Another great start to 2020, as this was such a good story. I am already predicting this will be in my top 10 favorite books of 2020. As in the description if you enjoyed “The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time”, this will be right up your alley.

This is the story of Zelda, and she is a Viking, and lives by they Viking code. She was also born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. She lives with her older brother Gert, who adores her, but you come to find out he is making questionable decisions all in the name of his sister. Zelda uses her code to save her brother from himself.

You will absolutely fall in love with Zelda. She is strong, and really shows all the possibilities of what a person with special needs can do. I laughed, and felt sad, but in the end I was rooting for Zelda the entire time. The author really took care to tell this beautiful story. This was a huge 5 stars for me.

Thank you NetGalley and Scout Press for an Advanced Reader’s Copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This is one of the most unusual books I've read in a long time. Told from the viewpoint of Zelda, a mentally challenged young woman, the reader actually gets a feel for what it's like to be Zelda! She reminded me of a young woman I used to see at a Walmart who was a greeter about the same age as Zelda and probably similar mental capacity. 'She always said 'you look beautiful today' to every woman who came in the store - and she sounded like she really meant it. Reading this book reminded me to never take people at face value. Not the person who appears 'mentally challenged' and not the person with a shaved head and tattoos who looks totally scary. Maybe he's dealing with something in his life and doing the best he can.

The story moved from Zelda being a frightened young woman obsessed with Vikings to a self-confident young woman with a job and an independent life. Sure she won't be joining Mensa anytime soon, but she's found her niche in the world and she can be proud of what she's accomplished. Her brother can also be proud of the job he's done in raising and protecting his sister.

I wish I knew what would happen next. Would Gert and AK47 get back together? Will Gert be able to finish college and get a good job? Will Zelda find someone to love?

This was really a refreshing read.

Zelda is the hero of her own legend and also my hero after reading this wonderful, heartfelt novel by Andrew David MacDonald. This 21 year-old with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome has overcome many obstacles in her young life as she holds onto her brutal honesty, her obsession with Vikings, and her devotion to the members of her tribe. Zelda’s brother Gert is on an emotional roller coaster, while Zelda’s path throughout this novel is on an upward trajectory of self discovery and independence.

Opening scenes in this novel are somewhat disturbing and I found myself going into “protection mode” as unspeakable abuse comes into play. The feeling of dread looms large, but just as Zelda’s confidence soars and her tribe starts to believe in her, I also changed my perspective. Zelda herself leads the reader on this journey, where the cast of characters often cannot be categorized clearly as Hero or Villain.

I will be rooting for the success of this novel, just as I rooted for Zelda on every page.

Thank you to Goodreads, NetGalley and Simon & Schuster Publishing for the privileged of reading an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

This is a very hard book to review - it is staying with me and won’t shrink into the background. This one made me think long and hard and then reflect on everything I thought I understood to realize I understand nothing. For those of us on the spectrum that is considered “normal” we rarely reflect on what it would be like to be considered “different”, “challenged” “high functioning”. It would behoove all of us to take a step back and change our perspective and try to understand the difficulties that the protagonist, Zelda attempts to overcome. She wants to be brave, strong so that people have to think twice before trying to hurt her and she wants to be able to stand up for people who can’t defend themselves.

This is such a clever story on so many levels. The whole concept of using The Vikings and their tenets is brilliant and serves perfectly allowing the reader to embrace Zelda and what she says and does. The heartbreak of this story bleeds through when you examine what Zelda’s brother forces himself to sacrifice to protect the sister he adores. All the while I was screaming “What about social services and assistance for people in this situation?” “Why does life have to be so unfair? How can people be so mean and uncaring?” Where is the help? How do you help? If you never thought about being more conscious, more kind, more compassionate this book will hold your feet to the fire. In Zelda’s words; “Deeds and actions are what will make a person great and legendary.”

Thank you NetGalley andGallery, Pocket Books for a copy.

