“Berkano” by Jas Phoenix

George’s life was never easy. With her mother’s addiction issues, she had no other option but to grow up much more quickly than the kids her age. She succeeded, but she didn’t emerge from a childhood like this unscathed.

At eighteen and with a job, she is finally equipped to start living on her own terms, right?

Alas, what for others is usually the beginning of a straightforward path into adulthood with similarly predictable obstacles to overcome, for George turns out to be something completely different. Things she never knew existed beyond movies and fiction enter her life with the intention of pulling her into a paranormal vortex. The fate she had no idea was her own from birth assaults her with the impossibility of escaping it.

“Berkano” by Jas Phoenix is a brilliant beginning of the Ultimate Power of Three series. Reading it was a constant ‘What’s going on here?’ question flapping its wings like a confused bird in my head. The fantasy world is like nothing else I’ve read or watched before. The ideas are fresh, and the references to Old Norse mythology are endearing to me since I have close friends in Norway and their love for their country has seeped under my skin over the decades.

What I loved most is George’s interactions with people. The complexity of her relationship with her mother kept me reflecting from the first and until the very last page. Often, what we see in books is a simplified version of a child-parent relationship. A mother or a father does something wrong, intentionally or otherwise, and to their children, they become the greatest villains ever. They refer to them in a derogatory manner and blame them for everything that went wrong in their lives. Now, this is also a simplified summary. Its point was not to offer an all-encompassing overview of the subject, but to give you an idea of what I meant.

Anyway, it is the opposite in this book. George’s feelings for her mother are complex, layered, and, most importantly, believable. While it might seem logical that a person starts hating someone who hurt them, it isn’t so straightforward if that offender is one’s mom. I applaud the author for showing in a convincing manner the intricate knot of the relationship between a mother and daughter.

The second best thing for me was meeting Kat. What a brilliant character! I totally fell in love with her, her leather outfit, purple hair and all. Everyone needs a Kat in their lives. If only we all had such a friend to have our backs under any circumstances, how much brighter our existence would be!

Last but not least, even the alleged villain of the story proved to be not as simple as readers might have thought.

I am looking forward to the next book of the series. And until then, I’ll be thinking about what the future might hold for the beautiful Traust and worrying about the fates of all those innocent spirits in danger of being left between the worlds.