The Guardian praised the novel, stating it "has a narrative nonchalance which just about evens out its ponderous infrastructure." The SF Gate wrote that Runemarks "comes up short in terms of thematic rigor and depth of imagination" but that it also "delivers an adventure that will please a wide array of readers".Joanne Harris is also known as Joanne M. A bully, the son of the local innkeeper and Maddy's principal tormentor.Ĭritical reception for Runemarks has been mostly positive.
Sugar-and-Sack: A goblin and a reluctant hero, enlisted by Maddy.Skadi: Huntress and goddess of hunting.Charming, dishonest and unscrupulous a villain who ends up being a very reluctant hero. Loki, the Trickster: Half-demon, half-god, escaped by devious means from the Fortress of Netherworld.Weakened after the End of the Worlds, he has lost most of his powers, but still has ambitions to rebuild his empire. He befriends Maddy and helps her, but also plans to use her for his own ends. He is wily, sometimes unscrupulous, occasionally manipulative. Odin/One-Eye/the General: A traveller who educates Maddy in the use of the runes, and eventually turns out to be the leader of the gods in disguise.She has no friends and seeks refuge in stories and things of the imagination, all of which are viewed as dangerous by the society in which she lives. She is considered ugly, made worse by the fact that her sister is both popular and very pretty. Her father does not love her, believing her birth to have caused her mother's death. Maddy Smith: A troubled, defiant, lonely child who will not go to church and is described by others as "imaginative", which is thought almost as bad as "giving herself airs".As they search, they come across several other Norse gods and are led into a confrontation with the Order and their leader. As the book progresses Maddy flashes back to her childhood where she learned about runes and Norse legends through the old traveller One-Eye, who later reveals himself to Maddy as Odin and involves her in a quest to find a treasure buried beneath Red Horse Hill. It is only after she helps rid the local inn's cellar of goblins that Maddy discovers her latent magic, with it quickly becoming something that is occasionally useful to herself and those around her. Her village does not follow the Norse Gods, as the puritanical regime known as the Order has mandated that no one is to speak or acknowledge any of the old ways, let alone use magic.
Maddy is allowed to live because she is human, but is always viewed with suspicion despite this.
Animals born with a rune mark on their bodies are seen as cursed or deformed and are usually quickly slaughtered. Runemarks follows Maddy, a young loner who has been ostracized from her town for the rust-colored rune mark she carries on her left hand.
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