Book Review: What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge

What Monstrous Gods by Rosamund Hodge

Lia is a novice in a convent devoted to the goddess Nin-Anna, the Lady of Spring and Healing. The nuns are dedicated to healing and have profound respect for their goddess, but no contact with her. The royal family (the conduit through which the citizens have access to the gods) has been asleep for five hundred years. The castle was attacked by renegade sorcerer Ruven, who cast a spell of sleep on them. He also surrounded the building with impenetrable thorns. Over the centuries, the convent has raised certain girls as champions to make it through the barrier and awaken the queen and her children. Lia is one of those girls. She's always wanted to be just a healer but her fate is for so much more. When her time comes, she does enter the castle and defeat the sorcerer, freeing the royal family who can restore contact with the country's sleeping gods. Lia is swept into the royal family and goes on a pilgrimage to the various shrines where they will enter portals to the divine realm and beckon the gods back. The situation is not as easy as it seems. Politically, the country has moved on to a parliamentary system, so the royal family has conflict with the prime minister and the government. Socially, the people have mixed reactions to the royals, especially when they start transforming various citizens into "saints" for the gods. These holy men and women can perform miracles but also have afflictions that hasten death, often very painful deaths. As the title of the book suggests, these gods are not perhaps the ones you really want.

The story provides an interesting twist on the hero's journey. Lia starts as a dyed-in-the-wool believer in how great their gods are and wants nothing more than to restore devotion by increasing contact with the gods. Working for these gods entails a lot of moral compromise--Lia kills Ruven to end his spell, something that doesn't fit well with Nin-Anna devotion. Her hero's journey quickly morphs into one of youthful self-discovery. She does not get to chose what she wants to be but is confronted by an unexpected reality. Her path to triumph is very difficult and not the one that she expected.

The ruling classes (both the royals and the Parliament) have a bit of trouble with a foreign religion which is clearly Christianity though it is never named in the narrative. Oddly, the author makes no attempt to reconcile the country's religion with Christianity. It's just a minority religion that comes in and out of the story. Christianity provides an example of a better way to relate to the divine, as Lia eventually discovers. Christianity does not provide a deus ex machina to solve Lia's problems or defeat the monstrous local gods. After finishing the book, I still don't know what to think or feel about the introduction of Christianity into the story. 

Mildly recommended.

This book is discussed on A Good Story is Hard to Find podcast #368--check it out! Maybe they will sort out the Christianity issue.