Antigoddess - Kendare Blake [Review]

Title: Antigoddess
Author: Kendare Blake
Publisher: Tor Teen
Series: Goddess War #1
Release Date: September 10th 2013
Pages: 333
Rating: ★★★★

Old Gods never die…

Or so Athena thought. But then the feathers started sprouting beneath her skin, invading her lungs like a strange cancer, and Hermes showed up with a fever eating away his flesh. So much for living a quiet eternity in perpetual health.

Desperately seeking the cause of their slow, miserable deaths, Athena and Hermes travel the world, gathering allies and discovering enemies both new and old. Their search leads them to Cassandra—an ordinary girl who was once an extraordinary prophetess, protected and loved by a god. 

These days, Cassandra doesn’t involve herself in the business of gods—in fact, she doesn’t even know they exist. But she could be the key in a war that is only just beginning. 

Because Hera, the queen of the gods, has aligned herself with other of the ancient Olympians, who are killing off rivals in an attempt to prolong their own lives. But these anti-gods have become corrupted in their desperation to survive, horrific caricatures of their former glory. Athena will need every advantage she can get, because immortals don’t just flicker out. 

Every one of them dies in their own way. Some choke on feathers. Others become monsters. All of them rage against their last breath.

The Goddess War is about to begin.

Review:

I really liked this book! I absolutely love Greek mythology and this book gives the old myths a great new spin.

Short Summary

The old Greek Gods are slowly dying. Athena and Hermes are determined to find a cure and this leads them to Cassandra, a clairvoyant girl, who Apollo has been shielding the whole time. Together with Odysseus they begin a race against the clock and a fight for existence against other Gods.

Characters

The characters were amazing. The writer put much time in developing them, especially in the Gods, to make them humane and relatable.

My favourite character was Athena. She is of course the goddess of wisdom and war strategies. But in this book she was portrayed as a normal teenager, with stepmother (Hera) and uncle (Poseidon) issues. She was very strong and determined to cure herself and her brother Hermes, but she could also be vulnerable at times. I liked her witty humor, which was her own way of dealing with the fact that she was dying.

Romance

There was only a bit of romance in the book. You could see something blooming between Athena and Odysseus, I hope this romance is developed in book two, since I really liked those two together. There was also Cassandra and Apollo, who already had a relationship when the book began. I never really liked their relationship, I guess because I knew what Apollo did to her in the Greek myths.

Mythology

I truly loved the mythology part in this book! Normally Gods are almighty and immortal, but in this story they are slowly dying and losing strength. The Gods are portrayed as pretty normal people, with normal (family) issues. Many famous stories, mostly about Troy, are mentioned in this book and given a twist. Although the writer doesn't keep to the myth rule book, she still manages to describe the backstabbing, power hungry Greek Gods family like they are.
I don't think you need any knowledge of Greek mythology to understand the book, but I think you would enjoy it more if you did.

Plot

The book was split in two storylines: one of Cassandra and one of Athena, until they meet and their storylines come together. This was not confusing at all and gave the reader a nice alternation between the perspective of a God and of a normal girl. The pacing was great, just quick enough so you don't get bored, but still everything is explained and displayed in detail (sometimes very gory detail). The writers is one for visual descriptions: she shows, not tells.
The book builds up to an epic end fight and ends in a sort of open end, not really a cliffhanger.
One thing about the book I did not like: we never get to know what caused the dying of the Gods, not even a little hint. I hope in the second book we get some answers.

Conclusion

Antigoddess was an awesome book giving Greek myths a fresh twist and I can't wait to read the rest of the series!

Stars:  4 out of 5