I screamed when I finished this book. No lie. I SCREAMED because how how HOW can H.E. Edgmon end a book on that cliffhanger and expect us to be okay with it???? If I don't manage to get my hands on MERCILESS SAVIORS as soon as possible, I might actually combust.

Anyway.

What can I say? This is the feral, whip-smart, gloriously queer YA fantasy of my nightmares. I loved it. I loved the chaos, the rage, the scale and the intimacy. Gem is a complex and fascinating character with one of the most engaging voices I've encountered recently; I would read anything from their perspective, no matter how unhinged. The plot spun breathlessly, twist after clever twist, and gah ... it's sexy, diverse, violent, and all of the delicious things promised by the blurb (and more.)

10/10 would read Edgmon's shopping list.

Godly Heathens took a concept that’s been done a million times and makes it unique. I loved the trans, queer, native rep. I loved the idea of gods from another dimension reincarnating in our world. I loved hitting in hard topics. I just thought it was too young and the contemporary world (small town georgia) felt incongruous with the rest of it.

dnf at 14.0%. it took me a while to get to reading this one, and while i was initially very excited about it, i don't think this was for me. a lot of telling rather than showing, and the first person narration is sort of all over the place. strange pacing also? i think these are things i would have overlooked as a teen, and thus i imagine this will be enjoyed by its target audience. wonderful queer and mental health rep, though!

thank you to netgalley and st. martins press for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Rating:3.5

Godly heathers is a good book. The plot was interesting as well as the characters. Also the indigenous rep and the queer rep was well done.

However I personally just wasn’t all that into it. I feel as though this book should’ve/ could’ve been a Adult novel instead of a Ya novel. In essence Godly Heathens has all the makings of a adult book but it doesn’t go all the way with it and it’s kinda disappointing.

Another than that I really enjoyed the book and it’s most of the characters.

Godly Heathens is one of my new favorites of 2023. I was completely blown away! I have really enjoyed H.E. Edgmon’s previous work, but this felt like it was on a different level. Gem is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in a small town in Georgia. Not much changes here, until the day Willa Mae arrives. High school is hard enough without someone showing up to tell you that you’re actually a god with powerful magic. It soon becomes clear that Willa Mae isn’t lying and Gem will have to try and reconnect with their memories and magic in order to save themself from people who blame them for their actions in previous lives.

Godly Heathens is an action-packed adventure that is impossible to put down! Gem is such a morally gray character who is trying to do their best in an impossible situation. The LGBTQ+ representation is excellent (especially nonbinary rep)! I also really appreciated the mental health rep and the realizations Gem has about their mental health. I loved the slow reveal of the story behind the gods and Gem's past lives. The flashbacks were very well-done. Edgmon's writing is funny, mindful of grief and trauma, and shows a way towards hope. The characters feel so tangible and genuine. I particularly loved Willa Mae and Enzo!! The connections between them all are solidified while battling enemies and trying to use magic that comes with a price. The ending was a brutal cliffhanger, needless to say I can’t wait to read the sequel!!

Readers who enjoy contemporary fantasy, queer found family, morally gray characters, witty banter, and action-packed scenes will love this book.

Thank you so much to H.E. Edgmon, Wednesday Books, and Netgalley for a free ARC in exchange for an honest review

For publisher: My review will be posted on Instagram, Goodreads, Amazon, Storygraph, and Barnes & Noble etc

I received this ARC from netgalley, and I really enjoyed the premise. The first chapter really sucks you in, and I loved folllowing Gem. I feel like YA can be cringey when trying to relate to how teenagers live and act, but this was a very accurate and comical look at the mind of a YA. Although I do think the ending added a few details a little late in the story that didn’t wind up being relevant, I’m chalking that up to clear foreshadowing for the series. The ending almost seemed to be wrapped up a little too nicely with a bow, and then the plot twist comes. Definitely worth the read!

I grew up as a queer person on Cheyenne Arapaho land in Oklahoma. To say I loved this book would be a massive understatement. This was such a fun combination of modern slang and pop culture tied into Native culture and queer culture. Gem as a character is so perfectly morally grey, but with so many good reasons. Good on you, Edgmon.

I truly adored this book.

Alternately visceral and lovely, the lush prose rich with meticulously detailed imagery made this story a delight to read. The portrayal of mental illness feels both accurate and compassionate while the depiction of a family member who is "just trying to help" rings frustratingly true. And while the book focuses on Gem's struggles as both a trans and neurodivergent individual, I think it will resonate with anyone who has ever felt different, no matter what that difference is.

Touching on themes of both villainy and redemption, this is a story strongly driven by its characters and I loved how well their complexity and moral ambiguity did the premise justice. Gem struggles throughout the book with both their self-image and "doing the right thing" even as less savory aspects of themself continue to come to light. The antagonists, too, are multidimensional with sympathetic motivations. There is no one right or wrong side, just people trying to do their best through ever changing dynamics and fluid loyalties.

