{"id":3054,"date":"2016-03-14T09:00:10","date_gmt":"2016-03-14T13:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/?p=3054"},"modified":"2020-12-10T08:25:52","modified_gmt":"2020-12-10T08:25:52","slug":"review-odd-and-the-frost-giants-by-neil-gaiman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/2016\/03\/14\/review-odd-and-the-frost-giants-by-neil-gaiman\/","title":{"rendered":"Review: Odd and the Frost Giants<\/i> by Neil Gaiman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Odd is a twelve-year-old boy, the son of a Viking who died two years ago after a raid. Soon after this raid, Odd crushes his leg under a falling tree he had been trying to cut down. His step-father\u00a0ignores him, and other citizens don’t like him due to his\u00a0distant, irritating personality. Tired of this\u00a0treatment, Odd decides to go off and live on his own. Instead he meets a fox, a bear, and an eagle,\u00a0the avatars of the Norse gods Loki, Thor, and Odin respectively. They tell him that frost\u00a0giants have taken over Asgard (the home of the gods). Because a giant trapped them\u00a0in animal\u00a0forms,\u00a0they need help to return to Asgard and get rid of the threat.<\/p>\n

From a mythology buff’s perspective, I was delighted with Odd and the Frost Giants<\/a><\/em>. From a disability perspective, though, I was\u00a0confused.<\/p>\n

Even though my limp stems from a different source than Odd\u2019s, I could definitely\u00a0relate to him.\u00a0\u00a0The narrative says that “down was harder than up for Odd” which, at least in my case, has rung true. While going up a hill is difficult and painful, going down a hill is twice as difficult when your cane can’t get a grip\u00a0and your leg can’t\u00a0steady you.<\/p>\n

\"Cover<\/a>\t\n\t
\n\t\t\n\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\tBUY ON BOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t\tBOOKSHOP<\/span>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t& support independent bookstores\n\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/article> \n\n\t<\/center><\/div>I even felt a grumble of jealousy when Odd rides a bear (actually\u00a0Thor) while traveling. Canes are great and all, but a bear? I want a service bear. I’d never have to put up with walking again. All bear, all the time. However, Odd clearly\u00a0does not share my opinion of bear-riding, as he walks some distances while still having the option of bear travel. This is not explained in the book. I would have accepted Odd wanting to keep his independence, or maybe the bouncing making his leg hurt. Without an explanation, though, it just seemed out of place.<\/p>\n

It was mostly details that bothered me throughout the book. Odd seems to maneuver well and can easily do tasks with his hands. It\u00a0might just be me as a klutz, but swinging an axe, holding a crutch, and not falling over\u00a0seems almost\u00a0impossible to me.<\/p>\n

Then there are small questions I wished the book would answer.\u00a0Does the cold make his leg hurt more? Does he ever get stuck in a snowdrift and have to flail his entire body before his leg comes out (that … might just be a me problem, actually)? While this is a short book (roughly a hundred pages in print),\u00a0a couple of details or an off-hand mention would have\u00a0improved the narrative for\u00a0me.<\/p>\n

However, details weren’t the only problem. Descriptions of how Odd’s leg felt to him were patchy. It’s stated that it hurts late in the book (chapter seven) but is never\u00a0described before as hurting. In fact, it seemed\u00a0like dead weight beforehand. Pain is not something easily ignored. Even in plain, day-to-day life it looms large. Going from class to class is painful. Getting tea can be painful, even though the kitchen is close. Going on an epic quest which (regardless of bear riding) involves a lot of walking? That would be incredibly painful if pain was a problem for Odd. Frankly, I’d have preferred if it was never said that it\u00a0hurt so that\u00a0the\u00a0reader could\u00a0assume\u00a0he couldn’t feel anything in his leg.\u00a0As it is in the book, I felt cheated of a protagonist that felt the same things as I do.<\/p>\n

Odd was not taken up with “woe is me”s, though. He saves the day and gets the frost giants (actually\u00a0just one frost giant) out of Asgard. He is very much\u00a0the hero of the book, not just a pity-inducing protagonist.<\/p>\n

I was torn on the cure (ish?) ending. Freyja\u00a0fixes the damage as best she can, though she can’t fix it all the way. He’ll never be able to walk without a crutch, but it will no longer hurt. I\u00a0don’t know how to feel about that. On one hand,\u00a0Odd is still disabled. It even states, “His right leg would never be as strong as the left.” And if I could, I’d happily get rid of the pain even if\u00a0my leg would still be useless.<\/p>\n

But it also seemed rather pointless. First of all, he was barely mentioned as being in pain in the first place, so this magical cure didn’t really change anything. Second, he’s given an elaborate and beautiful staff soon after. If you just cut out Freyja’s cure, getting an awesome staff would have been good enough.<\/p>\n

Overall, I finished the book feeling uncertain. It tells rather than shows the reader Odd’s condition. The narrative brings up his limp at times when he doesn’t seem affected, such as when he’s sitting or just thinking on topics that don’t in any way involve his limp. His leg hurts, but we’re not told this until late in book. We’re told it impedes him, but never see in which way, as he can walk long distances without too much trouble.<\/p>\n

On one final hand, which is technically three hands, I did not notice most of these problems until my second or third read-throughs. My first was mainly taken up by going, “That’s me<\/em>! That’s me<\/em>!”, cooing and squeaking, and pointing to the screen despite the fact no one but me could see what I was reading. I would still recommend it for young disabled readers who want to see themselves as heroes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From a mythology buff’s perspective, I was delighted with Odd and the Frost Giants<\/em>. From a disability perspective, though, I was confused.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":97,"featured_media":2989,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_generate-full-width-content":"","kt_blocks_editor_width":""},"categories":[62,522],"tags":[265,221,89],"genre":[9],"age_category":[6],"disability":[16,15],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/97"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3054"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7099,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3054\/revisions\/7099"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3054"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"genre","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/genre?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"age_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/age_category?post=3054"},{"taxonomy":"disability","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disabilityinkidlit.com\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/disability?post=3054"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}