The Goddess Test by Aimée Carter
Series: The Goddess Test
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Contemporary, YA
Rating: 2 pints of blood
The husband's take on this cover: "What is she, the goddess of leaves? Or napping in foliage? It's such a strong title, and then you have this picture of a girl lying there, doing nothing."
And he's right! Why, with such a strong title and an active premise would you have your cover model looking so passive? Here's the thing: it doesn't convey anything relevant to the book, either. Seriously, this is just a random pretty girl lying in a random pretty pile of leaves.
So why pick this one up? Well, for one thing, it runs with Greek mythology. I have a deep and abiding love for Greek mythology. I realize it's been increasing in popularity ever since Percy Jackson hit the bookshelves, especially in YA, but I'm not tired of it yet.
The other thing that intrigued me is that this is a YA fantasy novel with a perfectly ordinary heroine. She doesn't have hidden magical powers, she's not any kind of paranormal creature, and she doesn't live in an alternate universe. Kate is thoroughly human.
All her life, Kate and her mother have only ever had each other. It's all they've ever needed, but now Kate's mother is dying. As her last wish, the two of them move back to her mother's hometown, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Kate's less than thrilled, but she'll do anything to make her mother's last days happy.
One of the girls from school invites Kate out to a party, and against her better judgement, she attends. A horrible accident leads to the death of a classmate, but a mysterious young man named Henry shows up and is willing to bring her back, provided Kate is willing to pay the price. To save the girl's life, Kate agrees blindly.
Henry tells her he's Hades, god of the Underworld, and the price Kate owes him is a deal like Persephone's: she's to spend six months with him, at his estate. While she's there, he will keep her mother alive until she's ready to say goodbye... or until she fails one of the seven tests she'll be subject to while she stays with Henry. To pass all the tests gives her immortality, makes her one of the Olympian deities, and gives her more time with her mother. To fail means she'll be expelled, her memory erased, and her mother will die. Oh, and someone has murdered each of the eleven previous girls who's undertaken this challenge, so just surviving long enough to take these tests might prove to be a problem.
While I was reading it, I really enjoyed The Goddess Test. There's plenty enough tension to keep a reader engaged, and the prose is the kind that allows you to forget it's words on a page and just wrap yourself up in what's going on in the story. The instant I set it down, though, I had issues.
First of all, Kate is incredibly anti-feminist. Women (herself included) are to blame for everything that goes wrong during the course of the story, even if you have to stretch logic reeeeally far to place that blame on someone with a uterus. At one point in the story, a young woman has sex with the young man she's seeing. Her ex-boyfriend runs into them (note: ex-boyfriend, as in she is only seeing one man at a time, not trying to juggle anything behind anyone's back) and the two men end up in a swordfight with some tragic consequences. The young woman, who took no part in the sword fight, is found to be at least partially to blame, and punished by Kate. While we're punishing her, we'll indulge in a little slut-shaming, because that sounds like fun.
There's also a rather significant plothole of the "if Henry/Hades can read truth, why didn't he figure out who the murderer was far earlier?" variety, but that's a pretty common issue when dealing with a character who's supposed to know things.
It's clear, however, that a lot of work and love went into the gods and goddesses. Small touches like animals become significant and I liked that with the exception of Hades and Demeter, Carter never comes out and announces who's who in what would have been an awkward dialogue now that all the deities have taken more modern names in an attempt to fit in. Instead, the personalities are meant to speak for themselves. (There is a list at the end of the book for those having trouble working it out.)
So do the pros make up for the cons? Well, I guess that depends on how much the aforementioned anti-feminism bothers you. If it makes you want to go all HULKSMASH, you might want to give it a miss. If it sounds like something you can overlook, you might find yourself caught in a book that feels like it's flipping the pages for you, they go by so fast.
The Goddess Test will be available in trade paperback
on April 19. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.
