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ablanket42's review against another edition
challenging
dark
emotional
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
ravensandlace's review against another edition
2.0
Title: Godly Heathens
Author: H. E Edgmon
Genre: YA Fantasy
Format: hardback library book
Series: The Ouroboros (#1)
Star Rating: 2 stars
tw: graphic gore and body horror, violence including murder and torture, off-page sexual violence including experiences involving children, abuse including child abuse and off-page domestic abuse, mentions of transphobia and racism including references to slavery and genocide, animal death
*All these trigger warnings are located in the front of the book
A special thank you goes to St. Martin’s Press and Netgalley for providing me with an early copy of this book. Please know that this does not influence my rating or thoughts on the book itself.
No one is more disappointed than me about the low rating I gave this book. This was one of my most anticipated reads since last year. I was immediately hooked by the cover and then I read the synopsis and I was obsessed. But I just could not enjoy this book at all and it’s all because of the main character, Gem.
Gem is so incredibly unlikable. I think they are supposed to be but they went over the line and there were no redeeming factors in their personality. I couldn’t deal with how stuck up and awful Gem was. They were constantly judging everyone and thought they were better than everyone. One instance that sticks out to me is when they were talking about their best friend, Enzo. They said that Enzo acted gayer than he was and said their whole personality was fake. They also said that they hated them for it. It was just too much and made me so mad. Why would you hate your best friend for their personality? What’s the point of even being friends with them? I had a problem with the way Gem treated their mom as well but if I dove into that, we would be here all day. So let’s just say, Gem is pretty unlikable.
While I very much enjoyed the lore, it was so frustrating that it came in bits and pieces. I do understand why it was but there was so much of it, that it needed to be almost info dumped for me to fully understand. I’m unsure if the lore was based on ancient gods, like Greek, or it was something entirely different. I enjoyed the bits I did get but I just wanted more.
I want to put at least one positive thing about this book because I think all books have at least one redeeming quality. I loved all the rep that was in this book. It was filled with lots of LGBT+ rep and that was wonderful to see. I couldn’t even begin to list them because there were so many, which is a good problem to have. There were also POC characters and it was just all organic. It didn’t feel forced or anything.
Overall, I just couldn’t love this book the way I wanted to and I am so disappointed. Gem was a main character I simply couldn’t get behind due to a lot of their actions and their personality. I recently found out that I have the arc for the second book so I might as well continue with the series to see if it gets better. I truly hope it does.
diredreamings's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
bcat0124's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
4.5
pterawaters's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
rychelereads's review against another edition
3.0
[Paranormal YA, horror elements, magical elements, queer native indigenous youth and mental health representation, reference to transphobia and abuse involving minors, read the trigger warnings, flashbacks/hallucinations/delusions is how we learn of the “other." representation: native indigenous Seminole youth, trans youth, queer native youth living in a very small poor georgia town in the bible belt. youth mental health. indigenous land acknowledgement Mvskoke.]
The first half of the book has some fun quotes, an interesting main character who is neither hero nor villain and whose moral trajectory is uncertain which makes their journey really fun, and a quick pace with gorgeously descriptive writing. It is easy to digest.
I like that the manifestation of magic is also language interpretation, which makes the lyrical quality of the words stand out: examples
I annotated throughout the read and had a fun time doing it. There was a little bit of a heist feeling to the lore and uncovering of gods which upped the pacing.
I did think the early discussions of trauma were glossed over much like someone who has experienced extreme trauma might do to cope, which felt like representation. I like that the books mc’s immediate reaction to the soulmate idea is to end the cycle and still desire a human life of choice where they live out who they want to be with whom they wish. Gem almost has a Howl vibe if Howl didn't know he has powers yet and Sophie had to come show him but Sophie was like a powerful star summoner already or something.
It's not just a teen story, a young adult story; I think its very relatable to anyone who has ever, is in the middle of, or will ever go through a moment or moments of having to find themselves, especially against the backdrop of crisis, of relationships, of change, of facing the unknown future, of the reality of being in a situation you don’t desire while desperately yearning for what you don’t have thinking that if you did have it you’d be better off. Also the generational trauma aspect is thoroughly explored.
I kind of like having an unreliable narrator partly because memories still loading and partly because as the memories load we see that one of the throughlines of this characters personality is cowardice. Alongside with their love for being as human as is godly possible, it makes their decisions both undrstandable at the individual level and disagreeable at the god level.
Then we get to the second half of the book. It is an abrupt change in pace, change in character voice almost, and the action feels like there's almost no consequence to it. I was waiting at the half-way mark for the book to earn its 5th star, and instead it lost a star. I never felt connected to Gem's feelings for either Enzo or Rory, or Gem's overall decision making. It’s tell not show so the intense panic doesn’t really grip me like I think it should. With regard to feelings, things shift suddenly towards "intense" in a way I don’t think the characters or story earned yet. Also as Gem remembers more and reveals more to the readers, the less likable their character. They’re not even an antihero to root for or with vengeance I understand, they’re just a selfish character who thinks the stand on some moral high ground of balance but they really don’t. Idk the Magician, the Mountain, the Shade are just bad guys tbh, they’re entire history of actions was damn everyone else for their own means, and I still don’t know why the shade is supposedly owed something.
