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Book: “What Monstrous Gods” by Rosamund Hodge
Publishing Info: Balzer + Bray, March 2024
Where Did I Get this Book: from the publisher!
Where Can You Get this Book: WorldCat.org | Amazon | IndieBound
Book Description: Centuries ago, the heretic sorcerer Ruven raised a deadly briar around Runakhia’s palace, casting the royal family into an enchanted sleep – and silencing the kingdom’s gods.
Born with a miraculous gift, Lia’s destiny is to kill Ruven and wake the royals. But when she succeeds, she finds her duty is not yet complete, for now she must marry into the royal family and forge a pact with a god – or die.
To make matters even worse, Ruven’s spirit is haunting her.
As discord grows between the old and new guards, the queen sends Lia and Prince Araunn, her betrothed, on a pilgrimage to awaken the gods. But the old gods are more dangerous than Lia ever knew – and Ruven may offer her only hope of survival.
As the two work together, Lia learns that they’re more alike than she expected. And with tensions rising, Lia must choose between what she was raised to believe and what she knows is right – and between the prince she is bound to by duty…and the boy she killed.
Review: I always enjoy fantasy stories that tackle religion and gods and the many ways these can affect society in both beneficial and horribly tragic ways. It can really go either way! So the description immediately appealed! Plus, the fact that it sounds vaguely like a “Sleeping Beauty” re-imaging, and I’ve read a few other fairytale re-tellings by this author that I liked were also good signs in its favor! And while pieces of all of these things were present (plus a very romantic cover), in the end, I didn’t think any of them fully lived up to their potential.
The story started off with a bang, introducing our main character Lia who has been raised for a large chunk of her life in a convent after the loss of her family to a deadly plague that has ravaged her country for centuries. Her initial goals and drive were clear, and the plot progressed quickly to her harrowing journey through the dangerous hedge around the castle, and from there to her confrontation and eventual murder of Ruven, the man behind the curse. I liked all of this so much and was fairly confident at this point that I was going to like this story! I appreciated Lia’s drive and devotion to her cause, and I always like to see heroine’s who can back up their talk with action. So while her killing of Ruven definitely reads with a large question mark aside of it, from Lia’s perspective, this was her mission and she fulfilled it.
Sadly, the book seemed to fall off a steep cliff from here. What had initially felt like intriguing world building, especially the pantheon of gods and their various saints, soon seemed to become a mire of pitfalls and inconsistencies. Suddenly, information was just popping up here and there, seemingly whenever the plot of the book needed it to. It’s not a spoiler since the summary of the book gets to this plot point, but the manner in which Lia’s engagement comes up in the book is literally some character being like “Oh, you didn’t know about this history of this law? Well, ta da! We must wed!” I really hate when stories just throw in crutches like this that seem to come out of nowhere, with no one, reader or character, having heard of it until it conveniently needs to happen for plot purposes. And this sort of thing happens again and again as the story progresses.
As far as Lia’s character goes, I appreciate what I believe the author was trying to do, exploring religious trauma and indoctrination in a system that is not what it seems. However, the way it plays out on the page leaves us with a character who comes across as incredibly passive and one who for too long refuses to act in the face of new information. This is especially frustrating to read after the action-packed beginning of the story where we see a very different version of Lia.
The romance is also fairly lackluster. I will say, one of the strengths of this book is Ruven’s character, especially the witty dialogue that we get from him in his ghost form throughout. That said, the love story itself felt a bit like an after thought and hit some strange beats. There was never really any explanation for why these two would fall in love with one another, especially after some late-game betrayals between them. It was a strange situation where, on one hand, I enjoyed the interactions between Ruven and Lia more than anything else in the story, but I also struggled to really buy their love story as a whole.
Unfortunately, this book ended up as a disappointment. I will say that the writing was strong throughout, and for readers who are especially interested in the exploration of religious trauma in a fantasy world, this might be a good read to check out. However, I feel like the inconsistent world-building and characterization of the main character were on the weaker side, in the end.
Rating 7: While it started off on a strong note, this book took an unfortunate dive into inconsistent world-building and weaker characterization.
Reader’s Advisory:
“What Monstrous Gods” can be found on this Goodreads list: Epic High Fantasy/Romance/Mythology in 2024
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