Loki: WICKED, VISCERAL, TRANSGRESSIVE: Norse gods as you've never seen them before

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There are anachronisms, which work. Canapes are served at Asgard’s many drinks parties. Odin starts to go insane because he has peered into the multiverse, while the traditionally male god Baldr turns out to be a hermaphrodite, with Loki taking Baldr’s “second virginity” in soft-porn fashion on a bearskin rug. One of Loki’s wives, Angrboda, gives birth to enormous monsters, and Burgess gruesomely details their arrivals as if on a contemporary maternity ward.

Her classmate Rob is big, strong. He can take care of himself and his brother. But his violent stepdad sees someone to humiliate. Alongside the politics of Asgard, it charts the course of Loki’s many loves and families, from his mothering of Odin’s famous horse to his intense, turbulent, and, eventually, fatal relationship with Baldr the Beautiful – a tender and moving story of love that goes wrong, jealousy and a transitioning that is forbidden by society.Well, will you look at that! Junk is twenty years old this year and the YA Book Prize is marking the occasion with a special award. I’m so flattered and pleased! Loki also shares his experience of love in its many forms including shape-shifting into a mare to distract a stallion resulting in the birth of Odin's famous eight-legged horse, his marriages to Sigyn and Angrboda, his monstrous children by the latter, and his intense, doomed relationship with Baldr the Beautiful. Loki feels that his time has come. The old gods – Odin, Thor, Tyr – have got away with it for long enough. It’s time to tell his version of the events, long ago, which led to his unjust imprisonment. Waterstones

According to the Guardian, 'In the UK, fiction for "young adults" has grown hugely over the past decade...The godfather of this new fiction is Melvin Burgess.' My most overwhelming thought while reading this was, ‘this is bizarre!’. I mean myths and gods are always kinda weird but some of this was like what on earth!?? The story of human origins and the reader consequently being referred to as, ‘arse born’, was a particular highlight of weirdness. Gedurende het boek praat Loki rechtstreeks tegen de lezer en vertelt hij over zijn streken tijdens de mythen. De manier waarop hij met de lezer communiceert, geeft het boek een aangename en humoristische toets.It's always interesting to watch trends change in publishing. For a while, we have been in a big boom of Greek mythology retellings (one that doesn't look like it's going to end soon), but LOKI is a book that comes as the scope is widening to include other mythologies. her and her hubby, Bill, who filmed the video below – a behind the scenes look at an interview I did at the Bologna Book Fair. Thanks to Bill and Woolf Digital for letting me use it. Junk is 25 years old this year! That would make Gemma in her early 40’s by now. I hope she’s managed to stay clean. So we’ve listened and organised our next Retreat on those lines. MORE spare time to write … MORE 1-2-1’s with myself and Lucy, and still plenty of time to ride, to sit in the hot tub with a beer, a daiquiri, Margarita or pina colada. This is the very lovely Italian edition of The Cry of the Wolf, published last year by Equilibri – and shortlisted for the Children’s Strega Prize! It’s a big deal in all sorts of ways. My first shortlisting in Italy and for such a big prize, too!

The winner is announced at the Bologna Children’s Book Fair on 27th March. I’ll be there. Maybe I’ll even win – although the competition is very hot. Fingers crossed. Step into the ancient fir-tree forests of Scandinavia and bear witness to legends as epic as those of the Greeks and the Romans. Not, alas, from his imprisonment deep in the world’s bowels, where he has been trapped by the other gods, but his voice, his book – in which I had a small part to play in writing it down – is available to buy. i was not prepared for this since i only bought this book because of its title, nor have i any knowledge of Norse myths (MCU knowledge doesn't count) - i did/do not know which stories are true to the original myths and which are not.Pete, Tariq and myself were interviewed by A M Dassu in the Portico Library’s Pathways to Publishing, part of the Manchester City of Literature, Festival of Libraries. You can listen to it here. Well, I didn’t win – that honour goes to Paola Zannoner her book, L’Ultimo Faro – The Last Lighthouse. But I did have a lovely time. I love Italy; my publishers there are fabulous and of course it was a delight to be up for a big prize. Of course, in Loki’s tale he is always the hero, a Northern Prometheus and champion of humankind, while many of the Norse pantheon are portrayed as baddies or buffoons. However, Odin is treated more kindly as are the Norse goddesses. Ik heb overwogen om dit boek 5 sterren te geven, maar aan het einde was er toch een iets te grote afwijking van de originele mythe.