I forgot to leave a review for this, but I really enjoyed it! It's been out for ages, so I won't say much more than I need to for my star rating. <3

This book was so well paced and creative. I loved the pantheon of gods and how trans it was! H.E. Edgmon is a master at weaving together intricate plotlines with complex characters. I cannot wait for the next one!

I really felt for Gem. In a small southern town, Gem struggles to be out as queer and trans. He doesn't really have friends - yet peers have no issue contacting him to hookup.
With the arrival of two teenage girls to the town, Gem is told the truth -he is the god of magic. Memories begin. Connections to people in his life - those he has always felt drawn to their space.
But the quest for Ouroboros pushes this plot. A knife rumored able to kill a god - or the demon killing their previous world.
I liked these characters - the setup was slow, confusing as times and just so long.

beautiful and moving, but I wanted more from the character development and interactions. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for the free advance copy.

An fascinating book with wonderfully done representation and creative storytelling. This one hit a little young for me, so I think an older teen might get more out of it (as it's intended for anyway!) but older audiences can still expect a very interesting read.

I'm kind of caught in between on this one because the reading experience was good, but I was noting a lot of pacing and writing elements that I didn't love. It had its funny moments, but also ones where I was really put off by some of the more high school aspects as it tried to be simultaneously beyond YA and less emotionally complex because of it. Every new revelation was interesting, but they also happened so frequently that it was hard to actually get into a rhythm. I liked Enzo and Rory, but less of Gem even though I didn't hate any of them. I could definitely see reading the sequel, especially as this world doesn't seem overly hard to understand.

My rating does reflect my enjoyment of the book, however, I will be withholding my review for this title in solidarity with the St. Martin’s Press boycott.

I will be withholding all reviews for St. Martin’s Press titles until the publisher meets these conditions:

• Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from their employee.

• Offer tangible steps for how they're going to mitigate the harm their employee caused.

• Address how, moving forward, they will support and protect their Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to their BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.

A nonbinary teen from a small rural town in Georgia discovers that they are a reincarnated god. Other gods also reincarnate. Love and conflict follow them through lifetimes. I liked how diverse the characters were. The normalization of different types of relationships was great. There was also some interesting discussion of good and evil and what it means to be each. However, I thought it was a bit weirdly paced. The beginning was slow to me and the ending felt rushed.

The individual personalities in combination with the intricate relationship dynamics were marvelous. They pulled me into the story immediately. Unfortunately, at the half-way point I realized I had lost my drive for the story. I continued to the end, but never truly reconnected. The magic system and world building could have used more umph. The motivations of the characters also stopped making sense.

Plot - 3
Writing and Editing - 3
Character Development - 3
Personal Bias - 3
Final Score - 3

I love H.E. Edgmon's books. The settings are always well written, the characters relatively well developed and diverse, and the plot interesting and fast pace.

This book was no exception. I am so thankful to NetGalley and the publishers for the opportunity to read and review this book and I am excited to continue reading this author. If you haven't read more of their stuff, I highly recommend that you do.

Mostly Dead Things meets Avatar: The Last Airbender meets Daughter of Smoke and Bone? I'm not sure it fully works and it should have played up the Florida bits or the fantasy bits a bit more. I don't think this was bad, but I had a hard time connecting to the characters and the story.

I really really wanted to love this, and I loved the concept. The writing was well done, and the characters were fleshed out well. I loved the gender acceptance, the queerness of this book. So maybe this was a case of me, not the book, but I just didn't love it. It didn't quite work for me.

I didn't like any of the characters. I totally got that there was a lot of darkness in this book; it dealt with some pretty heavy things. But all of it felt way too dark for me. There weren't really comedic moments, there wasn't anything that helped me relate to the characters. I desperately wanted to love them, and just really didn't. The dream/real life switching also just felt confusing to me. I kept reading because I wanted to know how it ended and because the one character I enjoyed for the first bit was Enzo and I enjoyed Enzo and Gem's relationship at the beginning. The book was well-written, but just didn't really work for me. I also am not quite sure who I'd recommend it to.

Took me forever to finally get around to reading this arc and I should kick myself because I absolutely loved this!

I requested this book after I saw a friend on Instagram raving about it and I am so glad that I did. I enjoyed this story immensely. I can’t wait to read more by this author.

SO entertaining I was in love with every page. I cannot believe the feeling that it gave me, undescribable. Will be raving about this author all the time.

This was a good time. Overall, this book is an entertaining journey that introduces us to a lot of morally gray characters. It’s not every day you get a cast of characters where you’re not sure who to side with or root for, so I kind of liked this approach. This is an entertaining read that works well if you like fantasy and are willing to just go with the flow of a narrative.

This story had a fascinating premise and the story definitely delivered. There were a ton of interesting themes woven throughout the story, including agency, relationships, and personal identity versus external perception. If you're into morally grey protagonists, Gem is perfect for you! They are an anxious mess (which was very relatable) and are just trying to make their way in world as their circumstances change and their knowledge of who they are is constantly being impacted by those changing circumstances. I loved the infusions of folklore and fantasy, with some magical realism, and I will definitely be snagging the second book in this Duology when it's released!

I have such mixed feelings on this book. For the most part, I enjoyed HE Edgmon’s debut duology, so I had decent hopes for this new one, especially with such an amazing concept. But the characters felt hard to like and get into, the pacing was off and overall, it was just not anything I hoped it to be. Now, it had its moment where I would start to feel it picking up and almost becoming engaging but it never stayed consistent so I’m kind of disappointed by this start. Part of me wants to stay hopeful for the sequel and part of me never wants to try.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for this review copy in exchange for an honest opinion. Review has been posted on Amazon.

Have you ever wanted morally grey, complex, feral characters? Then please read this book!! I have heard great things about H.E. Edgmon's other books but haven't been able to get around to reading them so when I got a change at this ARC, I knew I had to read it and I was NOT disappointed! The world building, characters, and plot were all amazing so please give this a read!!