The more I read this book, the more I really loved Zelda's character and couldn't wait to see what her next decision would be. The whole time, I was rooting for her, Gert, AK47, and their tribe while at the same time realizing that everyone makes mistakes. Watching Zelda grow from who she was at the beginning of the book to who she became at the end was inspiring.



I'll admit, I was skeptical about what direction the book was heading in when I got to the point of learning about some of Gert's troubles and how Zelda was going to try and help, but I really didn't need to be. I loved all of the plot points and moments that helped move the story along to its end.



There were some characters that I was either rooting for or against, that completely turned around and shocked me, but I think that's what made their place in the story so good. It made it feel more realistic that people can surprise you.



Overall, I really enjoyed this book. This is one of those books that I would definitely recommend to all of my friends. A great book to finish out the year with.

Without a doubt, When We Were Vikings is going into my "all time favorites" hall of fame and claiming one of the top spots in the best books I read this year list!

Our heroine, Zelda, is a strong young woman with who loves big, cares deeply, empathizes with everyone oh, and she happens to have fetal alcohol syndrome. Zelda does not let her FAS define her - she prefers to define herself by the Viking rules of conduct and be a strong warrior, like Vikings. That's not to say that FAS hasn't made life harder for Zelda and her brother, Gert, who only have each other (and Gert's sometimes girlfriend, AK47/Annie).

While Gert doesn't always make the best decisions, he lives his life to provide for his sister and sometimes this can bring the siblings to dark places with shady characters. Reading this book entirely from Zelda's perspective brought something utterly unique and powerful to this story. This book moved me in unexpected ways and left its mark on me.

Trust me, this is a book you will want to get your hands on come Feb 1, 2020.

“Everyone is a hero in their own lives,” he said. “That’s by default. But I wanted you to see that sometimes the world thinks something is not possible, but it turns out that they can be wrong. Even fancy scientists can be wrong.”

“Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists,” I said.

I dislike it when a book is compared to other books I've read and loved. Especially when it turns out that the comparisons aren't accurate. This book is compared to The Silver Linings Playbook and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time. I think it's like neither.

This is the story of Zelda, who has fetal alcohol syndrome and is living with her brother Gert. She's a huge fan of Vikings and rules. The book is her quest to try to save her brother. It is a heart-warming book but it also has a lot of very serious topics and trigger warnings.

For some reason, I thought it would be a sweet, cute book. It is not.

It's a touching book but it is serious. It has violence, it has parts that made me angry and parts that made me sad and also parts that made me hopeful. But the whole time, the hardest part was to get past the expectation that this book would be lighter than it actually was. So I want to set the expectations right in case you're like me. This is not a light and fluffy book. It threw me off that there are a lot of quirky parts to this story and the characters come off a bit like quirky and yet the subject matter is so so serious and the topics covered are also very serious and not at all quirky. I guess this is where it tried to be like Silver Linings Playbook but I didn't feel like it hit the mark as solidly.

It did gave me a lot to think about and I am glad I read it.

★ ★ ★ 1/2 (rounded up)
This originally appeared at The Irresponsible Reader.
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We meet our protagonist, Zelda, as she turns 21. It's a pretty big day for most Americans, and it certainly is for Zelda. Things are going well for her—she has a boyfriend, her meetings with her therapist are going well, the brother (Gert) she lives with is taking college classes as a way to make their lives better, and Zelda's friend/Gert's ex gave her an actual small sword.

Zelda, you see, is a major fan of Viking culture and wants to be a Viking hero—and this sword is another step on her way to becoming a Viking legend. She also was born on the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum—as she says her Mom accidentally poisoning her resulted in Zelda being short, with trouble sitting still and thinking.

She has a fantastic therapist, Dr. Laird, who helps both her and Gert (when Gert will let him) navigate her challenges and Gert's own issues. He's a few years older than his sister, and once their mother died (their father disappeared years prior to that), he took on the responsibility of taking care of her.

