Freyja

Iceland is a country that keeps pulling me back in, so I’m always on the hunt for more books set there. This made Freyja by Margrét Ann Thors one of my most anticipated books this year. This dual timeline thriller brings Iceland—and its folklore—to vivid life.

When Unnar was just eleven, her aunt (and legal guardian) left her in a remote part of Iceland known by locals as the Dark Valley. A father, Elias, and his daughter, Freyja, become Unnar’s new temporary family. Despite Unnar and Freyja becoming friends, though, the younger girl went missing, presumed dead, leaving Unnar traumatized. Nearly 30 years later, Unnar is a single mom, and she’s just received photos in the mail, seemingly from Freyja. Then Unnar’s ex starts dating a woman who happens to be working the cold case about Freyja. Suddenly the past is catching up with Unnar, if only she could remember what really happened.

What I Liked:

• Icelandic folklore. One of my favorite things about reading books set in different countries is getting a sense of their respective cultures. In Freyja, we get that in full force, especially in regards to Icelandic folklore and mystical creatures. From start to finish, many of the characters talk about huldufólk (hidden people), nykur (water horses), and several others. Some characters believe in these mythical beings, while others are more skeptical. In any case, these elements of folklore infuse the story with a sense of wonder and mystique.
• So many secrets and buried memories. Unnar’s entire life seems to be mired in secrecy, fragmented memories, and amnesia. Whatever happened to Freyja back in 1991 has been lost to her subconscious. She kept all the events of her childhood a secret from her now ex-husband, Nói, so he’s in the dark when her past impacts her now. Even in the present (2018) storyline, nearly 30 years after the disappearance, Unnar has blackout moments that leave her confused. It makes Unnar a somewhat unreliable narrator, and leaves the full book feeling a little like walking on shaky ground. You never know when a new surprise will undo and reassemble what you thought you knew.
• Dual timeline. Eleven-year-old Unnar in 1990-1991 is an orphan thrust into a small family in a remote part of Iceland. She becomes friends with the girl, Freyja, but also forms a bond with the dad, Elias. What goes wrong in that one year? Fast forward to 2018, and Unnar is a single mom to seven-year-old Lilja. But then her ex Nói brings home his new girlfriend, Lóa, and her daughter, incidentally named Freyja. As past and present collide, I enjoyed seeing how each timeline unfolded. The past is slow and suspenseful; the present is a heart-racing thriller. Both were equally engaging.

Final Thoughts

Freyja is a hypnotic, haunting novel about family and motherhood, secrets and what’s forgotten, and wading between mythology and truth. I loved this Icelandic thriller and can’t wait to read more from Margrét Ann Thors.

Special thanks to Spiegel & Grau and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book!

Get the Book

You can buy Freyja here – it’s available as a hardcover, paperback, ebook, and audiobook.

Freyja by Margrét Ann Thors
Audience	Adult
Genre	Thriller; Horror; Mystery
Setting	Iceland
Number of Pages	304
Format I Read	Ebook (NetGalley ARC)
Original Publication Date	August 4, 2026
Publisher	Spiegel & Grau

Official Summary

The unsolved case of a young girl’s disappearance reopens after twenty years in this moody, atmospheric debut of suspense set in Reykjavík and the Icelandic coast.

Unnur has secrets. A single mother to a beloved daughter, Lilja, she lives a deliberately quiet life in Reykjavík, working at a bakery under an assumed last name and pushing away haunting visions of the last summer of her childhood. Her safety—and Lilja’s—now hinges on discretion. But when her ex-husband returns to Iceland and brings with him a new girlfriend, who seems to know more about Unnur than she’s letting on, Unnur may finally have to face what happened long ago on a black sand beach in the remote Dark Valley—and the possibility that she might be responsible for the disappearance of her otherworldly friend Freyja.

As a cold case investigation reopens and the intricate threads of past and present begin to tangle, Unnur must race to recover the broken memory of what happened all those years ago, or risk losing her daughter. Steeped in Icelandic folklore and myth, Freyja is at once a gripping story of a child’s disappearance, a testament to the power of a mother’s love, and an enthralling tale of redemption and forgiveness from a gifted new voice.