Here, a post I wrote in February but never got around to publishing.
On 2/22 I finished my fourth book of the year: Hekate by Nikita Gill. I gave it an A+.
The basic plot: As a child, Hekate’s parents are torn from her, victims of war and Olympian cruelty. In the Underworld she finds refuge, but she doesn’t know who she is, what powers she has, and what her purpose is meant to be. She will cross all the lands of Hades, and defy any god who stands in her way, to find the answers she seeks.
My opinion: Hekate kicks ass.
I said in a previous post that I would withhold judgment on the verse aspect of this book. Now, having finished it, I guess it’s time to make my judgment.
- The verse was no impediment to reading, but it did tend to slow me down. Not in a bad way. I often paused to appreciate a turn of phrase or to ponder a linebreak.
- The book is technically 366 pages (including a short epilogue). But how much paper would be required to hold that much text in prose format? Quite a bit less. Considered that way, it’s a very short book. I read another verse-form novel a few years ago: Out of the Dust. In my review for that book, I said, “In the end, I was too caught up in the story to pay much attention to the poetry. Whatever else it may or may not do for the story, it certainly makes the narrative compact and powerful.” I would use the same description for Hekate.
- Far from calling it a waste of paper, I quite liked the “expanded” format necessitated by the verse. Each poem is a stand-alone. You can read just a few pages at a time but feel like you got somewhere.
- I always say I ought to read more poetry. Now I can say I read a whole book of it this year. 🙂
P.S. I have read four books in (just about) two months. If I keep this pace, I will probably not read more than 24 for the year. I need to do better!