Satan Reviews- Books: Antigoddess

Antigoddess

Kendare Blake

Tor Teen

Spoilers (and a little bit of swearing if that offends people).


I know that the first book in a series is meant to make me want to read the rest of the books by leaving me with unanswered questions... but I have too many unanswered questions.

Our story starts with Athena and Hermes just chillin' in a desert and we find out that they're dying and how they're dying but not why. I mean, we never find out why they're dying which I think would be something you might even strongly hint at. Athena is being smothered by feathers and Hermes' body is eating itself I think... for reasons. Also, their aunt is the floor... for reasons.

And then we're with a bland romance that is surprisingly less abusive than most fictional relationships. I genuinely couldn't bring myself to care about Aidan/Apollo and Cassandra's relationship.
Cassandra can guess coin flips. That's basically the first chapter for those two.

The narrative of the story swaps between Athena/Hermes and Cassandra/Aidan or Apollo. And I often wondered to myself, "is the constant swapping of POV really necessary?" It didn't get that confusing, but it did get a little annoying. And it often meant that plot points were repeated. Like, I get it, Hera bombed a few places. Good for her.

The amount of plot in this book shouldn't have taken nearly 400 pages to do. The main action happened at the end of the book and wasn't rushed per say, but it felt kinda squished. I don't know what I'm saying. It was basically just an extended road trip with a break in the middle that ended very badly. And by badly I mean, you know, with a shitty little battle against the Little Mermaids, that is hard to follow, and a main character dying and me not caring, lol.

Was Aidan dying, then? Because he appeared fine but then died from something that I don't think he should have died from. If he wasn't dying, why wasn't he dying? Why was he such a shite boyfriend? "I'm not going to lie to you," he said. "No more lies," he said. *Proceeds to keep things from Cassandra that would have helped move the story along and therefore breaks his promise. Then dies.*

What were Cassandra's powers other than seeing the future? Was it just killing gods or was it speeding up their death process? Will it get explained in the next book or even ever? How do her powers work? Will I skip the reading process and just Google all the answers? When did she find out about them and how to use them? At one point she admitted that she knew about the god killing power but it never said in the narrative that she knew before then. She suddenly just figured it out at the most convenient moment.

Why was Hera described as older than all the other gods? Everyone else looks like a teenager excluding Poseidon but that's because he looks like the sea or something I honestly don't get how these people are dying but she's described as at least dressing older. I don't think anyone's faces are described. I honestly don't even know anyone one's eye colour which is a lie, I know Cassandra has brown eyes and brown hair but that's it lol.

I don't know if I'll read the rest of this series because it didn't grab me. I might read it if someone bought me the other two books hint, hint. This is mostly because I've finished the book with way too many questions. Blah it's meant to make me want to read the rest of the series blah.
My questions include:

• Why is everyone dying?
• Why are they all dying in different ways that are meant to be specific to them in a way that I don't get at all?
• What the fuck happened with Apollo at the end? I didn't even like Apollo, but I still would like to understand the book I'm reading.
• Why was the author trying to pair off (nearly) all of the characters into romances that I don't care about?
• If Zeus made Athena's god identity related to virginity, why does she full on lust after Odysseus? There was nothing about that guy that made him as great as Athena thought he was.

I rated it two stars out of five/ "it was okay" because I didn't actually dislike the book, I just didn't understand it. If you were wondering, considering all I did was slate the book.