Book Review: Children of the Gods by Monica Millard

by Chris

First book review. Yay!!

I don’t delve into YA nearly as much as I’d like, so the only real point of comparison in my possession is the Hunger Games books. I thoroughly enjoyed this book and found it much more refreshing than the trilogy by Suzanne Collins.

The author clearly has a love both for storytelling and writing. The prose sings and is clean and uncluttered. The premise is interesting and presents a more compelling moral dilemma for the protagonist than that of Ms. Everdeen. The emotions of the characters resonate with you and the universe immerses you in the story.

I found myself wishing the book was longer. I wanted to know more about the universe and its history. The crucial opening scenes were hazy to me until I re-read them about halfway through. From then on everything about the condition of the protagonist-narrator became clear to me. That’s my bad, I think, not the author’s fault.

Speaking as a writer, reading Children of the Gods taught me about good pacing, characterization, worldbuilding and sentence-laying. I can’t reccommend this debut novel more highly. A joy to read and inspiring to this unpublished author. But if you just want to read a work of innovative, well done YA fiction this one’s for you all the way.

Find the author on Twitter @MonicaEmme

Her website/blog is at http://analaskangirl.blogspot.com/