Publisher: Harlequin Teen, 2011
Genre: Fantasy
Sub-genre: Contemporary, YA
Rating: 2 pints of blood
The husband's take on this cover: "What is she, the goddess of leaves? Or napping in foliage? It's such a strong title, and then you have this picture of a girl lying there, doing nothing."
And he's right! Why, with such a strong title and an active premise would you have your cover model looking so passive? Here's the thing: it doesn't convey anything relevant to the book, either. Seriously, this is just a random pretty girl lying in a random pretty pile of leaves.
So why pick this one up? Well, for one thing, it runs with Greek mythology. I have a deep and abiding love for Greek mythology. I realize it's been increasing in popularity ever since Percy Jackson hit the bookshelves, especially in YA, but I'm not tired of it yet.
The other thing that intrigued me is that this is a YA fantasy novel with a perfectly ordinary heroine. She doesn't have hidden magical powers, she's not any kind of paranormal creature, and she doesn't live in an alternate universe. Kate is thoroughly human.
All her life, Kate and her mother have only ever had each other. It's all they've ever needed, but now Kate's mother is dying. As her last wish, the two of them move back to her mother's hometown, a tiny town in the middle of nowhere. Kate's less than thrilled, but she'll do anything to make her mother's last days happy.
One of the girls from school invites Kate out to a party, and against her better judgement, she attends. A horrible accident leads to the death of a classmate, but a mysterious young man named Henry shows up and is willing to bring her back, provided Kate is willing to pay the price. To save the girl's life, Kate agrees blindly.
Henry tells her he's Hades, god of the Underworld, and the price Kate owes him is a deal like Persephone's: she's to spend six months with him, at his estate. While she's there, he will keep her mother alive until she's ready to say goodbye... or until she fails one of the seven tests she'll be subject to while she stays with Henry. To pass all the tests gives her immortality, makes her one of the Olympian deities, and gives her more time with her mother. To fail means she'll be expelled, her memory erased, and her mother will die. Oh, and someone has murdered each of the eleven previous girls who's undertaken this challenge, so just surviving long enough to take these tests might prove to be a problem.
While I was reading it, I really enjoyed The Goddess Test. There's plenty enough tension to keep a reader engaged, and the prose is the kind that allows you to forget it's words on a page and just wrap yourself up in what's going on in the story. The instant I set it down, though, I had issues.
First of all, Kate is incredibly anti-feminist. Women (herself included) are to blame for everything that goes wrong during the course of the story, even if you have to stretch logic reeeeally far to place that blame on someone with a uterus. At one point in the story, a young woman has sex with the young man she's seeing. Her ex-boyfriend runs into them (note: ex-boyfriend, as in she is only seeing one man at a time, not trying to juggle anything behind anyone's back) and the two men end up in a swordfight with some tragic consequences. The young woman, who took no part in the sword fight, is found to be at least partially to blame, and punished by Kate. While we're punishing her, we'll indulge in a little slut-shaming, because that sounds like fun.
There's also a rather significant plothole of the "if Henry/Hades can read truth, why didn't he figure out who the murderer was far earlier?" variety, but that's a pretty common issue when dealing with a character who's supposed to know things.
It's clear, however, that a lot of work and love went into the gods and goddesses. Small touches like animals become significant and I liked that with the exception of Hades and Demeter, Carter never comes out and announces who's who in what would have been an awkward dialogue now that all the deities have taken more modern names in an attempt to fit in. Instead, the personalities are meant to speak for themselves. (There is a list at the end of the book for those having trouble working it out.)
So do the pros make up for the cons? Well, I guess that depends on how much the aforementioned anti-feminism bothers you. If it makes you want to go all HULKSMASH, you might want to give it a miss. If it sounds like something you can overlook, you might find yourself caught in a book that feels like it's flipping the pages for you, they go by so fast.
The Goddess Test will be available in trade paperback
on April 19. My copy was generously provided by the publisher.