Salutations, YA book fans. Remember years ago, there was the vampires vs werewolves craze? And then the twisted-fairytales trend? Well, welcome to the new biggest thing in teen fiction: Greek mythology. You've read Percy Jackson, now try Kendare Blake's Antigoddess!
Athena and Hermes are dying. The supposedly immortal gods and goddesses of Greek myth are each hurtling towards their individual, humiliatingly ironic ends. This is it. The Twilight of the Gods. But there may still be hope. An ancient prophecy speaks of a girl with the power to see the future, the girl who could hold all the answers to their survival. A girl cursed to always see but never be believed. Cassandra of Troy.
Cassandra Weaver really isn't anything special. She's just your average high-school girl -- except for one thing: She's psychic. Not that she uses this gift for anything other than party tricks. Unaware of the sheer scale of her own power, Cassandra's only worried about whether she and her boyfriend Aidan will still be near each other when they go to college. But Aidan has a secret. A secret that will change everything Cassandra ever thought she knew, and will throw her into mortal danger. There will be war. There will be bloodshed. There will be death. Through all the chaos, only one thing is certain: Nothing will ever be the same again.
When you read an author's work, you begin to notice things about them. Quirks. Their unique writing voice. The kinds of characters they like to write. Well, here is my formula for a Kendare Blake book: gripping plot + bucketloads of creepiness + the token British character = Kendare Blake. For those of new who are relatively new to my blog, my first ever post was on her Anna Dressed in Blood series, and I did an interview with her here. Despite all the violence in her books, she's actually really nice. Ms Blake certainly set a very high bar for herself with Anna, because I absolutely adored that book and (almost) everyone in it.
Well, she did not disappoint. Antigoddess was well worth the torturous wait. And while I went through momentary shock when the first chapter opened to reveal third person past tense, as opposed to the first person present of her last book, she can pull off this form of narration just as well. Told from Athena and Cassandra's alternating perspectives, Antigoddess is a book I definitely think has wide appeal. It does say "not for younger readers" on the back, but I think that's just because of the aforementioned goriness. There is mild language, but certainly nothing inappropriate in the romantic sense, and the language and goriness shouldn't bother anyone older than thirteen at most. So with that in mind, I definitely encourage you to check it out. The original take on Greek mythology will interest anyone who likes some "supernaturality", I think, but especially fans of myths, legends, and the other popular YA books that share this topic, like the Percy Jacksons mentioned above, and Meg Cabot's Awaken series, which I am about to read the last book of.
Antigoddess was also a great read in that the characters were all intriguing. You can sympathise with everyone, even the people you don't like, and you can understand their goals and mistakes, which I love. It's awful when you don't understand a character. But Kendare Blake's characters are all so lovable! Well, I love Odysseus and Hermes, really like Athena, Andie, and Henry, and like pretty much everyone else (excluding, of course, the villains) most of the time. It's a book which leaves you room to wonder in places, and create your own theories. I can't wait for her to continue the story in the sequel Aristeia!
Star rating: 5/5
And here's a link to the Amazon page.
Thanks for reading! See you back on Wednesday for another writing post, as per usual. And if you've read Antigoddess or Anna Dressed in Blood, feel free to comment and let me know what you thought :)
"He was Apollo, the sun, and he'd burn down anything that tried to hurt her..."
Cassandra Weaver really isn't anything special. She's just your average high-school girl -- except for one thing: She's psychic. Not that she uses this gift for anything other than party tricks. Unaware of the sheer scale of her own power, Cassandra's only worried about whether she and her boyfriend Aidan will still be near each other when they go to college. But Aidan has a secret. A secret that will change everything Cassandra ever thought she knew, and will throw her into mortal danger. There will be war. There will be bloodshed. There will be death. Through all the chaos, only one thing is certain: Nothing will ever be the same again.
When you read an author's work, you begin to notice things about them. Quirks. Their unique writing voice. The kinds of characters they like to write. Well, here is my formula for a Kendare Blake book: gripping plot + bucketloads of creepiness + the token British character = Kendare Blake. For those of new who are relatively new to my blog, my first ever post was on her Anna Dressed in Blood series, and I did an interview with her here. Despite all the violence in her books, she's actually really nice. Ms Blake certainly set a very high bar for herself with Anna, because I absolutely adored that book and (almost) everyone in it.
Well, she did not disappoint. Antigoddess was well worth the torturous wait. And while I went through momentary shock when the first chapter opened to reveal third person past tense, as opposed to the first person present of her last book, she can pull off this form of narration just as well. Told from Athena and Cassandra's alternating perspectives, Antigoddess is a book I definitely think has wide appeal. It does say "not for younger readers" on the back, but I think that's just because of the aforementioned goriness. There is mild language, but certainly nothing inappropriate in the romantic sense, and the language and goriness shouldn't bother anyone older than thirteen at most. So with that in mind, I definitely encourage you to check it out. The original take on Greek mythology will interest anyone who likes some "supernaturality", I think, but especially fans of myths, legends, and the other popular YA books that share this topic, like the Percy Jacksons mentioned above, and Meg Cabot's Awaken series, which I am about to read the last book of.
Antigoddess was also a great read in that the characters were all intriguing. You can sympathise with everyone, even the people you don't like, and you can understand their goals and mistakes, which I love. It's awful when you don't understand a character. But Kendare Blake's characters are all so lovable! Well, I love Odysseus and Hermes, really like Athena, Andie, and Henry, and like pretty much everyone else (excluding, of course, the villains) most of the time. It's a book which leaves you room to wonder in places, and create your own theories. I can't wait for her to continue the story in the sequel Aristeia!
Star rating: 5/5
And here's a link to the Amazon page.
Thanks for reading! See you back on Wednesday for another writing post, as per usual. And if you've read Antigoddess or Anna Dressed in Blood, feel free to comment and let me know what you thought :)
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