Review: Goddess

GODDESS
Starcrossed #3
Josephine Angelini
Paranormal Young Adult
421 pages
HarperTeen
Available Now
Source: ARC from author for review

THE STORY (from Goodreads)
After accidentally unleashing the gods from their captivity on Olympus, Helen must find a way to re-imprison them without starting a devastating war. But the gods are angry, and their thirst for blood already has a body count.

To make matters worse, the Oracle reveals that a diabolical Tyrant is lurking among them, which drives a wedge between the once-solid group of friends. As the gods use the Scions against one another, Lucas’s life hangs in the balance. Still unsure whether she loves him or Orion, Helen is forced to make a terrifying decision, for war is coming to her shores.

In Josephine Angelini’s compelling conclusion to the masterfully woven Starcrossed trilogy, a goddess must rise above it all to change a destiny that’s been written in the stars. With worlds built just as fast as they crumble, love and war collide in an all-out battle that will leave no question unanswered and no heart untouched.

MY THOUGHTS
The world of the Starcrossed books has always been a complicated one–the cyclical nature of Greek mythology combining with a complex series of feuds between various demigod houses to keep us always on our toes–and while it's been fairly easy in prior books to settle into the story despite the intricacy, in this rather epic conclusion we get a touch tangled in the threads. There's no doubt that Ms. Angelini does a beautiful job linking all the various pieces together, creating a web of intersecting strands that impresses and dazzles with its beautiful strength, but at the same time, the creation of the web is such an overwhelming undertaking given the large cast of characters and their counterparts in both in past and present lives that she loses us at times along the way.

Where the focus in previous installments has been largely on Helen, Lucas and their forbidden romance, Goddess sees an expansion of the story as a whole, introducing new characters and new pieces of old histories which, while fascinating to read about, keep us at more of a distance from the core group than we have been before. The beginning is particularly challenging, Helen's recovery from the events at the end of Dreamless putting her out of commission and therefore susceptible to a flood of memories from past lives as she lays unconscious. The flashbacks combined with the aforementioned extensive cast of characters causes us to falter a bit as we start out, trying to sort through our memories as we attempt to recall not only who all the characters are at present, but also who they have been in the past and how their various roles in the Trojan War relate to one another then and now.

Despite a rocky start and a stumble or two along the way as we try and unravel the impressively tied knots between the gods and the Scions, Goddess is an entertaining read, our desire to know just what the Fates have been attempting to orchestrate all along as strong as it has ever been. Ms. Angelini's attention to detail is also extraordinarily noteworthy, each of her characters vital to the story in their own right so that none feel as though they are secondary. Instead, they are all important players in an impossible game where the odds of success are low and the possibility of the vicious cycle perpetuated by the failure of those who came before them repeating once again is high. Though we might not feel quite as connected to Helen and Lucas as we have in past books, there's a sense of camaraderie in place in Goddess that also wasn't present before, linking each character together in a bond that seems to strengthen chapter to chapter and infusing the story with extra energy as they fight to be the directors of their play rather than the actors.

Overall, Goddess is a story that would likely benefit from a glossary in the back outlining the various houses, all the members belonging to each one, and the god from which they are descended (there may be one in the finished copy, I cannot attest to this, but there isn't one in the ARC), so we can have a cheat sheet to help us when our memories prove to be less than the steel trap Ms. Angelini's so obviously is. Questions are answered, loyalties are tested, and love is both lost and gained, leaving us emotionally wrung out but ultimately extremely satisfied with our final moments in this tragically dark and stunningly hopeful world.

Rating: 3.5-4/5 
(I'm giving a range because I love this series, but this last book tested my ability to sort through and catalog a great deal of information, and I'm not ashamed to admit I got lost more than a few times)
 

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This book was sent to me by the author free of charge for the purpose of a review. 

I received no other compensation and the above is my honest opinion.