Reviews

Goddess of the North by Georgina Kamsika

kamsika's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

luketolvaj's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

Deeply gorgeous and evocative, this story blends a procedural mystery with the squabbles of gods and their immortal baggage. It brings eternal trauma to the foreground while also making these entities understandable on an emotional human level. However, this grand landscape of the gods does not blot out the real human struggles that Sara has found herself embroiled in. She forges deep connections with mortals, including Paul, a trans man who is a bright beacon of witty positivity amidst all of this godlike chaos. The trans representation was very well done and Paul is so important to me. I love this book and highly recommend it.

fernforest's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

3.5

Sara is a Hindu goddess of order. Daughter to a goddess of chaos, their differences could not be more drastic. Unable to forgive her mother for events that transpired more than three thousand years ago, Sara left her true goddess form to live, more or less, as a human. Without believers to provide Sara with “god-juice”, Sara has limited powers. But she does maintain the ability to rewind time for a few moments. An interesting addition to the complexities of this book.

Sara has chosen to lead her human life as a Detective Investigator based in Sheffield. With her immortal memory, and the ability to sense when gods are meddling with the mortal world, Sara has positioned herself well to keep order in a world prone to chaos.

And with that, it’s time to step into the aether and hurl yourself into Sara’s complicated world.

Goddness of the North begins with an unusual earthquake, so centralized it appears to only rattle the grounds of a particular food market. A man dies during the earthquake, and at first glance it appears he died due to falling debris. But Sara was wandering the market when these events transpired, and this was no accident. It was a murder, marked with the unmistakable sign of gods meddling with mortals. But why? Well, hold on, because Sara is about to get to the bottom of it, and it’s a wild ride.

You know that 1939 phrase from the Wizard of Oz,"Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!", well Goddness of the North is just like that, except “Valkyries and Lokis and Gods, oh my!” Casting a wide net, Georgina Kamsika includes mythology and folklore from a variety of regions.

I thought that Kamsika did a wonderful job with all of the characters, bringing each of them to life. I loved that Kamsika did not shy away from including real world problems. It added an extra layer that made the characters more relatable and real. The food descriptions in this book deserve an honorable mention here because this book made me so hungry. There is a bit of a romance that blossoms in this book, though it is minor by comparison to the mystery at hand, it was a nice touch.

Unfortunately, there were a couple things I didn't like. Goddess of the North lost one star due to Sara being able to interfere with history with little to no consequence. Yikes. Half a star was lost for editing. By no means does it impact the wonderful story that Kamsika has written, but it did impact my reading experience. Stumbling across duplicate words, periods where a comma was clearly intended, misplaced apostrophes, etc. was quite distracting and I wish the editing had been stronger.

Overall, the pacing of this was just right, and the ending was satisfying in that it brought a majority of the loose ends together. Although Goddness of the North could easily be a standalone, I see the potential for a series.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

naiapard's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

I received this book from NetGalley. In turn, I did my best to convey an honest review.

This is Enola Holmes meets The Hindu “Parthenon”. It is the story of a Hindu goddess who is posing for a human in modern-day Britain. She works as a detective, of course she does, who else would this book derive some conflict if not by having characters investigate random murders (well, not so random, because there has to be a higher reason out there, always).

I trudged my way in this book. I had to drag each one of my feet through these lines that were wrapping round an unbelievable predictable plot.

There is an impressive eagerness to showcase the powers of the heroine, that makes the plot forget its main purpose-what's the big fight? why present all these gods scattered around like wild flowers in a meadow,


instead of focusing on one or two and make them look like the fucking Orchid in the most glamorous flower gallery, that has ever been shown to the human eye?!


Where is the gripping conflict?
Where is the contrast that would result in "higher stakes" for the character?
Where are her weaknesses? As a goddess (she keep reminding the reader) she is so certain that a mere human could not hurt her, that any emotional investment in her well being seems pointless. Even Thor had to be brought down a few pegs, for him to become a relatable character.