I also loved how this book not only isn't afraid to get dark, it revels in it. Some of the characters' actions are truly disturbing; after all, there is no such line as "too far" for a deity to cross. Be aware though that because of this, the story doesn't pull its punches - the bad is VERY bad, so make sure to check the trigger warnings.

Overall, the combination of unusual premise and unflinching reflection on the nature of good and evil creates a story that lingers past the final page. I'm eagerly awaiting the sequel.

4.5 stars rounded up.

Note: I received an ARC of this book courtesy of NetGalley and Wednesday Books in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own. A copy of this review also appears on Goodreads.

As a huge fan of The Witch King duology, I had been anxiously awaiting Edgmon’s latest release. Godly Heathens was everything I was hoping for and more! The diversity of characters? The SICK powers the different gods have? The story? Just everything was 10/10 chefs kiss.

Gem Echols just wants to graduate high school and leave small town Georgia behind. They have plans to get to New York to be themselves and with their best friend, Enzo. But dreams that Gem has never told anyone about of magic and murder keep haunting their dreams. Somehow the new girl in town, Willa Mae, knows all about the dreams and more. Between her and another transfer student claiming to be the god of death that idea of finishing high school and getting out seems to slipping away for the simple goal of not getting killed.

Edgmon presents a mythology and world that is rich and messy. The complications of reincarnation and fate blend perfectly into the messiness of trying to just thrive as a teenager with great added layer of godhood and memories that don't quiet piece together. The book doesn't give a clear path to understanding who is in the right because that is never how the world works and they way that Edgmon approaches that was so well carried off. The layers and motivations for each character twist and turn in very human ways.

Now this is a fun contemporary fantasy wrapped up in our modern time with troublesome reincarnated gods!

At first, I wasn’t sure what to expect. The cover screamed high fantasy, so I was surprised when Gem finished up their initial dream and we were in the middle of Georgia, USA. The story kept taking interesting turns after that.

I truly did enjoy this concept. Reincarnated gods stuck living as humans for many generations on Earth while they also fight with each other due to the consequences of such magic. The understanding of waking up and realizing they’re a god added with the magic knife—the Ouroboros—was so cool, but it felt so flippant in the story. I wish the story had taken time to develop the Ether and these gods, further cementing them for the reader.

Reading about Gem and their struggles through life, especially when they’re hit with the fact that they’re actually a god, was one of my favorite parts. We see how they deal with this information and how horribly they spiral as they wonder how much of their life was them feeling like there was something wrong with them, or just the underlying fact that they were not entirely human.

The conclusion of this story also felt a little loose. I was expecting something more grounding, not another of the gods coming in to cause trouble out of nowhere. It felt random.

Overall, I just think this story needed to go deeper. It’s a great concept with a cool cast of characters, but the execution didn’t feel 100% to me. However, I do think for readers who like to swing by a story quickly and just enjoy the vibes, this would be a great book for them!

Another stunning book by H.E. Edgmon. It took a little bit for me to get into it (you're kinda just thrown into everything without a lot of explanations and books that start like that are often a bit difficult for me because I get frustrated not knowing what's going on) but once I got a few chapters in, I was completely engrossed.

Gem is a nonbinary teen living in Seminole, GA. They are unabashedly queer and are always charming their peers. Underneath however, they are an anxious mess. Not least of all because they worry they are losing their sanity. They have visions of being a god called the Magician and helping another god, The Shade, murder the other god in the pantheon. Gem's father is mentally ill and they worry that, as much as these seem like visions or memories, they are actually hallucinations. Their only true confidant is a trans boy named Enzo who lives in NY.

A girl named Willa Mae comes to their school and we find out that she is one of the gods, Gem is the Magician, and they actually sent all the still living gods to this realm a long time ago and they keep being reborn and will continue to do so unless Gem is killed with a specific weapon which will allow the gods to return home.

An amazing story with many twists and turns that really drew me in. I was in love with Enzo immediately and love where his story ended up going. And that cliffhanger ending! Can't wait for the second book to see how everything unfolds.

ARC provided by NetGalley

This was INSANE in the best way possible. I'm genuinely a lil lost for words on how to talk about this book because I loved it that much. Gem is such a deeply messed-up character, in so many ways, and I love them immensely for it. Their dynamic with every other character is so fraught even when they don't want it to be or even know why. This book is like everything I've ever wanted in a story before and I can't wait to scream about it to every single customer that comes in my store.

3.5

this was so crazy insane and got BONKERS the more u read. literally hooked me in. gem is a mess of a character and you want them to do the right thing and end up well and every decision they turn around and don't do that. but lucky for me i love and adore self-sabotage! this took me a little bit to get into but man. what a wild ride when i did. there was some really good prose and descriptions and characters were like sooooooo well developed! i was iffy in the beginning but gem grew on me and now im eagerly sat for the next one.

