BREATHE FIRE— I’ve always had an infatuation with Norse mythology and the Vikings, and I’ve always wondered why no one had written about them through the lens of a YA novel. When I first heard about Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young, I was like “FINALLY. Someone is finally doing it!” Knowing what I do about reading a new author for the first time, I tried not to get my hopes up too high because I’ve been let down in the past. But Young really delivered with her tale, and I’m so pleased to tell you guys that this book has become near and dear to me. It definitely deserves 5/5 stars and I likely won’t ever stop recommending it. So, let me tell you a little about it!
“I stood at the entrance of the ritual house in the falling snow, holding basket piled high with yarrow. The huge archway was a detailed carving of the mountain, the trees etched into it in slanted patterns and the face of Thora, mouth full of fire.”
Sky in the Deep follows seventeen year old Eelyn, a viking warrior from the Aska tribe set on the coast of the snowy Fjord, who lives by the code “vegr yfir fjor” or “honor above life.” Her clansmen have an ancient rivalry with the Riki clan, who worship the goddess Thora above the Aska god Sigr. She lives to fight, and fights to survive. That is the ways of her people, and that is all she knows. Five years after the death of her beloved brother Iri, a brother who she’d seen fall in battle, she is revisited by his ghost fighting alongside their rival clan. But when she notices how corporal he appears, and how he has seemingly aged with time, she cannot fathom the truth. It is no longer a possibility that Iri is an apparition sent by her god—and her heart refuses to accept the harrowing truth of his deception.
Every five years, the Riki and the Aska converge in the mountains or alongside the coast to fight to the death. It is the way of their worlds, and a tradition that had been kept since the age of their gods. But when Eelyn tries to find her brother amongst broken bodies and swinging axes, she is nearly killed by Fiske—Riki’s new, adoptive brother. Iri pulls them apart before they tear murder one another, but Eelyn is then taken prisoner and sworn to secrecy about her brother’s lineage.
Eelyn must face her brother’s betrayal and live amongst his people, the Riki, and work as their servant if she hopes to survive the winter to then venture back home to her father. When the Riki village is suddenly raided, she must put her life in the hands of the man who nearly took it—Fiske. Her brother’s friend, and her captor, try to figure out how to unite the clans to defeat a deadlier enemy. But some rivalries run too deep, with too much blood spilled, and old rivals will never be truly at rest until their god’s thirst for blood and war is satisfied.
The setting takes place in a vague, Nordic country where one scene goes from thickly iced over lakes to snow-capped mountains where trees tower over the nestled villages. Young’s descriptions of the meeting halls and forests are gorgeous. I loved her writing style, because it easily hooked me from the first page and didn’t leave room for errors. In other words, anything I guessed that would occur actually didn’t occur, even with my close reading. It was a well thought out and characterized story, especially in regards to character development. A major theme throughout was the idea of giving in and changing. When to change, whether or not to change, and who to change for—which ultimately leads to the protagonist’s self-discovery and newfound outlook on life. The best part about this book is definitely following along as Eelyn struggles to find herself in two different worlds. Fiske fights the same inner battle, as does Iri, and all three of them go through this change differently and with contrasting perspectives. It was all very intriguing and stimulating to read.
