources as well as the chemicals we pollute everything with. There's a lot of great discourse throughout the book regarding Earth's degradation the more "modernized" we become as a people.

As far as characters, everyone from book one really gets even more fleshed out in this, and those new characters introduced add a lot of information to the history and worldbuilding that answers a lot of questions from book one. The plot twists throughout this were so well-delivered and definitely felt like the information had been left as a breadcrumb trail throughout book one. Nothing comes out of the blue because if you pay attention, it makes sense what's being revealed.

I'm really intrigued for how the story continues (and concludes). I'm enjoying that, just like the first book, nothing is clear cut and simple and the characters have to make tough choices.

I really enjoyed Odin’s Child and I was excited to read The Rot.

I really enjoyed with The Rot and seeing more of the characters I loved from Odin’s Child.

I can’t wait to read the last book

Title: The Rot
Author: Siri Pettersen
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 5 out of 5

To protect her homeland of Ym, Hirka left it behind. She traveled through the raven rings, a stone circle that can be used as a portal, to an unfamiliar world. A world without the Might, a world where none of the people have tails, a world that seems rotten at its very core. That world is modern-day Europe.

Hirka was supposed to fit in with humans here. And her departure was supposed to be save Ym from the invasion of the blind. Yet none of that has happened. Instead, Hirka finds herself just as much of an outsider among the humans as she was among ymlings—even more so when she discovers that she has blood of the blind running through her veins. Meanwhile back in Ym, Rime—now the Ravenbearer—is fighting an ongoing battle against the blind, not to mention against his fellow Councilors, as well as with his own despair over losing Hirka.

Separated by worlds, unsure who to trust, and hunted for reasons they cannot understand, both Hirka and Rime must find a way to stop a thousand-year-old evil from destroying not only Ym, but every world in existence.

I love this series! Phenomenally well-written, engrossing, and just plain fascinating, I wanted to binge-read the entire thing (except for you know, responsibilities). I liked how Hirka and Rime are forced to grow while being separated by worlds, yet their bond remains strong and sure. I cannot recommend this highly enough!

Siri Pettersen is from Norway and is an award-winning author. The Rot is her newest novel, the second book in The Raven Rings series.

(Galley courtesy of Arctis Books in exchange for an honest review.)

This story will take you on a roller coaster of emotions! A layered fantasy that will draw you in and keep you suspended as it unfolds.

We pick up right where we left off in Odin's Child, if only a bit forward. Hirka's journey has always felt inescapable in a way, where her choices would mount to something grand. She has always had a calm about her even when she was on the verge of losing it. Love is what motivates and moves her, the people she has come across through her journey are written on her heart.

The amount of information that was unloaded in The Rot blew my mind. The pacing was quick but it never felt rushed. The sense of urgency was for good reason! I absolutely groan when the characters make decisions that seem wrong; yet sometimes things must come down to be built up proper.

I cannot wait for the third installment! Thank you to Arctisbooks for the review copy in exchange for my honest review!

Let me just say, trust NO ONE! Ugh this was good. Soooo good imo. All the twist and turns? This book had me picking my jaw up off the floor so many times. 4⭐

What a great book. This is a second book in the Raven Rings trilogy and I love the duel points of view as we see what Rime and Hirka are doing. We have a new setting as well as the world we know from Odin's Child. I can't wait for book three.

What I liked:
The fact the characters just don't feel like they fit in sometimes, a super realistic feeling that a lot of people go Hirka doesn't know who she can trust, this is by chance the only realistic thing I find in her character arc. It's because of this that I struggle to believe she would just go along with what everyone else wants.
What I didn't like:
Hirka seems to accept what other people tell her way too easily. She way too easily accepted who she was (a child of Odin/the rot) and then based everything she decided on that going forward without a second that. She doesn't even really question when she is told her former friend is actually evil and just moves forward without a second thought. She doesn't have the desire to learn anything for herself and that seems to be the problem, she just takes what everyone tells her.
Rime was angry and everything he did reflected his anger. I appreciate the attempted portrayal of grief in this way but it just didn't work for me. I get what the author was going for, but it didn't hit that mark.
Characters should never just vanish without an explanation. To be honest, I hate this, it seems lazy on the part of the author, like it was an afterthought and the character was simply forgotten.

Overall, it's hard for me to look past the issues I found within the character's development and appreciate the story at hand, making this a much lower-rated read for me than Odin's Child, a book I adored.

I enjoyed this book.

There were a few things that didn't work for me, though:

Hirka seems to accept what other people tell her way to easily. First she accepted that she was a Child of Odin/the rot and based everything she did on that belief. Now, when she is told that Naiell (once her raven friend Kuro) is actually evil, she accepts it with only a small amount of questioning. I kept wanting to yell at her that she was being used. It would have felt more realistic if she had come to that conclusion on her own and we'd come there with her.

Also Rime. I wanted to smack him upside the head. He was angry and violent and his actions reflected that anger. It really bugged me. To be fair, it is a good portrayal of how grief often makes people act weird. We spend a fair bit of time in his POV, and then he just kind of disappears. He is still there, but we never "hear" from him.