A lot of their death battles don’t actually end in much agony for the characters themselves. Even the like second to last one at poppy’s family home. And they all sort of fight a lot then walk away from each other, bit weird with the stakes.
Overall, I think the book tries to tie itself around this idea of breaking the cycles of abuse, and maybe making a statement about violence and living simply to survive rather than to truly enjoy what it means to be human. But I don’t know that I really understood that through the story telling without direct quotes.
Then the ending is a little confusing. This is sort of the antihero’s journey to remaining the antihero. Or the antihero’s journey to remembering they are the antihero and then contemplating not being that anymore and life and love etc and then in the end choosing to just lean in to what they were at the beginning.
I’ll give it 3 stars but I won’t read further.
The first half of the book has some fun quotes, an interesting main character who is neither hero nor villain and whose moral trajectory is uncertain which makes their journey really fun, and a quick pace with gorgeously descriptive writing. It is easy to digest.
I like that the manifestation of magic is also language interpretation, which makes the lyrical quality of the words stand out: examples
Spoiler
“life finds a way,” death has superspeed because “you don’t always see it coming,” “may death evade you forever” as a wish for Death to never truly die by the Magician’s blade and as a curse for immortality with this burden.I annotated throughout the read and had a fun time doing it. There was a little bit of a heist feeling to the lore and uncovering of gods which upped the pacing.
I did think the early discussions of trauma were glossed over much like someone who has experienced extreme trauma might do to cope, which felt like representation. I like that the books mc’s immediate reaction to the soulmate idea is to end the cycle and still desire a human life of choice where they live out who they want to be with whom they wish. Gem almost has a Howl vibe if Howl didn't know he has powers yet and Sophie had to come show him but Sophie was like a powerful star summoner already or something.
It's not just a teen story, a young adult story; I think its very relatable to anyone who has ever, is in the middle of, or will ever go through a moment or moments of having to find themselves, especially against the backdrop of crisis, of relationships, of change, of facing the unknown future, of the reality of being in a situation you don’t desire while desperately yearning for what you don’t have thinking that if you did have it you’d be better off. Also the generational trauma aspect is thoroughly explored.
I kind of like having an unreliable narrator partly because memories still loading and partly because as the memories load we see that one of the throughlines of this characters personality is cowardice. Alongside with their love for being as human as is godly possible, it makes their decisions both undrstandable at the individual level and disagreeable at the god level.
Then we get to the second half of the book. It is an abrupt change in pace, change in character voice almost, and the action feels like there's almost no consequence to it. I was waiting at the half-way mark for the book to earn its 5th star, and instead it lost a star. I never felt connected to Gem's feelings for either Enzo or Rory, or Gem's overall decision making. It’s tell not show so the intense panic doesn’t really grip me like I think it should. With regard to feelings, things shift suddenly towards "intense" in a way I don’t think the characters or story earned yet. Also as Gem remembers more and reveals more to the readers, the less likable their character. They’re not even an antihero to root for or with vengeance I understand, they’re just a selfish character who thinks the stand on some moral high ground of balance but they really don’t. Idk the Magician, the Mountain, the Shade are just bad guys tbh, they’re entire history of actions was damn everyone else for their own means, and I still don’t know why the shade is supposedly owed something.
A lot of their death battles don’t actually end in much agony for the characters themselves. Even the like second to last one at poppy’s family home. And they all sort of fight a lot then walk away from each other, bit weird with the stakes.
Overall, I think the book tries to tie itself around this idea of breaking the cycles of abuse, and maybe making a statement about violence and living simply to survive rather than to truly enjoy what it means to be human. But I don’t know that I really understood that through the story telling without direct quotes.
Then the ending is a little confusing. This is sort of the antihero’s journey to remaining the antihero. Or the antihero’s journey to remembering they are the antihero and then contemplating not being that anymore and life and love etc and then in the end choosing to just lean in to what they were at the beginning.
I’ll give it 3 stars but I won’t read further.
redtale's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
cbabione's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
meigothic's review against another edition
1.0
Disclaimer: I received a review copy for free via NetGalley, and am voluntarily leaving my honest thoughts. Many thanks to Wednesday Books for the opportunity!
1.5 rounded down.
1.5 rounded down.
bookishsystem's review against another edition
5.0
One of my new absolute favorites! I was so pleased that the love triangle turned into polyamory and i love the variety of representation in the book! The world building was so vibrant and i couldn’t see myself in all the characters! They’re all flawed beautifully.