The Gods Among Us Review and GIVEAWAY!

by Isabelle Doan

Website/Goodreads/Amazon

Random Information:

Publisher: Winged Lion Press
Pages: 278 (Paperback)
Series: Divine Masquerade Series (#1)
My Format: Received from author for review
Time to Read: 8 Hours
Rating: Library/Borrow/e-book/Paperback/Hardcover

(I'm going to recommend e-book because it's only a dollar on kindle!) 

Could you forgive a god for drowning your mother, if forgiving her made you immortal?

Pallas is a friendless teen from a backwater village on a forgotten shore. Born a slave like everyone around her, people hate her clothes, her parents…especially her strange name.

Pallas doesn’t believe in the gods except to blame them for drowning her mother. But she’s forced to shelve her moody cynicism when she accidentally rescues an obnoxious cat.

Suddenly caught in a celestial war, Pallas must do the unthinkable – champion the very goddess she hates. Masquerading as a mythic princess, she convinces everyone she’s a child of Atlantis. Jealousy hounds her at every turn as she battles dangerous fanatics, a boorish prince, and a stunningly beautiful princess.

Yet nothing can save her from certain doom, when the Volcano god reaches out to slay her. For how can a mortal fight a god?

I'm not going to lie. At the start of the book I was facedesking a lot, and very hard, I should add.

A lot of the book just didn't make sense, at the beginning especially. I was just zoning out completely, my authorial side kicking in and thinking about what Belton could have done to make The Gods Among Us better.

For starters, there's a few problems with the summary.

"Pallas is a friendless teen from a backwater village on a forgotten shore. [This statement is wrong- she indeed has one friend, and has been asked out by a guy before.] She really doesn't believe in the gods except to peevishly blame them for drowning her mother. [You'd think if Gods drowned your mother, you'd believe in them... right?] But she's forced to shelve her moody cynicism when she accidentally rescues and obnoxious cat."

Therein lies one of my main problems. Pallas did not accidentally rescue this cat. (Whose name, by the way, is Othello.)


You see, at times, it feels as if Belton doesn't know how to get his characters from one place to another. To rescue Othello, Pallas swam out to sea because she saw what looked like a giant orange egg in the sea. She was "drawn to it" or something like that. Othello turned out to be in the mystical orange egg.

This is what I imagined Pallas did.

Now, you know that I hate when authors use suddenly as a plot device, and it was used sporadically through the book, like when "exhaustion hit [Pallas] like a sudden wave." Um, ok. Suddenly being exhausted is a really good excuse not to get back to your family!


Some more problems with the writing surfaced in the beginning as well. For starters, the first chapter uses... too... many... ellipses... and... it... detracts... from... the... story...


Another problem is that some of the sentences make no sense. For instance:


"'He deserves to marry a shrew, have a dozen brats, and live a short and miserable life. But punching him in the nose...'"


Um.


When did being punched in the nose become worse than living a short and miserable life? I'd take the former any day.


Thirdly, another problem with the writing itself is that I felt like Belton wrote a first draft and then used Word to change all the small words into big fancy synonyms.


For instance:


"She martyred her boundful spirit; burying it alongside her alining soul."


.... I have no words. I honestly do not know a teenager who says that.

This cat is in cahoots with Othello.

Which is a problem, because, when later, Othello is talking to Pallas, Othello says, "'Of course, I can't expect much from a creature of your exceedingly limited intelligence..."


and then Pallas thinks:


"Is he insulting me? His words were so exotic I couldn't even tell."


Wut.


His words are more exotic than yours?? What parallel universe are you living in?


Oh, yeah, ones with Gods and such. Which is actually a very well built world that I highly enjoyed.


Anyway, I feel as if these problems could ALL be solved if Belton just wrote this book in 3rd person perspective, because it's obvious that he wanted to. After all, most of Pallas's and company's thoughts are in italics, which is weird, because in first person, all the narration are thoughts. Plus, the 3rd person would prevent so many perspective changes.


The story itself is rewarding, and gripping, if you can get over the mechanics. It made for a good reading experience, and I would recommend it, despite all the gripe.


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OKAY! So Mr. Belton has this awesome giveaway for us here at Wake Up at Seven! One lucky reader can win a SIGNED COPY of The Gods Among Us and a SIGNED COPY of its sequel, Whom the Gods Destroy.

Con­test Rules (which I totally didn't steal from Cuddlebuggery):

• To enter, please fill out the Raf­flecopter form below.
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• When the win­ners are cho­sen, it will be announced here and the win­ners will be emailed. Please check your email because we are only giv­ing the win­ner 48 hours to respond! Oth­er­wise another win­ner will have to be selected.
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