Review: The Woken Gods DNF'D

The Woken Gods
Author: Gwenda Bond

Release date: September 3rd 2013        
Source :  Received a digital ARC via Strange Chemistry/Angry Robot & Netgalley. (In exchange for an honest review. Thank you!)

 

 

 

Seventeen-year-old Kyra lives in a transformed Washington, D.C., dominated by the embassies of divine pantheons and watched over by the mysterious Society of the Sun that governs mankind’s relations with the gods. But when rebellious Kyra encounters two trickster gods on her way home, one offering a threat and the other a warning, it turns out her life isn't what it seems. She escapes with the aid of Osborne "Oz" Spencer, a young Society field operative, only to discover that her scholar father has disappeared with a dangerous Egyptian relic. The Society needs the item back, and they aren’t interested in her protests that she knows nothing about it or her father's secrets.

Now Kyra must depend on her wits and the suspect help of scary Sumerian gods, her estranged oracle mother, and, of course, Oz--whose first allegiance is to the Society. She has no choice if she’s going to recover the missing relic and save her father. And if she doesn't? Well, that may just mean the end of the world as she knows it.

 

I so wanted to love The Woken Gods, because I love mythology, and within this book pretty much olds every God in all mythology you can think of and maybe that's why I didn't like it. It wasn't to do with the story itself, but the elements within it. There's too much going on at one time and a lot of textile information dump and there's a lot of different  mythology to digest  instead of focusing on one. It seemed a little forced and factual instead of just oh that's what it/they are. I don't know if it's just because I was in a reading slump when reading this or what, but I felt like most of it dragged, long chapters and not a lot happened within the half of book I managed to read. It was very descriptive, especially when describing the Gods, but there was just something missing for me, personally. Which is not saying there is for you and any others, after all, this is just my opinion. What I also find off putting is multiple P.O.V's that are inconsistent, generally I prefer one P.O.V, and if there are more, alternate chapters or even every other chapter, but when it goes chapter after chapter of the same character and then switch- doesn't flow well with me.

Don't get me wrong, I didn't hate it but for me to really enjoy and finish a book without really struggling with it is the characters. Mainly, the MC. I've got to be able to connect to him/her. For some reason I really couldn't connect with Kyra, she was a little standoffish and selfish, which I can understand with her situation, but she just seemed a little...forced, and you can't connect to a character that isn't sure of herself. I also didn't really get her relationship with Tam, one minute she's with Tam and it's awkward, and the next it's all smooth sailing. I got their friendship, I didn't get their romantic relationship, how little there is of one.

I didn't get to know any of the other supporting characters well enough to comment on them.

DNF'D halfway through.