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A review by atrailofpages
Strange Gods by Alison Kimble
5.0
I LOVE this book! Such an unexpected adventure that had lots of twists and turns, many monsters, and never left you bored.
This story follows Laurel, or Spooky, which is how she introduces herself, who is just a plain girl that no one really notices, not even her own parents. She’s suffered from bullying in school, and even her own parents are disappointed in her, expecting her to be the same prodigy-like daughter her older sister Victoria is. She’s waiting for what she calls The Change, an event that will change her life for the better. The thing is, The Change that happens is not quite what she expects. Spooky is in a camp for delinquents where they are “reprogrammed”, as the camp leaders like to say, to become better and to change their delinquent ways. While here, she meets Carcass, a monster to her, but who says he is a god and wants to hear stories from a human. At this point, the story made me think of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, at least at first. It’s not like that at all, just made me think of it.
Spooky enters into a bargain with a god(Carcass) to find a computer for him for his home to access stories on his own all the time and in exchange let’s her go free. She thinks that’s it, until she’s implicated for theft and decides to enter into another bargain with this god to clear her name, but the bargain does not go her way. It becomes a much larger bargain than she wanted or expected. So along with two other kidnapped humans, Spooky goes on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world.
This was a much more sarcastic and funny book than expected. Like a dark, horror comedy with adventure. Spooky is a great character! Very human and normal, very relatable. At first she’s terrified of Carcass(as she should be), but after how infuriating he can be, she actually sometimes snaps at him, and at first, I was like “ummmm...girl, what are you doing?”. Then when she leaves him, everything catches up to her and she wonders if any of it was real, and basically suffers from an anxiety attack all day. I really liked her. I mean for someone whose had to deal with bullying because of her looks and how quiet she is, and for having parents that are literally not there for her, she’s a very nice person and just keeps her head down. And yet, you see this tough, brave side of her when it comes to Carcass and dealing with his sassy, infuriating manners, as well as this adventure she goes on to fulfill the bargain she’s made with Carcass.
There’s many worlds Spooky travels to and meets many gods who she ends up making bargains to in order to fulfill her main bargain with Carcass. I loved the many different worlds she traveled to. Each unique with their own god and monsters. Despite how scary everything was, and despite how terrified Spooky was, she ventured on. She never allowed anything to stop her, because if she did, it wouldn’t end well for her or anyone, so she just held her head high and carried on. My heart went out to Spooky because I get the feeling thinking you’re not worthy of being noticed, and yet, she has every reason to be noticed. It’s everyone else’s loss for not noticing how amazing she is. And that ending, UGH that ending! So, so good!
If you love fantasy, especially with some horror elements to it, as well as some sass and humor, you will love this book! Thank you so much to the author for sending me a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.
This story follows Laurel, or Spooky, which is how she introduces herself, who is just a plain girl that no one really notices, not even her own parents. She’s suffered from bullying in school, and even her own parents are disappointed in her, expecting her to be the same prodigy-like daughter her older sister Victoria is. She’s waiting for what she calls The Change, an event that will change her life for the better. The thing is, The Change that happens is not quite what she expects. Spooky is in a camp for delinquents where they are “reprogrammed”, as the camp leaders like to say, to become better and to change their delinquent ways. While here, she meets Carcass, a monster to her, but who says he is a god and wants to hear stories from a human. At this point, the story made me think of The Arabian Nights: Tales of 1001 Nights, at least at first. It’s not like that at all, just made me think of it.
Spooky enters into a bargain with a god(Carcass) to find a computer for him for his home to access stories on his own all the time and in exchange let’s her go free. She thinks that’s it, until she’s implicated for theft and decides to enter into another bargain with this god to clear her name, but the bargain does not go her way. It becomes a much larger bargain than she wanted or expected. So along with two other kidnapped humans, Spooky goes on an adventure of a lifetime to save the world.
This was a much more sarcastic and funny book than expected. Like a dark, horror comedy with adventure. Spooky is a great character! Very human and normal, very relatable. At first she’s terrified of Carcass(as she should be), but after how infuriating he can be, she actually sometimes snaps at him, and at first, I was like “ummmm...girl, what are you doing?”. Then when she leaves him, everything catches up to her and she wonders if any of it was real, and basically suffers from an anxiety attack all day. I really liked her. I mean for someone whose had to deal with bullying because of her looks and how quiet she is, and for having parents that are literally not there for her, she’s a very nice person and just keeps her head down. And yet, you see this tough, brave side of her when it comes to Carcass and dealing with his sassy, infuriating manners, as well as this adventure she goes on to fulfill the bargain she’s made with Carcass.
There’s many worlds Spooky travels to and meets many gods who she ends up making bargains to in order to fulfill her main bargain with Carcass. I loved the many different worlds she traveled to. Each unique with their own god and monsters. Despite how scary everything was, and despite how terrified Spooky was, she ventured on. She never allowed anything to stop her, because if she did, it wouldn’t end well for her or anyone, so she just held her head high and carried on. My heart went out to Spooky because I get the feeling thinking you’re not worthy of being noticed, and yet, she has every reason to be noticed. It’s everyone else’s loss for not noticing how amazing she is. And that ending, UGH that ending! So, so good!
If you love fantasy, especially with some horror elements to it, as well as some sass and humor, you will love this book! Thank you so much to the author for sending me a free e-arc in exchange for an honest review.