• Title: Warrior of the Wild
• Author: Tricia Levenseller
• Genre: YA Fantasy, Viking elements
• Rating: 3 stars
• Pages: 329
• Year Published: 2019

Warrior of the Wild

Warrior of the Wild was a fun read! It’s been described as a Viking fantasy, but I wouldn’t say it was as Viking as I expected. The warrior aspect might have drawn from Norse mythology, but there wasn’t much of Viking society involved in the worldbuilding.

As her father’s chosen heir, eighteen-year-old Rasmira has trained her whole life to become a warrior and lead her village. But when her coming-of-age trial is sabotaged and she fails the test, her father banishes her to the monster-filled wilderness with an impossible quest: To win back her honor, she must kill the oppressive god who claims tribute from the villages each year—or die trying.

The MC, Rasmira “Raz,” was a relatively strong female character. She has her own mind, and she’s fierce, which I loved. The characterization throughout the book was cliche, and some of the relationships, like between Raz and her mother were too shallow for me to understand or feel anything about.

The other characters, including the love interest, was also a shallow character, but his presence did help drive the book along.

Each of the three main characters had a creature to defeat to regain their honor and status in the village they came from. The monsters were described well, and I do like how the characters had to help each other to defeat their murtaggh, or honor trial.

There were feminist themes underlying the book, with Raz headlining most of the feminist power of all the characters. She took on the role of leader by the end of the book, and held the mantle of her worth in her capable hands. I do think some of the feminism was forced, as with Raz’s behaviors in trying to be a leader, and I do appreciate when an author provides a strong female lead, but I think Raz could have had more depth to her strength as a character.

The romance also seemed “young” to me. I understand it’s a YA book, and perhaps that age demographic would have appreciated those romantic elements more, but I felt Raz’ relationship was quick, forced, and not believable. I was rooting for her to find a good partner, but I didn’t find myself feeling the love.

I also thought the gay-male relationship in the story to be an element thrown into the book just for the sake of having LGBTQ representation.

I wanted more Viking, more characterization, and less cliche. It was a good book and I read it in one sitting, but I did think that the book relied too much on cliches and stereotypes, and less on true Viking-age mythology and powerful characters. If Warrior of the Wild had these elements, I’d have rated it higher, likely 4 stars.

Favorite quotes from Warrior of the Wild:

“A man who finds his masculinity threatened by a powerful woman is no man at all.”