Godly Heathens makes room for trans messiness in a way I’ve been begging for years for. Gem is a complicated character that struggles with their decisions throughout the book. There were moments where you question his decisions because you just want things to work out for them. I loved that consequences of every characters decisions was discussed in such a meaningful way. The queer rep in this book is amazing and I love that almost of all the cast fell somewhere under the queer umbrella. I fell in love with all the characters even through their “wrongs”.

There are so many quotes in Godly Heathens that I will be thinking about for a long time. I particularly felt impacted by Gem’s discussion of being a biracial Native individual dealing with colonizer blood.

Thais book had me kicking and screaming by the end and I can’t wait for the next book in the series. It’s queer chaos that I’ll be thinking about for a long time.

This book was incredible! I’m not sure I’ve read anything quite like it before. I really appreciated the world building and how the author is able to give you so much information in a really natural way. The characters are all really well thought out and that ending? Chefs kiss.

I had so many issues with this book.
At the offset, it sounded right up my alley. I love books with LGBTQ representation, and this promised it in spades! The MC was also Indigenous, which is another plus, and the cover art is truly gorgeous. But the story itself was highly problematic.
Every single character in this book was either queer or presented as bad, which is really just not awesome. There was one exception, who was the dumb jock golden retriever character, which was how he was referred to multiple times. Like he was just too dumb to be a bigot. And the primary trait in every single character was their queerness. I can't tell you more than a few bullet points about the personalities of the MCs, but I sure know about their sexuality. There was nothing about them that made me actually care about these characters or sympathize with their issues. It was just really poorly handled.
On top of that, this book couldn't make up it's mind on if the characters were good or bad. Arguably, they're all worthless and have the morality of the ancient Greek Gods. However, the book expects us to care about them and the causes they champion without giving us any real reason other than surface stuff. On one page they're rallying against small-town bigotry towards anyone queer or POC or indigenous, and on the next they're literally abandoning a whole world they were responsible for, murdering people and gods without any discrimination or remorse, and openly stating how little they care about anyone who isn't them. I just didn't buy it and really didn't care about any of them. By the end of the book I just wanted them to all kill themselves off.
Another thing to mention is there is some gnarly animal death thrown in for entertainment value. One of the gods controls plant and animal life, and in fights she has birds act as suicide bombers to break into glass or attack her enemies, and it is treated with so little care or compassion. Really off putting.
The book ends on a "cliff hanger" and this is supposed to be a duology, but I absolutely will not be continuing on.

This was one of the most creative books I've read in a long time -- while it had a decidedly different tone than The Witch King, I enjoyed it nonetheless. I love seeing queer teens in genres other than realistic fiction because it often feels more real to me -- we can fit in anywhere, not just in narratives strictly about coming out or homophobia. There were some parts of the book that I found unbelievable, but on the whole, the magic system was well-crafted and engaging. I look forward to the sequel.

Gem is a nonbinary teen living in small town Georgia, and things have never felt quite right- especially that their best friend lives all the way in New York City. This not-right-ness comes to a head as disconcerting things start to happen and Gem learns that they're a reincarnation of a god from another universe, in the midst of a generation-spanning war for the lives of their fellow gods and the world they left behind.

I completely adored this book. Gem is complex- I rooted for them, but they make bad, messy, heartfelt decisions left and right. The thing that this book did the best was Gem's inner life- the combination of their mental health issues and the memories of their past lives flowing together, the all-consuming yearning that can't be contained to a single object of affection, the coping skills they try to use but aren't quite enough. I haven't seen quite this point of view on trans-ness, gender, mental illness, and growing up in the rural south anywhere else.

This book ends on a cliffhanger, and I can't wait for the next one- H.E. Edgmon hasn't disappointed me yet!

Teenagers that are actually reincarnated gods living in a small town in Georgia. Non-binary, trans, gay, and general queerness. Indigenous representation. A wide cast of diverse characters. Yep, this book has them all.

Fantasy with some horror, I can see teens really enjoying this book. There is representation for just about anyone. Choice vs destiny was one of the main themes in my opinion. Gem has to make many choices while learning her destiny. Does she make her own or follow paths others have set for her? How much of her is a god and how much is a nonbinary Seminole teen living in Georgia? Gem was a very lovable character. Watching her balance her life as a teenager with the growing power of her godhood made me sympathetic to her decisions. Even when I was internally screaming that they were the wrong ones.

The story was very engaging and dense. Confusing at times because of names changing and learning who is who in the god pantheon. The ending was tense and left me hanging for the next book but wrapped up the story at the same time. Recommend this for teens, especially those looking for representation and heavy plots.