The Gods Among Us by D.C. Belton

Friday, February 2, 2014

I received this book for free through Goodreads First Reads.

 

     Pallas doesn't have much of a life. She's a slave with no mother and a father who's ridiculed by the townsfolk. In a primitive, religious village, it's hard to be the only one who doesn't believe in the Gods; the only time Pallas considers that there may be higher beings is when she's blaming Aegeia for drowning her mother when she was a small girl. But when going for a swim, Pallas meets a talking cat who turns her world upside down. Suddenly, she's whisked off to foreign shores, being treated as a water goddess. The only problem is, there as as many people who want her dead as there are striving to keep her alive. When a prophecy is uncovered, suddenly not only the humans want Pallas to die; the Fire God, battling against Water, sees Pallas as the perfect key to unlock victory. Pallas will have to fight to stay alive and undercover, but it's not easy to win a war against the Gods...
     I entered the Goodreads First Reads draw for this book because I thought the synopsis sounded good. After reading a few books that I'd won from Goodreads, I made sure to only enter for ones I was sure I'd like. I'm sad to say that although the summary was amazing, the book wasn't as good as it was made to seem. It took me 6 months to read this book. Half a year! It's not even that the writing's bad; it's just that it's written for a more juvenile mind, and could never keep my attention. I read 18 books (that I can think of off the top of my head) in between this one, not to mention countless magazines. I'm sure some people would enjoy this book, especially if they're younger than me. But I just couldn't get my mind involved enough in this book enough to really enjoy it.
     This book wasted so much paper; I hate when authors do that. Not only was the font in this novel probably 12 or larger, but the words were left-aligned, as opposed to justified. Also, every time the 'Enter' key was pressed for a new paragraph, it skipped a line. This book would probably be a third of its size if it were formatted properly. I also found little errors. Every book has them, but I only mention them if there are so many that they distract from the storyline. There were many times when 'its' didn't need an apostrophe but had one anyway; I also found that 'charred', as in 'the wood was charred from the fire', was spelled like the fish. Little errors like these, when repeated over and over, begin to drive me crazy. I also found that all elements were capitalized, simply because of the Gods. 'The air was knocked out of me' would have been written as 'The Air was knocked out of me'. 'I warmed up by the Fire.' 'I took a sip of Water.' I didn't think this was at all necessary. Maybe if they were capitalized when referring to the Gods, but in everyday life, this is not needed.
     Although this book was based in a setting where only the Gods had technology and were able to read, I found some things didn't add up. For example, they had makeup. Not only berry-stain lipstick, but eyeshadow and mascara. I seriously doubt mankind could have invented that if they hadn't yet invented electronics or books or anything. Little discrepancies added up to an unbelievable plot - as in, I didn't believe it could really be true. If I'm to read a story, I want to become immersed in the world of the book, believing and feeling everything right alongside the main character. I wasn't able to do that with this book.
     I was quite confused by all of the characters. This could have something to do with the fact that it took me half a year to finish the book, but my memory's pretty good, so I doubt that was the main cause. The fact is, there were simply too many characters, all of whom were introduced only once, and all at the same time. Then the characters weren't seen again for some time in the story, and when they were, only their name was mentioned, not their relationship to other characters or a memory Pallas had of being with them. I never enjoy a book when I can't remember who a certain character is.
     Overall, the book wasn't bad; it just wasn't good. I found that I would've enjoyed it a lot more (and been able to read it more quickly) if just slight things were fixed. I'm not saying these adjustions would have made the book my favourite, but they certainly would've livened it up a bit. I am giving this book a rating of two stars. I can never give a book one star unless the storyline is awful (which is wasn't in this novel) and the author put next to no effort into the writing (which I can tell isn't true in this case). However, I have to enjoy reading the book to give it three stars, which is my 'good' rating. Therefore, this book falls under my 'okay/alright' section. I would recommend this story to anyone looking for a long adventure, the Gods, and talking animals.