Scan barcode
A review by bookswhitme
The Goddess Twins by Yodassa Williams
3.0
I think that this story has very strong roots, a great background, and amazing potential for a possible sequel. From the moment you begin reading, it’s clear there is something bigger at play than what you may have expected. The opening scene depicts just how hard black women, human or goddess, have it in a world that shows them no love. How jealousy, greed, and misogyny all work together to attempt to bring us down to our knees, even during out most sacred moments. A plot is unfolding right before our eyes, to capture the almost eighteen year old twin goddesses Aurora and Arden and it is driven by the very things I mentioned above.
Meanwhile, while all of this is unfolding behind the scenes, Arden and Aurora should be getting ready to happily celebrate their eighteenth birthday, but instead they are dealing with the fallout of their mother, a famous opera singer, being called back to work. Her absence sets off a chain of events that leads to her twin daughters to not only uncover an evil plot, but discover what their mother has been hiding from them for all these years: their destiny and powers as twin goddesses. The wins are in a constant battle against each other and themselves, but now they have to find a way to move past the differences and insecurities if they are going to find out the truth and rescue their mother.
Overall, I think that the premise for story is great. Because it’s set during present day, there was not any extensive world building, but we do get to see a mythological story unfold during the telling of the twins’ family history. I think that may have been my favorite part of the novel. Learning how all of this came to be, about the goddesses themselves, and the love, hurt, and pain that happened helped to shape an understanding of how the kidnapping plot and the circumstances surround the family’s mystery. Everything, including the history, is told in the voice of Aurora and Arden who are two very modern teenagers and it comes across in the writing. That being said, it’s very…teenagery…idk if that’s how I want to say it, but it is very YA and I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
The girls as characters themselves were interesting, but I do wish they were a bit more complex. You get to see Aurora’s struggle with her relationship with her mother and sister and how out of place she feels, why she rages all of the time, and her insecurities, but I didn’t feel like we got that opportunity fully with Arden. Yes we see Arden coming to terms with her powers and coming into her own as a goddess, but I would have loved to see her own up to her hand in the relationship with her mother in a deeper way. I don’t feel like we explored their mother enough, and it seems to be that we just barely scratched the surface on her personality, motivations and her life. I would loooove to learn about what makes her tick and actually see why she treats being a mother the way she does. I just think understanding her more would have helped me to connect to her better.
As far as other characters that are introduced, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t care for them too much. It felt like they were sort of too good to be true given the circumstances of the story. I won’t reveal whether or not my suspicions panned out or not though.
I enjoyed the bones of the plot and where everything was going, but I will admit that the futher into the book we got, the more rushed things seemed to get. The climax and ending came so fast and I expected a bit….more. Now I think some of that could be because of the page count of the story. The shorter a story is, the quicker you have to get things moving and trust me, we’re thrown into the deep end early. I’m hoping that if there is a follow up (which gets set up in the epilogue) we get to dig a bit deeper and explore everything more. Big plus: There’s no cliffhanger here!! There is a romance piece here, but it’s literally only at the beginning and end. I don’t think the story needed it to be honest, because the plot did well without it.
Overall, I can certainly see the potential here and honestly, who doesn’t love a bit of black girl magic?
If you’re even a little bit intrigued then make a point to check this out when it gets released on May 19th!
Meanwhile, while all of this is unfolding behind the scenes, Arden and Aurora should be getting ready to happily celebrate their eighteenth birthday, but instead they are dealing with the fallout of their mother, a famous opera singer, being called back to work. Her absence sets off a chain of events that leads to her twin daughters to not only uncover an evil plot, but discover what their mother has been hiding from them for all these years: their destiny and powers as twin goddesses. The wins are in a constant battle against each other and themselves, but now they have to find a way to move past the differences and insecurities if they are going to find out the truth and rescue their mother.
Overall, I think that the premise for story is great. Because it’s set during present day, there was not any extensive world building, but we do get to see a mythological story unfold during the telling of the twins’ family history. I think that may have been my favorite part of the novel. Learning how all of this came to be, about the goddesses themselves, and the love, hurt, and pain that happened helped to shape an understanding of how the kidnapping plot and the circumstances surround the family’s mystery. Everything, including the history, is told in the voice of Aurora and Arden who are two very modern teenagers and it comes across in the writing. That being said, it’s very…teenagery…idk if that’s how I want to say it, but it is very YA and I know that’s not everyone’s cup of tea.
The girls as characters themselves were interesting, but I do wish they were a bit more complex. You get to see Aurora’s struggle with her relationship with her mother and sister and how out of place she feels, why she rages all of the time, and her insecurities, but I didn’t feel like we got that opportunity fully with Arden. Yes we see Arden coming to terms with her powers and coming into her own as a goddess, but I would have loved to see her own up to her hand in the relationship with her mother in a deeper way. I don’t feel like we explored their mother enough, and it seems to be that we just barely scratched the surface on her personality, motivations and her life. I would loooove to learn about what makes her tick and actually see why she treats being a mother the way she does. I just think understanding her more would have helped me to connect to her better.
As far as other characters that are introduced, I’ll be honest and say that I didn’t care for them too much. It felt like they were sort of too good to be true given the circumstances of the story. I won’t reveal whether or not my suspicions panned out or not though.
I enjoyed the bones of the plot and where everything was going, but I will admit that the futher into the book we got, the more rushed things seemed to get. The climax and ending came so fast and I expected a bit….more. Now I think some of that could be because of the page count of the story. The shorter a story is, the quicker you have to get things moving and trust me, we’re thrown into the deep end early. I’m hoping that if there is a follow up (which gets set up in the epilogue) we get to dig a bit deeper and explore everything more. Big plus: There’s no cliffhanger here!! There is a romance piece here, but it’s literally only at the beginning and end. I don’t think the story needed it to be honest, because the plot did well without it.
Overall, I can certainly see the potential here and honestly, who doesn’t love a bit of black girl magic?
If you’re even a little bit intrigued then make a point to check this out when it gets released on May 19th!