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A review by readingunderadesk
Godly Heathens by H.E. Edgmon
5.0
Hello good morning this is a book that was made for me!
"When small town Georgia's resident indigenous non-binary slut discovers the intense dreams they've always had means so much more..."
This is the sort of book I wished I had as middle/high schooler who spent the majority of my displaced not fitting in time wishing there was so much more than extremely boring classes (note: this was depression and moving 2,000+ miles in the middle of 7th grade) and friends who didn't respect me, the pre-Harry Potter days of the late 1990s/early 2000s where I had already graduated from RL Stine and Christopher Pike long ago to move onto Anne Rice and Stephen King...
Enough about my own past! Godly Heathens is about some teens in the rural south who find out/know/are forced to know that they are also gods reincarnated from a world parallel to our own-- but hand in hand with this, they are still the people that they were before 'awakening' to their old selves and the lifetime(s) of memories before them. It's violent, it's rife with mental health struggles and self-realizations and very Teenage in the best way. Gem, the main character, is a mess, and the first person point of view is a lot of self-talk and reasoning through various situations as their life is turned even more upside down than their own actions that affected their life before they got to the whole, 'also I was/am a very powerful god' thing... and met all the people that love/hate them.
I also really loved the whole, "no gods are cis" aspect (after being reincarnated a ton of times-- why would they be!), and the fact that Edgmon didn't straight out say 'so and so is transmasc/transfemme' but there were a lot of hints where if you know you know and if you don't it's not going to detract or distract from the story or characterizations either.
I can't wait to dig my eyes into the sequel to the duology even if I have ~deadlines~ and ~obligations~ first (boo) and skimming the other reviews it's fascinating how a lot of the things I loved (especially Gem being so flawed and so real) were so hated by other people!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for review!
"When small town Georgia's resident indigenous non-binary slut discovers the intense dreams they've always had means so much more..."
This is the sort of book I wished I had as middle/high schooler who spent the majority of my displaced not fitting in time wishing there was so much more than extremely boring classes (note: this was depression and moving 2,000+ miles in the middle of 7th grade) and friends who didn't respect me, the pre-Harry Potter days of the late 1990s/early 2000s where I had already graduated from RL Stine and Christopher Pike long ago to move onto Anne Rice and Stephen King...
Enough about my own past! Godly Heathens is about some teens in the rural south who find out/know/are forced to know that they are also gods reincarnated from a world parallel to our own-- but hand in hand with this, they are still the people that they were before 'awakening' to their old selves and the lifetime(s) of memories before them. It's violent, it's rife with mental health struggles and self-realizations and very Teenage in the best way. Gem, the main character, is a mess, and the first person point of view is a lot of self-talk and reasoning through various situations as their life is turned even more upside down than their own actions that affected their life before they got to the whole, 'also I was/am a very powerful god' thing... and met all the people that love/hate them.
I also really loved the whole, "no gods are cis" aspect (after being reincarnated a ton of times-- why would they be!), and the fact that Edgmon didn't straight out say 'so and so is transmasc/transfemme' but there were a lot of hints where if you know you know and if you don't it's not going to detract or distract from the story or characterizations either.
I can't wait to dig my eyes into the sequel to the duology even if I have ~deadlines~ and ~obligations~ first (boo) and skimming the other reviews it's fascinating how a lot of the things I loved (especially Gem being so flawed and so real) were so hated by other people!
Thank you to NetGalley and St. Martin's Press | Wednesday Books for the eARC in exchange for review!