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A review by stillnotstars
Epilogues for Lost Gods by Cat Rector
[i received an arc of this book in return for an honest review. the content of this early copy may not reflect the final book]
i will be honest. the goddess of nothing at all is not my favorite book. it's painful and long, and if you're familiar with the myths--and especially if you're sympathetic to loki already--gonaa will not be that interesting, honestly? which is fine and understandable. it's just not really my thing.
but because this book can stray from the myths it has a lot more flexibility for what happens to the characters in it, and that means the angst and dark readings of pre-existing norse mythological content can be toned down. i like that this book is framed as an epilogue rather than a "full" "length" narrative. i'm a short books guy! i'm an enjoyer of norse myth stuff that's based off it rather than a straight up retelling! i love it when people read ragnarök as climate change, too, which makes me want to see what it looked like from the midgard side... on the emotional/trauma discussion end, it could get cheesy/trite at parts but not in a way that made me stop reading. and the ending is a delight.
things that bothered me, though:
loki's gender at any point seems to depend on her shapeshifting into a "feminine" or "masculine" form, as though she can't be female when she has a dick and can't be male when she doesn't. (longer ramble where i wonder what the hell is going on with loki being genderfluid here)i guess she can be someone who chooses her gender? which, as far as i know, is not how genderfluidity works? does shapeshifting change her gender, or does she shapeshift because her gender changes? i'm confused but i hope she's winning. at one point she refuses to shapeshift back into her original form because "it's not time yet" although it would make a spell she's doing easier, which suggests that she would rather risk permadeath than experience gender dysphoria, which: y'know, i can respect that.
also [gestures vaguely at how disability is handled through all this] [does not elaborate] yeah.
this is a norse mythology-based book that i didn't hate (i am really picky about norse fiction. like, really picky), which i s'pose is a positive review. mind the cw's on the author's website, but if you've read gonaa, i found this book much easier. thumbsup
i will be honest. the goddess of nothing at all is not my favorite book. it's painful and long, and if you're familiar with the myths--and especially if you're sympathetic to loki already--gonaa will not be that interesting, honestly? which is fine and understandable. it's just not really my thing.
but because this book can stray from the myths it has a lot more flexibility for what happens to the characters in it, and that means the angst and dark readings of pre-existing norse mythological content can be toned down. i like that this book is framed as an epilogue rather than a "full" "length" narrative. i'm a short books guy! i'm an enjoyer of norse myth stuff that's based off it rather than a straight up retelling! i love it when people read ragnarök as climate change, too, which makes me want to see what it looked like from the midgard side... on the emotional/trauma discussion end, it could get cheesy/trite at parts but not in a way that made me stop reading. and the ending is a delight.
things that bothered me, though:
loki's gender at any point seems to depend on her shapeshifting into a "feminine" or "masculine" form, as though she can't be female when she has a dick and can't be male when she doesn't. (longer ramble where i wonder what the hell is going on with loki being genderfluid here)
also [gestures vaguely at how disability is handled through all this] [does not elaborate] yeah.
this is a norse mythology-based book that i didn't hate (i am really picky about norse fiction. like, really picky), which i s'pose is a positive review. mind the cw's on the author's website, but if you've read gonaa, i found this book much easier. thumbsup