A review by spacetoread
When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald

2.0

I received an advanced listener copy of this book from Libro.fm, Simon Audio, and Gallery Books in exchange for an honest review.

This book I surely unique. Narrated by Zelda, a high-functioning adult on the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum, it has somewhat stilted language and was awkward to listen to on audio. I think the author attempts to have the reader charmed by Zelda’s quirks and her obsession with Vikings, but it didn’t work on me. The storyline felt very unbelievable, and the heavy and dark themes were in contrast to Zelda’s point of view. I realize that was surely the point - to show the stark difference between Zelda’s world and how she could perceive it. But I simply didn’t like that. Sex is a huge part of this book, it is talked about and had and talked about some more for almost half of the book. It felt overdone to me. Generally, I wasn’t sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn’t that.