The Goddess Test takes on Greek Mythology and the story of Hades in Persephone in this young-adult series. Rating: 2.5/5

*This is book #24/28 for my 2014 book challenge. This is also book #7/7 for my YA-MA book challenge. You can take a look at my reading challenges here.

Every girl who had taken the test has died.
Now it’s Kate’s turn.

It’s always been just Kate and her mom – and her mother is dying. Her last wish? To move back to her childhood home. So Kate’s going to start at a new school with no friends, no other family and the fear that her mother won’t live past the fall.

Then she meets Henry. Dark. Tortured. And mesmerizing. He claims to be Hades, god of the Underworld – and if she accepts his bargain, he’ll keep her mother alive while Kate tries to pass seven tests.

Kate is sure he’s crazy – until she sees him bring a girl back from the dead. Now saving her mother seems crazily possible. If she succeeds, she’ll become Henry’s future bride and a goddess.

Ugh. Meh. The two ‘words’ that came to mind immediately. I was instantly drawn to this book from the cover. I am Greek, and Greek mythology has always fascinated me. I was so excited to see a YA book that factored in Greek mythology and even more excited to see that the main focus was on the Hades/Persephone story. The beginning started out incredibly intriguing but that quickly fell short and I was pushed into deep disappointment on several occasions.

First of all, the summary sounds great. It sounds like the book will be about this mortal girl attempting to pass the seven tests in order to become immortal and save her mother. In fact, the book didn’t focus on any of the tests. Instead, it focussed almost completely on the potential relationship between Henry (Hades) and Kate (the mortal girl). I know that with books like these we need to suspend our sense of disbelief, but this was way past the line of just completely ridiculous. The fact that they could cheat about the rules surrounding the tests and even just who the council ended up being… completely. ridiculous.

I’m a bit disappointed that the mythology was all over the place, but that isn’t the main problem here. That much I can get over by rationalizing she was trying to create her own world. But the story was overly predictable, boring, and just plain lame. There were so many feminism issues in the book. Henry wasn’t awful, but for the most part I wanted to shake each and every single character until their heads popped off. Everything was rushed toward the end and I just didn’t care.

I am curious about what will happen next, so I might read the sequel, but I definitely won’t rush out to find the book. The ship was only slightly worth shipping, and the rest wasn’t worth caring about at all. Actual Greek mythology is far more intricate and sexy and interesting, so if you’re looking for something about mythology I suggest just hitting up an actual mythology book. Even if you’re not looking for something about mythology I still suggest reading about it anyway. Seriously so fascinating.

Rating: 

If you’re interested in reading my GoodReads updates from this book you can do so here. I must say, they’re quite entertaining. It will tell you exactly what I was thinking on certain pages.

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