Series- Mortal Gods #3
Genre- Young Adult, Fantasy
Synopsis- A stunning, operatic, epic drama, like no other. Meet Hel, an ordinary teenager - and goddess of the Underworld. Why is life so unfair? Hel tries to make the best of it, creating gleaming halls in her dark kingdom and welcoming the dead who she is forced to host for eternity. Until eternity itself is threatened.
My Review- While not exactly deep in plot or action The Monstrous Child was fun to read and was full of morals that I think children will pick up on.
Hel is the Daughter of a Giantess and the God Loki. Unfortunately, Loki's spawn seem to come out misshapen, wrong and fated to do terrible things. Except, while Hel is described as having corpse legs the Fates have no future reading for her. She is not destined to harm anyone....and yet she remains hated for her deformity. She is called ugly, she is unwanted, barely tolerated by the High God Odin who banishes her to the Underworld to rule all that is Dead.
Within the story, there are morals throughout: For example, you can not force another to love you, that you should not see yourself how others see you or treat you. Hel thought herself ugly due to her treatment in Asgard and by her parents until a human offered her a mirror to see herself truthfully. She lost time thinking dark thoughts, losing herself in hate and vengeance until she realised how useless that time had been. She could have made the best of endless immortality but chose to hide away. The story shows an element of karma for those who treat you terrible, the world will offer up justice in its own way.
So while The Monstrous Child might not be overly captivating for adults, I think children should read this to relate to Hel on many levels other than the Norse Myths and Gods and Goddesses. I enjoyed it, though I had hoped for a more fleshed out ending, I understood the reason for its abruptness.