Friday 27 September 2013

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

14 comments:

  1. Great review! I plan to read this one soon! But I just got a review ARC that I had been dying for so that kind of jumped my book queue! Looking forward to this as I love Greek mythology and Kendare's Anna duology!

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  2. I like the fact that there are two separate storylines that come together :) It's always fun to see a story from two perspectives, especially with these interesting sounding characters. Great review!

    Mel@thedailyprophecy.

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  3. Antigoddess! I received this a couple of days ago! *cue happy dance* I am so excited to read this. The idea of the plot split in two is very intriguing. Really glad you liked it! Great review, Eveline. :)

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  4. The reviews I've read of this book are mixed but I'm glad you like it. I'm a fan of the author's Anna series so this is an automatic read for me, hopefully I'll get my hands on it soon.

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  5. Glad you liked this book!I hope I'll be able to get my hands on it soon!

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  6. Can't wait to hear what you think of it!

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  7. I haven't read Anna yet, I sure will after reading this book!

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  8. I've been on the fence about reading this book, but after reading your review, I'm adding it to my TBR list. I love the split storyline and that the characters are amazing (with witty humor). Great review! ~Pam

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  9. I just finished this one a few days ago! I agree that Athena was a favorite. I liked how she was ready to stand up and do the hard decisions when no one else was ready. I avoid reading about gods, angels, demons and etc, because they're always portrayed as silly and idiotic, but Kendare Blake really made Athena and the others sound like real gods. They did have a lot of funny lines, but they weren't goofy.


    And the whole Apollo and Cassandra stuff... I liked Cassandra a little and Apollo, too, but all he did was apologize and tell others to get away from Cassandra. And knowing what he did to her in the past... it made it hard to like him, but I didn't mind him.


    Anyway, sorry for rambling! Great review c:

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  10. I can't wait to read this one! I love the Greek myths (though was disappointed with The Goddess Test), so this will be perfect :)

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  11. No worries, I like reading your rambles:) Yes, I totally agree with you. I did not think Apollo was such a great character, he indeed was a bit obsessed with keeping Cassandra to himself..

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  12. I've indeed heard a lot of negative things about the Goddess Test, don't think I will read that one any time soon..

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  13. My thoughts exactly!!! I loved how well the characters were developed and how real they felt! I feel like sometimes the mash up of mythology and modern day don't always work for me, but this one really did. I also liked that the romance didn't take up the WHOLE book since there was a much bigger focus and also how Cassandra's character changed and grew. Lovely thoughts on this one! :)

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