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A review by nikereadsbooks
Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon
5.0
From the first page, this book yanked all my attention and I had such a great time reading it.
What I want to highlight first are the tropes and how they are used to form an engaging story. They are familiar, tropes that many people me included know from mainly adventurous fantasy novels, yet still fresh and moulded into their best versions. A teen is discovering they have unimaginable powers, but the way Gem's personality and their desires crash with the new reality brings a really interesting point of view on the whole thing. They want to finally move away from their small town, and live with Enzo, and the need to keep these felt so emotional. Gem’s whole character and their relationships with others were one of my favourite parts of the book. Because Gem is not one of the likeable characters I expected to read about, they are messy and make decisions that are not good, but the way their point of view moved the story and their emotions were written was genuinely one of the best ways I’ve ever read.
The world-building is also impressive, The choice of godly powers each of the deities possessed was interesting and I also liked the way Gem experienced memories of their past lives one by one. The other characters themselves all had so much depth to them, even the ones who had less time during the story were nicely developed.
I loved this book, the twists and the humour too, and I am so excited to read the second book as soon as possible.
Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.
What I want to highlight first are the tropes and how they are used to form an engaging story. They are familiar, tropes that many people me included know from mainly adventurous fantasy novels, yet still fresh and moulded into their best versions. A teen is discovering they have unimaginable powers, but the way Gem's personality and their desires crash with the new reality brings a really interesting point of view on the whole thing. They want to finally move away from their small town, and live with Enzo, and the need to keep these felt so emotional. Gem’s whole character and their relationships with others were one of my favourite parts of the book. Because Gem is not one of the likeable characters I expected to read about, they are messy and make decisions that are not good, but the way their point of view moved the story and their emotions were written was genuinely one of the best ways I’ve ever read.
The world-building is also impressive, The choice of godly powers each of the deities possessed was interesting and I also liked the way Gem experienced memories of their past lives one by one. The other characters themselves all had so much depth to them, even the ones who had less time during the story were nicely developed.
I loved this book, the twists and the humour too, and I am so excited to read the second book as soon as possible.
Thank you to Netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest review.