Review: Demigoddess 101 by Kacie Ji

Title: Demigoddess 101
Author: Kacie Ji
Genre: Young Adult, Paranormal Fantasy
Source: the author
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The last thing Ava Goddard ever expects to see are toga clad people that no one else can. She quickly jumps to the conclusion that she is a) going crazy or b) she’s always been crazy and is only now realising it. That is until she actually meets one of these ‘hallucinations’ and learns that she’s a demigoddess. Not only that but she’s the daughter of Jupiter himself. 
Ava soon learns that being a demigoddess isn’t all as fabulous as she first thought it would be. Her life is invaded by gods and goddesses who want to befriend her including a frightening but ironically protective God of Death, a vengeful Queen of the Gods, a snarky dryad in her tree. And on top of it all she has to deal with her mother, overdramatic best friend and a soccer playing potential boyfriend as well.

Worse still, there is a goddess who is lurking in the dark who has been biding her time for the past several millennia waiting for her chance to take over. And she’s just found Jupiter’s one weakness.

Ava.

Review by Nara


Demigoddess 101 is initially a very surprisingly fluffy read. It had the feel of a very light read with a somewhat middle grade/younger young adult feel to it. The feel of the book definitely doesn't match up to the grim sounding blurb or the dark looking cover. The narrative voice, while sounding like a teenager, is perhaps a bit too descriptive, almost bordering on stream of consciousness- but a bit clumsy rather than the fluent passages that might come from authors like Virginia Woolf (god that brings back terrible memories of Year 12 English).

However, as more and more information about the world of the Gods is revealed, the pace quickens and it becomes a bit more of an adventure/typical paranormal fantasy. At about the 3/4 point, dayum, the story gets awesome. I mean, it's still perhaps a tad cliched, but there's a definite boost in the pace as more intrigue is created, and there's just generally better quality writing. The earlier clumsiness fades away in the fast pace and mystery.

I don't really know how I feel about the character of Ava. I don't particularly like her, but don't really dislike her either. She's interesting enough, I suppose, but it was a bit annoying how she kept making all these foolish decisions. For example, attacking a god with a pillow. Really mate?? Also when they're in the underworld, and she eats food. I was like YOU FOOL! HAVE YOU NEVER HEARD OF PERSEPHONE!! If you've just found out that you're a demigod, don't you think you should do a bit of research to find out the basic rules?

The romance in the novel was okay. I mean, initially, I thought that it was a bit too much of a coincidence that the love interest, who Ava has known for quite a while now, just happens to be able to see the goddesses as well. A second "love interest" pops up quite early on, but he doesn't truly emerge as a love interest until perhaps about halfway through the novel. What's funny though, is that as soon as the character stepped onto the scene I was like, oh man, I sense a love triangle brewing....I think I read way too much YA. As soon as a somewhat attractive male steps onto the scene I'm like LOVE INTEREST ALERT!

It was quite interesting how the author went for Roman goddesses rather than Greek. And her unique twist on the traditional Roman mythology was in itself an interesting idea. I guess it was a bit silly at times, though. Do goddesses really have nothing better to do than hang out with a halfblood at an amusement park/mall etc? Also, I was a bit confused: if both Roman and Norse gods exist, how do they divvy up their domains? Like, do Mors (Roman god of death) and whoever the Norse god of death is jointly gather up the dead?

Overall, I'd say that Demigoddess 101 is quite an enjoyable read. I'd recommend it to anyone who likes Greek/Roman mythology. Also, GAHHHH! That cliffhanger! GIMME THE SEQUEL NOW!

Liked it

Ratings
Overall: 7/10
Plot: 4/5
Writing: 4/5
Characters: 4/5
Cover: 2/5