This is a good thing for Zelda, incidentally, they'd been placed with an Uncle after their mother's death—and he's about as worthless a character as you can imagine. Gert does some business with people he shouldn't to get them out of that situation and into their own apartment. This comes back to haunt him around the time of her birthday and old debts and favors need repayment. Meanwhile, his ex had convinced him to take courses at a Community College and helped him get the funding to start.

Gert's ex/Zelda's sword provider is known as AK47, by the way. Which says a lot about their neighborhood, I think. She's actually the moral center of this novel and provides most of the wisdom displayed (although Zelda is a close second on both fronts, especially with AK47's help).

While Gert's trying to improve their station in life, Zelda goes to classes at a community center with similarly-aged people with developmental disabilities There, in addition to spending time with friends (including her boyfriend), Zelda learns behavioral and life skills. The staff there are fantastic and really impressed me with the way they interacted with everyone.

Honestly, though the deck seems stacked against these two—they're taking care of each other and making their way in the world. Things are going as well for them as they could realistically hope (not that Zelda's great at realistic expectations, she's convinced she'll be a Viking legend, for example). Except for that thing I'd said earlier about old debts and favors. And the expenses related to Dr. Laird (even on a sliding scale) and other ways Gert has to take care of Zelda. Oh, and maybe school isn't going too well, either.

Gert tries to insulate Zelda from all that, but it doesn't go too well. Zelda doesn't try to insulate Gert from the fact that she and her boyfriend want to progress their relationship to physical intimacy, but man, he wishes she would (and that she'd drop the idea in general. Spoiler: she doesn't).

We watch Zelda navigate these changing times, while she deliberately tries to mature and take on added responsibilities to help Gert. And Gert's life gets out of control.

There are threats of violence. Actual violence. Relationship troubles. A new job for Zelda. And pressures on the two siblings that test their bonds.

The attentive reader is always aware that Gert's in trouble and that he's not being all that honest with Zelda—don't misunderstand me, he's trying his best to take care of her, but he's hiding things from her and taking advantage of the fact that she can't understand everything that's happening. AK47 is a great character and I wish we'd gotten more time with her—things would've gone much better if Gert had stuck with her and listened to her.

Zelda's an unintentionally unreliable narrator (but man, she tries), and MacDonald does a wonderful job putting us in her head while she navigates these obstacles along the way to becoming a legend. Obviously, your appreciation for the novel will hinge on how much you relate to/connect with/root for/like Zelda. I didn't really get invested in Zelda as a character until the last 15-20% of the book, despite being hooked almost instantly and enjoying the novel. I think if I'd become invested early on, I would be jumping up and down excited about it.

But, I didn't. So all I can really say is that MacDonald did yeoman's work here and I have nothing but respect for the voice and craft displayed here. But I'm not able to muster the excitement that I think this book just might deserve. Part of that might be because I felt that I was supposed to find a lot of this amusing (and it did have its moments), and it is marketed as humorous, but it felt too much like laughing at Zelda, not with her (not that MacDonald ever mocked her).

I can't tell you why this really didn't click for me, but I didn't like it as much as I wanted to (or thought I should). I imagine that I'm going to be in the minority with this and that most readers will rave. I liked the characters, I liked the story, I admire the way MacDonald wrote this—capturing Zelda's voice and thought-process in a way that is both sympathetic and realistic. It's a good book, one that will earn fans by the truckload, I expect—if the story/characters sound interesting to you at all, go read it. You'll probably like it. Do me a favor though, and come back and tell me why I'm wrong not to swoon.


Disclaimer: I received this eARC from Gallery, Pocket Books via NetGalley in exchange for this post—thanks to both for this opportunity.

