I picked this novel up because of how impressed I was by Kendare Blake’s debut novel Anna Dressed in Blood, a really, really well-done paranormal fantasy about a teenaged ghost-killer. The first-person narrative was spot-on, the worldbuilding was solid, and the characters were really likeable. It even won a couple of critics’ awards last year.
Unfortunately, it isn’t nearly as good as Anna Dressed in Blood. Not by a long shot. The writing style’s fine, but it isn’t particularly evocative or remarkable; you could find writing of a similar quality in a lot of other young adult books on the market.
Antigoddess is set in a world where the Greek gods are alive and kicking, though not for long—they’re all victims of illnesses that can only be cured by murdering another god. Heroes of Greek legend are being reincarnated in the present day, and the prophetess Cassandra (now living without her memories as a normal teen to New York) is key to the upcoming war. The premise is interesting and has some cool concepts, but the lackluster characters fail to deliver on its potential. These gods don’t feel ageless or wise; they feel like Twilight’s sparkly vampires. Cassandra and her friends are actually fairly well-developed; her plot thread proceeds very nicely and if the novel consisted solely of Cassandra’s plot thread my rating for this novel would be much higher. The gods’ plot thread is slow, boring and oversexualized.
Overall, I’d rate this novel is a 3.25/5 flames. For a better take on modern Greek gods, I’d recommend Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson and the Olympians and The Heroes of Olympus series despite their younger target audience—they remain the best Greek mythology novels in the business. I would also recommend Brian Azzarello’s run on the Wonder Woman comic book since 2011 for a story with a young adult maturity level, gorgeous art and an unconventional Greek pantheon.