What I liked:

The theme that sometimes we don't just feel like we don't fit in, but that as a result of not fitting in, we don't know who we can trust. Perhaps that was part of what drove Hirka to accept what others told her. Hum.

I liked that Hirka decided she had to stop running and make a decision/do something. I may personally feel she made the wrong decision, but she made a decision. I'll have to read the third book to see if I'm right or if Hirka was right.

ARC from NetGalley

Well, this certainly isn't where I thought the stones would take Hirka. I liked this book a lot more than the first one. It was an excellent read, multifaceted and intriguing. Lots of morally grey characters. The modern-day setting was a sharp departure from Ym. I'm quite intrigued to see what happens in the next one. Do recommend.

Phew. I’m ready to go back to Ym after this. Pettersen certainly does not suffer from a sequel slump with this one. It was absolutely fantastic! I will note, however, that this one is significantly more mature in content than Odin’s Child, and I feel strongly that it is more suited for mature, adult audiences than those in YA. More on that further down in the review.

We go from Ym to our world’s Europe in the next installment of the Raven Rings trilogy. At the end of OC, Hirka leaves Ym and goes to our world, where, though everyone is like her—tailless—she finds herself no more connected to those around her than she did in Ym. She does, however, find some who are willing to be kind to her, even though they raise their brows at her every time she speaks.

The brilliance of this installment, to me, lies in the fundamental inability for the reader to trust the characters. I’m going to come right out and say, TRUST NO CHARACTER. I mean it. NONE. I found myself dropping my jaw so much while reading this book, and that was mainly because every time I made an assumption about the reliability of a character, well, one knows what happens when one assumes something.

The armchair traveler will also get quite a ride out of this one; Hirka takes us to quite a few places in Europe and back again, and Pettersen skillfully immerses the reader with the settings and descriptions. I just love when authors can put readers right into a place, and the book magically takes them there. Many read to escape and learn new things and go on adventures. The Rot does this well; it was one of my favorite aspects of the book overall.

I have only two major qualms with the book. My first is the language in it. The Rot is being marketed as a YA book—age 14 or grades 8 and up—(as the first was), but it contains strong language in abundance. Just a bit of nitpickiness—grade 8 is younger than 14. My second is that Hirka forms a mutual attraction with a character much older than she, though she is a character of only 16. I won’t elaborate, as it spoils some of the plot. I’m not ignorant of the ages of consent around the world, but I’m sensitive to those types of situations, as I teach adolescents.

Druthers notwithstanding, this middle–of–a–trilogy book is one of the best second–parters I’ve ever read. I don’t know how many have just made things worse, but The Rot is most assuredly not one of them.

My thanks to Arctis Books via Edelweiss for the ARC, for which I heartily give my own opinion.

Thank you to netgalley and the publisher for an early copy of this book.

I had to run to find book one as I hadn’t realised I had dived straight into a 2nd instalment but I am so glad I did. I hope to find a good fantasy story in pretty much every book I read and this set did not disappoint! I loved it all and I can’t wait for book 3!

I thought I was going to love this one but It didn't grab me as much as it's predecessor. I found the plot was a little redundant and didn't feel fully fleshed out.

A great follow up to a story of such grit, horror and terror. I adore this world and the story here, and cannot wait to see how the story continues. Thank you for the arc!

Thank you Negalley and for the Arctis Books for a copy of The Rot by Siri Pettersen in exchange for an honest review.

Odin's Child was without a doubt one of the best reads of this year, and the Rot did not disappoint as the second book on this series.

Hirka has crossed the rings to another world and as soon as you opn the book you'll have to readjust from the Ym to a world that is more familiar to us. The story will jump between Hirka and Rime without being boresome.

There are plot twists, jaw dropping revelations, and once again I ended the book with a few more theories in my brain. I cannot wait to read the final installement.

I really enjoyed this book! It was a great read, i didnt want to put it down! I would recommend this to my friends and family

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eArc!

I have been trying to find more translated books to read and I read the first book (odin’s child) last year so I requested this immediately when I saw it!

This second instalment felt vastly improved in comparison to the first. I absolutely adored the Scandinavian mythology so if you’re like me I recommend trying the first one!

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this arc. I was so excited to see it after reading “Odin’s Child” earlier this year.

I enjoyed the book and the direction it took. At times, it was a little slow for me. There was plenty of interesting things happening but not what I was hoping would happen. The ending left me sad but interested. I can’t wait for the next book. This part of the review will contain spoilers. I was dying for Hirka and Rime to end up back together. It took so long in this book. I got so nervous any time they would get tempted by something else. It broke my heart to have them apart. And then, Rime comes.! Yay.! But he barely gets any time with Hirka before she’s disappointed in him and he’s sent back to Ym. *cue more heartbreak* I know their relationship is a little toxic. They’ll do basically anything for each other, even becoming the worst versions of themselves. But I love it, and I love them. I so hope they get more time in the third book, although Hirka is going to another world, yet again.