When I requested this book from NetGalley I thought I would be receiving a historical fiction book about Vikings. I was totally wrong. When We Were Vikings by Andrew David MacDonald is a book about Zelda, a 21 year old adult born with fetal alcohol syndrome. She is totally lovable, determined and very high functioning. She is obsessed with Vikings and her dream in life is to be the hero of her own legend. What makes the book special is that it is told in Zeldas voice and MacDonald does an excellent job writing as Zelda. A big part of the story delves into sex and how special needs individuals are treated by others and how they feel about it. I feel that while it is important to speak about, it was a bit too much part of the story. I love the relationships Zelda had with her brother Gert and his girlfriend, AK47. This is a thoroughly enjoyable, sweet read. Zelda is a character that is unforgettable. Thank you NetGalley, Gallery, Pocket Books and Andrew David MacDonald for this ARC in exchange for an honest review. This book comes out January 28, 2020. 3.5 stars

A stunning novel! I devoured this in just a few hours - Zelda captured my heart completely. A sweet story that will give you all the feels. I loved this one and would definitely recommend.

There's something you need to know about Zelda right from the start: she has serious cognitive disabilities resulting from fetal alcohol syndrome. And that’s a big deal for the twenty-one-year old whose older brother Gert has looked after her since their mother died a few years earlier. But it may not be the most unusual thing about Zelda. You see, Zelda is also a Viking, and she thinks like a Viking. That means that anyone who underestimates Zelda’s bravery and loyalty to her tribe is going to regret making that mistake.

Zelda, who became a Viking on the Christmas day that Gert gave her a book all about Vikings, loves her brother dearly despite the fact that most everyone else takes one look at his shaved head and tattooed arms and assumes he is just another street-thug. She is proud of Gert – especially because he is going to college via a scholarship despite never having graduated high school. And she loves Annie, known to Zelda and Gert as “AK47,” almost as much as she loves her brother despite the fact that Gert and AK47 are no longer a couple.

Other than the split between Gert and AK47, things in Zelda’s life are in pretty good shape. She goes to the local community center regularly to work with and enjoy the company of others her age who are suffering various types of cognitive disabilities of their own. She even has a boyfriend there, Marxy, and the two of them are studying up on the subject so that they can have sex when they both understand all the steps involved. Still, the most important thing in the world to Zelda is becoming legendary in the manner of all the Viking legends and icons she’s read about since discovering their world. She’s prepared a list of the things she needs to do in order to become legendary, and she’s checking them off one-by-one.

But then Zelda’s world falls apart. She learns that Gert is having problems at school, money problems at home, and scary problems tied to whatever illegal activity he’s undertaken to earn the money they so desperately need just to get by. In Zelda’s mind, their roles are now reversed, and she will have to be Gert’s protector rather than having it the other way around.

No problem. That’s one of the things on her checklist of things she needs to do to become legendary, anyway. Bring it on, villains.

Bottom Line: Zelda is a unique character that will be hard for readers to forget. She is very much aware of her limitations, but now that she is twenty-one, she yearns for an independent life in which she can make her own decisions. The sisterly relationship between her and AK47 is a touching one, and seeing the world through the eyes of Zelda and her community center friends is refreshing and inspirational. When We Were Vikings is destined to become one of the best coming-of-age novels of 2020.

Based on the title, I wanted to like this book. But it just didn't do it for me.

I knew nothing about the book except the title when I started reading. At first, I was thinking that it was a young adult novel. Very quickly it becomes clear that Zelda has a disorder of some kind. Does she have Downs Syndrome based on a comment about her forehead early in the book? We later learn that she is suffering from fetal alcohol syndrome.

The story is told in the first person and it is very childlike in the presentation.

Her brother Gert is wonderful to her. He indulges her in so many ways. It is clear at the beginning that he wants her to be healthy and happy. He is her guardian and caretaker. He is studying economics and one would think that he has a bright future, although some of his friends make one wonder.

I just couldn't finish this book. by the second chapter the language was becoming too coarse for my taste. I have a hard time with such things because I don't want to imprint these things on my brain. It is a shame because I think the author could have done something to make the language "realistic" for the characters, but avoided being so base.

Great debut novel. Tenderly told from the POV of a young woman named, Zelda, who suffers from Fetal Alcohol Spectrum disorder. Though she faces many challenges in her life she never loses her determination to be the ‘hero of her own story’ Uplifting and inspiring this story will leave you with a tear in your eye & a smile on your face. 4 stars.