And all the jokes about age, that were meant to be funny, because you know, she is an immortal goddess that will never know death:
"You look good for your age." "I do, don't I?"

"Of course, as a goddess of order, I know that means bad things are due."




Overall, not the best read of my month. Neither the worst.
Instagram\\my Blog\\

lillist's review against another edition

Go to review page

5.0

I have received a digital copy of this book via Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion. Thank you!

4.5 stars - Can I have some more, please?

If you are a fan of crime investigation with a touch of the supernatural, this one is for you!

Sara Nayar investigates crimes with the Sheffield police, but she also is an ancient Indian goddess of order. Just one that is almost forgotten and therefore not very powerful. All she can do is manipulate time the tiniest bit.
We follow her as she investigate murders in which clearly some other gods were involved and tries to find out just what exactly is going on in Sheffield. Why are all sorts of Gods showing up and apparently preparing for war or the apocalypse? And how is she going to solve this while pretending to solve a perfectly normal case? And then there is her mother, a powerful trickster goddess, who keeps meddling and bringing up an incident in the distant past that led Sara to choosing a life among the mortals.

Now, crime is not usually my genre so I don't really know the usual suspects here. I have read a couple of the Rivers of London novels though and would put this one into the same genre. But, like, without the machismo, misogyny and cultural appropriation. In short, this one is SO MUCH BETTER!
Sara is Indian which (from what I gather) is also part of Georgina Kamsikas cultural heritage. Everything she mentions about India, the weather, the food, the atmosphere, feels authentic. Same with the descriptions of Sheffield and Great Britain. I had the distinct feeling that the author is equally at home in both cultures and also loves them equally deeply - which helps me as the reader to truly connect with the story.

I also cannot say enough good things about the fact that the love interest is a good guy. He has a beautiful soul and this is what makes him attractive to Sara - thank you for refusing the sexy bad guy trope! Also, thanks for including a trans character and not making a big deal of it. See, representation can be so easy!

This story is just a lot of fun with plenty of on-screen-time for gods from all sorts of mythologies and the shenanigans they come up with. We have the Norse with Loki, his daughter Hel, Odin, Thor and some Valkyries thrown in for good measure. We have the Greek, with the Titan Mnemosyne being Sara's best friend, but also plenty of other gods make their appearance. In some cases it is even the original ancient Greek aspects versus their modern Hollywood equivalents. Because movies create belief - and this book is full of reflections on the power of believing. It is also full of references to pop culture and how belief in supernatural beings has changed in modern times. (There's even a cameo of a human turned god just by power of believers in his character in a universally known Sci-Fi franchise.)

I enjoyed this read immensely and would love to read more. Can this become a series, please?

(There was just one caveat for me: very early on in the book Sara missed something that was so obviously relevant for her case. She just dismissed that bit of information, which felt like it should not have happened to someone with her experience.)

bookshelves4paperelves's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.0

So, unfortunately this was a DNF for me. I got to 23% and it just didn’t grip me at all. For me there was too much description, and not enough going on with the story for me to enjoy.
However, I am 2 starring this because of two thing I did enjoy.
1. I really like the inclusion of multiple cultures and gods, this isn’t seen all that much in books and I really liked that this book included all of these.
2. The concept of the aether travel intrigued me a lot. It was very well thought out.

cjdawn236's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.0

I'm honestly not sure how I feel about this one. It was ok, and it kept my attention, but I never really felt fully invested in the story or the characters. I wanted to love it, because it started out sounding fun and witty but by the end I don't even feel strongly enough about it to write a decent review.

sklepia's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional mysterious 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

parishmita's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

I didn't like the ending. It was exciting at first but then naah

annarella's review against another edition

Go to review page

4.0

I liked this mix of fantasy and mystery. It was an engrossing and entertaining read that kept me hooked.
The world building is interestesting, the characters fleshed out and the mystery is solid.
I hope to read other books featuring these characters
Recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine