A great audio. narrators were able to captivate me in the story and I found myself immersed in the plots as the MCs were unfolded.

An edge-of-your-seat type of read with perfect narration. I couldn't put this audiobook down and needed to know what came next. The characters are interesting and the writing wonderful.

Godly Heathens follows Gem, a transmasc nonbinary teen who lives in small town Georgia. Gem has dreams that don’t really make a lot of sense to them, and almost feel like real life. Then, one day, a beautiful girl begins asking Gem questions… about the dreams. This begins Gem’s journey.

First and foremost, this book will be a great addition to a high school library. A lot of the book takes place at or around a high school, and a lot of the storyline is based for teens. THAT BEING SAID, I ultimately DNFed it about halfway through because it was clearly written For The Teens, which I no longer am. I think that the author does a fantastic job at really making Gem feel authentically like a teenager dealing with a lot of Big Issues (being queer, having multiple crushes, being a God without realizing it) without being annoying. That all being said - Gem very clearly is a teenager and therefore it wasn’t for me. I would still recommend this book to fans of YA and readers who work with young adults.

I don't even know how to review this. From pretty much the first page I was obsessed with this book and that persisted through the entire book. Just absolutely fantastic. I'm going to be thinking it for ages to come, and I cannot wait for Merciless Saviors.

An overall enjoyable YA fantasy.

The unique pantheon of gods was my favourite part about this book. The gods are diverse in every way if the word, from sexuality to gender identity and more. I hope we get to learn more about them in the sequel.

H.E. Edgmon's writing was easy to follow and holds a unique voice. Important topics surrounding sexuality, gender identity, trauma, race, and colonialism are discussed in a way that's easy for teenagers to digest.

A few things that I didn't like:

1. Gem's magic seemed a little inconsistent and very plot convenient. They seemed to be able to do anything and everything with just their magic and little to no struggle despite the fact that they are still learning to use it.

2. Gem themself. I'm not sure if they were meant to be an unlikable character, but in my opinion, they were an unlikable character.

I did enjoy this book and will be looking to pick up the sequel.

If I could sell you Godly Heathens in one sentence - the vibes are Percy Jackson, but make it queerer and darker.

The story follows Gem as they learn they’re a reincarnated God. There is tons of talk of identity and the characterization of all of the characters is complex and left me with a lot of conflicted feelings, which is what really led this to being a five star read for me. Any book that makes me feel things throughout my body and makes me want to scream at the end is a good book by me.

I also liked how Godly Heathens is definitively a YA book that goes very deep into the struggles of being a teenager and discovering who you are, how you identify yourself, and where your moral line is drawn in a very real and raw way. It doesn’t shy away from hard topics while also demonstrating some healthy and some not so healthy ways of dealing with them.

The diversity and rep in this book has a list too long to name as well, and I would definitely recommend it.

The narrator, Avi Roque, also did a great job, and I would recommend the audiobook highly! I thought Gem’s conflicting thoughts and identities came through well in the narration.

“She loves me, but only if I'll pretend. She loves me, but only if I'll break my bones to twist myself into the version of me she wants?”


TRIGGER WARNINGS: Graphic gore, body horror, abuse, transphobia (Look up a whole list before reading)


I know I start all my reviews with ‘Wow’. But like WOW. This book was amazing and heartbreaking, from the representation to the writing style to the plot that you literally cannot predict.
All the representation was so great to see. Mental health awareness, LGTBQ+ rep, and Indigenous characters. Representation is so important and Edgmon did a wonderful job at blending that with the plot of the book. I love a cozy realistic book where the main character discovers their identity and how they fit into their own life.
This is NOT that type of book.
I loved how the characters gender identity was written into the story, not just a part of it or even the focus of it. I love how the author seamlessly blends fiction and representation. The author makes this diversity feel so natural in this story and IT IS A NATURAL THING IN REAL LIFE. Edgmon did a wonderful job at handling hard topics about what some LGTBQ+ kids/teens go through.
I want to keep talking about this book forever. However, I do want to emphasize CHECKING THE TRIGGER WARNINGS BEFORE YOU START READING. I did check the trigger warnings and the first chapter still caught me by surprise.
I could write an essay about the amazing writing in this book, but I’m trying to keep it short for you review readers. I’m barely scratching the surface describing this book. It’s a wonderful, heartbreaking blend of fantasy and real life issues. I’m begging for you all to check it out!

P.S. The Narrator for the Audio Book version was very well chosen. They did a wonderful job at bringing the book to the audio format.

I held my review in solidarity with the St Martin's Press influencer boycott, hoping that the publisher would choose to acknowledge their employee's behavior and to share how they protect their readers, influencers, and authors.

Nine months in, I no longer have an expectation of anyone receiving a meaningful response to that simple request.

If SMP chooses to speak up, I will be happy to update this feedback with my actual review.

3.5 - 4 stars. I didn't love everything about this... about 75% of the way through I felt like I lost the thread and didn't really get back to it until closer to the end. However I'm glad I stuck it out as I suspected at some point this confusion was intentional. H. E. Edgmon is making the reader feel as disoriented and confused about who is who (as each character has multiple names, memories, and recognition of themselves) in such a way as it is the closest I (as a bisexual woman) may ever come to having even an iota of understanding what it might be like to be confused about gender and sexuality as a teen (my own understanding of being bisexual was helped along by some key late 90's, early LGBTQ+ Internet pages) .

I'm looking forward to recommending this to my trans cousin and seeing what she thinks. I am confident she will want to read it when I tell her it's complex like Gideon the Ninth (Tamsyn Muir), as godly as Banewrecker (Jacqueline Carey), and as teenage romantic as Aristotle and Dante (Benjamin Alire Sáenz). It also features realistic physical moments between a trans character and their partner; such as running fingers over top surgery scars. I shivered a little at this at felt so genuine and definitely very intimate.

All that said... there are three important things to know, in my opinion, going into Godly Heathens:
1) The ending is abrupt and a cliffhanger. I was lucky to have book 2, Merciless Saviors at my fingertips to start immediately. You are likely to want to do the same. It is about one minute between the end of the first book and the opening line of book 2. I greatly dislike this, as it gives no reminder of the story if there has been some time between books (it's also just rude to readers to give no real ending at all...). I'm also not a fan of reading books one after another for fear of getting tired of characters or the story. That said, her I am making the exception for the first time in years.

2) There are a lot of characters with different names, abilities, memories, and situations. It's a lot to keep track of. I did not realize, until near the end, that there is a cast of the god characters at the back of the print book. However it should be noted that the list has spoilers for events in this first book.
One thing that does help a lot with this issue, and perhaps saved me at times, was listening to some chapters on audio. The narrator does a brilliant job of defining the characters and being consistent with the voices of each. In the end it helped me keep things together enough to keep going and not feel like I needed to reread/listen to sections, or just give up on the whole story. I did swap between audio and print a few times, and I'm glad I did. This gave me time to absorb some of the story in my head in print; but the audio helped define the different characters when I was lost. Kudos to the narrator for keeping the voices consistent and distinct (without being silly or obnoxious).

3) Morality and love are brilliantly put in opposition of one another in Godly Heathens. Edgmon takes us on a crazy journey and confuses us as much as the leading POV character is. It is brilliant; and it is frustrating. At times I wanted to yell at our non-binary lead to tell them to just do something!! Yet I also understood why they didn't (generally because of their heart being in the way). At the end of the day I love Edgmon's continuing message: "Surviving does not make us evil".

And now I am doing something I almost never ever do... I am heading into book 2 immediately. As I went to listen to the first chapter or two; and now I'm sucked in. (Insert a maniacal winning laugh here from Edgmon and the publisher that I'm caught in their web, lol.) So I suppose they win this round as I break my usual rule of waiting a book or two before heading into the next in a series.

Please note: I received an eARC of this book from the publisher via NetGalley. This is an honest and unbiased review.

Couldn’t get into this book, I liked the authors pervious book and I will likely give this another try at a later date but for now I’m going to DNF this one.

This book has been on my TBR for a while. I have no idea why I waited so long to pick it up. We start out with an angsty teenager but end with a teenager that has grown throughout the book. Gem is broken for sure when we meet them. They are selfish too. Throughout the book more and more layers of their character are revealed. I could not help but feel for them. The story was so interesting. I just did not want to put the book down. The twists throughout the story were great. I did not see most of them coming. The end was wild and I now need the next book! Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for the audio arc in exchange for my honest review.

2.5 rounded up to 3 stars.

I really liked the concept of Godly Heathens, but unfortunately I feel like the pacing and the execution was a bit clunky. There are a lot of characters (both their present versions and their godly versions) to keep track of which gets overly complicated at times. I'm glad I didn't DNF it, but I'm not sure this is one my teen patrons will stick with.

Avi Roque does a good job with the audiobook narration, though I do wish they had an Indigenous trans performer (Roque is Latine).

Advanced Reader’s Copy provided by NetGalley, Macmillan Audio, and Macmillan Young Listeners in exchange for an honest review.

Godly Heathens has an ambitious world-building, sublime writing, and complex characters. While I appreciated the premise, I felt uneasy about the tonal dissonance between messy teenagers in the midst of self-discovery and self-determination vs. ancient gods embroiled in messy, centuries old conflict and romantic entanglements. I liked both individually, but struggled to experience them as one story.

This was a very interesting and super unique book! It was confusing at times and read kinda like a fever dream, but I loved the queer and trans rep. I feel like I understood only 80% of it, so I’m definitely interested to see where the second book goes.

🌈Queer rep: nonbinary main character (AFAB) who is demi romantic, pansexual, and poly. Main relationships - NB/NB relationship, NB/M (trans guy) relationship, NB/M relationship. Secondary - All the gods are not cis! Trans guy, FF relationship, drag queen.

I enjoyed this one. The world building was interesting and unique. The characters were complex. The mental health rep was relatable. I feel like I always learn something new from queer stories and this one was no different.

I definitely have kind of mixed feelings here. I think, most of that is that this book feels very different from what I expected from how this has been marketed.

Honestly I’m kind of sad about that because in a lot of ways this is more impressive than what the blurbs imply. There’s so much representation, in so many different places. Mental health, gender identities, sexual identities. Going in, having heard so much about this being about reincarnated gods and past lives I expected it to feel less rooted in a relatable high schooler’s life: but really that’s what it was. Vibe-wise this reminds me a lot of ‘Hell Followed With Us’ by Andrew Joseph White.

Of course there were a few things that didn’t work for me regardless of expectations vs experience. I found the pacing a bit unsteady. So getting into the plot lines, especially the fantasy world building was a bit rocky at times. I also feel like there’s a lot of loose ends and character development still to go (of course this is only the first book, so that’s to be expected!)

Audiobook: 5/5 I’ve listened to this narrator before and they literally always do a fantastic job. Absolutely perfect choice for this book.

I liked this series better than Edgmon's first one, although Edgmon's world-building is what I would call fairly light. It's a bit like the Bridgerton show, in that the setting is more for aesthetic purposes than an immersive experience.

The main character turns out to be a bit of a Mary Sue, but there was good LGBTQ+ representation here and there was a positive portrayal of a Southern small town, for once.

The cover is BEAUTIFUL.

Avi Roque is one of the default LGBTQ+ audio narrators, and for good reason,

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this audio ARC.

Avi Roque performed this story beautifully. They are stellar.

I am not certain what I think or how I feel upon completion of this book. I do desire to know what comes next, so I am jumping immediately into the next book in this series.

I really tried, especially with how great the reviews are so far, but I just couldn't connect with this book at all. I hate giving up so close to the end. I love the trans and nonbinary representation in this story and the queer themes in general, and I feel like that was the main reason I stuck with this story for so long. There's just so much happening here and it felt like the author wanted to address so many different things but it felt really rushed. I could definitely see why so many people like this, but it just wasn't for me.

Thank you Netgalley for providing a digital ARC.

Until the following items are met by the SMP team, I will be withholding any promotion or review of any St. Martin's Press titles (including SMP Romance and Wednesday Book titles):

1. Address and denounce the Islamophobia/racism from your employee.
2. Offer tangible steps for how you're going to mitigate the harm this employee caused.
3. Address how moving forward, you will support and protect your Palestinian, Muslim, and Arab readers, influencers, and authors in addition to your BIPOC readers, influencers, and authors.