Zelda is a young woman born with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome who identifies strongly with Viking culture and lore. She lives her life by their codes of honor, battle and rules. When her brother Gert, who has always taken care of her, gets himself into trouble she becomes determined to go into battle to save him and make her own legend. I loved this book, the characters and the strength of Zelda. For someone labeled "not normal" her whole life she shows that really, no one is.

Could this be 2020's Eleanor Oliphant? Fans of Elenor and Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time would most likely enjoy this one. I found the unique main character quite endearing. While I did find the writing style coming across as slightly YA due to it being written in her voice (an adult with fetal alcohol syndrome) the subject matter was quite mature and note there is some vulgar language and situations.

I found this one heart warming, interesting, realistic, and completely entertaining. Thank you Net Galley, Scout Press/Simon & Schuster for the advanced copy. What a treat to close out my reading year on such an excellent book.

When We Were Vikings is a story about Zelda, a young woman with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, who is learning how to be the hero of her own legend.

Zelda lives with her brother Gert, who has been caring for the both of them through some difficult times. Things begin to go awry when Gert starts to get in trouble. Zelda must step up to be a legendary Viking warrior, just like the ones she reads about in her favorite book. But can she stand the pressure and be a hero?

I really enjoyed this book for several different reasons. Zelda is a sweet young woman who can be very brutally honest, has zero filter, and has a caring heart. I liked seeing her journey of becoming a warrior. She has lived by other people’s rules that they have set her whole life but now she’s making her own rules.

I’m surprised the synopsis didn’t mention anything about the Fetal Alcohol Syndrome. I know that the synopsis compares the book to Silver Linings Playbook, but I’m not sure that’s adequate explanation. I think people might would like to read the book just because of this syndrome being a focus of the book, and they wouldn’t know it unless they read a review like this one that mentions it.

This was a great read for learning about Norse, and observing Zelda become her own woman.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for letting me read this book as an eARC in exchange for an honest review..

This one really caught my attention. The title, the cover, and then the story. I had to read this!

The story follows Zelda who is a Viking enthusiast and wants to create her own legacy. She has been living with her brother Gert who takes care of her. However, things are not right. She is realizing that Gert is up to something and is making questionable and dangerous methods to make sure they have enough money in the bank. She starts her mission to become legendary and to save her tribe.

This was good. Very, very good. I wasn't really sure what I was getting myself into. This is a very unique and refreshing book.

Zelda is special and I really enjoyed seeing her tell her own tale. It was a different perspective for sure and it worked well. I adore Zelda and her little tribe. Even Gert who I just wanted to be the straight and narrow. Ooooooo Gert. Poor Gert...get your shit together man.

This is for sure the book to read in 2020. I adored it. I had no issues and complaints about it. It did take me a while to get through it. But it a good way. I wanted to enjoy this like an expensive bottle of wine. There is a lot going on and I just wanted to save everyone!

I will admit the ending got a few tears from me. OooooOOOooo that ending.

Gah! So hard for this review....I don't want to give away any spoilers.

But yes, super good. I highly recommend it. 5 stars.

I thoroughly enjoyed this story. Zelda is refreshingly honest and strong. I loved her voice and I'm so glad this story ended up coming out the way it did. I don't think it would have been half as great from Gert's point of view.

Zelda a young adult suffering with fetal alcohol syndrome a young adult obsessed with the Vikings Zelda her brother Gert stole my heart swept me away.Highly recommend.#netgalley#gallerybooks

Tender, funny, intense and real. A wonderful debut. I can’t speak to the comparisons made with other books, but I can say that this is well worth reading. The way the story is told, from inside Zelda’s mind, is effective and readable. I’ve seen some reviews that complain about the language, but I feel that even though I don’t speak that way out loud, there are times that strong language is definitely in my head - adding to the believability of the story. I hope we’ll see more from MacDonald in the near future.