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Title: Vessel
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: High fantasy
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Liyana was supposed to be a sacrifice to her goddess to save her clan. But when the goddess never shows up, Liyana has to find her own destiny.
Thoughts: The idea of sacrifices who give their bodies up so that their gods can incarnate is a creepy but powerful one. The question of what happens to the sacrifice when the god fails to take the offering was interesting enough to draw me to this book in the first place.
This YA novel has some great world-building--the magic system is fairly fresh and the social system of the different clans makes for some great character interactions. The other gods and sacrifices that Liyana encounters along the way have some pleasing variation (although some of the gods start to sound awfully similar in voice to me).
I particularly liked the increasingly convoluted relationship between Liyana and the trickster god Korbyn. He's in love with the goddess who was supposed to end up with Liyana's body, but the two gradually become attracted to each other as well. Overall, it's handled well.
The ending feels rushed to me, though, and does not fully address some of the issues that drove the plot to begin with. Emotional arcs are wrapped up without actually solving some of the problems, which would need to be solved for the happy endings to work properly. I'm not sure if the author is trying to set up for a sequel or not--it doesn't feel necessary, but it's a little annoying not to have the loose threads tied up.
Still, a fun read.
Author: Sarah Beth Durst
Genre: High fantasy
Thingummies: 3.5
Synopsis: Liyana was supposed to be a sacrifice to her goddess to save her clan. But when the goddess never shows up, Liyana has to find her own destiny.
Thoughts: The idea of sacrifices who give their bodies up so that their gods can incarnate is a creepy but powerful one. The question of what happens to the sacrifice when the god fails to take the offering was interesting enough to draw me to this book in the first place.
This YA novel has some great world-building--the magic system is fairly fresh and the social system of the different clans makes for some great character interactions. The other gods and sacrifices that Liyana encounters along the way have some pleasing variation (although some of the gods start to sound awfully similar in voice to me).
I particularly liked the increasingly convoluted relationship between Liyana and the trickster god Korbyn. He's in love with the goddess who was supposed to end up with Liyana's body, but the two gradually become attracted to each other as well. Overall, it's handled well.
The ending feels rushed to me, though, and does not fully address some of the issues that drove the plot to begin with. Emotional arcs are wrapped up without actually solving some of the problems, which would need to be solved for the happy endings to work properly. I'm not sure if the author is trying to set up for a sequel or not--it doesn't feel necessary, but it's a little annoying not to have the loose threads tied up.
Still, a fun read.
