“No, I believe it will arrive as a series of small moments, a collection of choices that will become an unstoppable force. We won’t even hear it when it comes knocking.”
Rating: 4 stars
CW: War, torture, violence, death, infidelity
Author: Cat Rector
Cat Rector grew up in a small Nova Scotian town and could often be found simultaneously reading a book and fighting off muskrats while walking home from school. She devours stories in all their forms, loves messy, morally grey characters, and writes about the horrors that we inflict on each other. After spending nearly a decade living abroad, she returned to Canada with her spouse to resume her war against the muskrats. When she’s not writing, you can find her playing video games, spending time with loved ones, or staring at her To Be Read pile like it’s going to read itself.
Epilogues for Lost Gods is the sequel to her debut novel, The Goddess of Nothing At All.
Find her on Twitter, Tiktok, and Instagram at Cat_Rector or visit her website, CatRector.com
Perhaps you know the myths.
Furious, benevolent Gods.
A tree that binds nine realms.
A hammer stronger than any weapon.
And someday, the end of everything.
But few have heard of me.
Looking back, it’s easy to know what choices I might have made differently. At least it feels that way. I might have given up on my title. Told my father he was useless, king of Gods or no, and left Asgard. Made a life somewhere else.
Maybe I would never have let Loki cross my path. Never have fallen in love.
But there’s no going back.
We were happy once.
And the price for that happiness was the end of everything.
I always enjoy a retelling and I like to see how new books explore the same story. I’m sure the Norse myth that is hearkened back to most regularly is Ragnorak, but Cat Rector still explored this in a really interesting way.
Sigyn was a really interesting main character. She has nothing at the start, so is constantly driving for more. She’s driven and realistic and so clever, but has to find who she is herself through the book. I feel she is often given the passive role, “just” Loki’s wife, but she was giving character and purpose and anger in this retelling.
I liked how the book explored the romance between Sigyn and Loki. I don’t think Loki is ever portrayed particularly sympathetically, but Sigyn stays loyal to him for a long time, despite an unhealthy love. Their relationship felt more friendly by the end, than obsessive and love-driven.
I did enjoy that we got to see a Loki who is genderfluid.
There were also good relationships between Sigyn and the other Asgardians. I feel, through how people treated her for not having a title, we got to see what the other characters were like.
I thought it was a really easy book to read and I was drawn into the story. The world was vast and the characters compelling to read, even if not all of them are sympathetic.
I can’t wait to read the sequel!
I received this book to read and review as part of the 2022 BBNYA competition and the BBNYA tours organised by the TWR Tour team. All opinions are my own, unbiased and honest.
BBNYA is a yearly competition where book bloggers from all over the world read and score books written by indie authors, ending with 15 finalists and one overall winner.
If you are an author and wish to learn more about the BBNYA competition, you can visit the official website http://www.bbnya.com or Twitter @bbnya_official. BBNYA is brought to you in association with the @Foliosociety (if you love beautiful books, you NEED to check out their website!) and the book blogger support group @The_WriteReads.
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