Review: Cursed By The Gods by Raye Wagner

Published: August 2015

Pages: 412

Synopsis: “Hope has a deadly secret…

Even though mortals think the gods have disappeared . . . Olympus still rules. Demigods have elite hunters who viciously kill monsters. And shadow-demons from the Underworld, the very harbingers of death, are tracking her.

When tragedy destroys the only safety she’s ever known, all signs point to Hades’s demons. Or do they? Something doesn’t add up, and Hope needs answers. But now, someone knows she exists . . .

Forced to hide, Hope pretends to be normal. She’ll do whatever it takes to keep her secret safe— and her heart protected. But when Athan arrives, her world is turned upside down.

With gods, demigods, and demons closing in, the question is…

How long can a monster stay hidden in plain sight?

Join Hope on her unforgettable journey to discover what it means to live and her daring fight to break Apollo’s curse. *Previously released as Curse of the Sphinx.*”

Rating: ****

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Cursed by the Gods follows Hope, half sphinx half human (if I have interpreted that correctly) after the death of her Mother. She emancipates herself and lives in a small American town while her Aunt tries to track down information about Hope’s Mother’s death.

Cursed by the Gods appears to take place on a planet Earth where humans know that Gods and Demigods are real. It took me a while to work this out, but this is still something I only inferred from conversations between characters. It would have been better I think, for this to have been explained or made more obvious. As I spent the first third of the book unsure whether this was the case or not.

Definitely on trend when you consider the popularity of the Percy Jackson series and others. I feel that this Gods and Demigods on Earth theme is the most prominent in YA fiction, taking over from vampires a few years ago and dystopian series inspired by The Hunger Games and The Maze Runner more recently.

Cursed by the Gods was written very well and was the right mix of action and dialogue, however I did find the overall plot progression quite slow. Both action and dialogue were well thought out and complimented each other well. The only negative for me was the world building, as I wasn’t sure if humans knew about the existence of Gods and Demigods and this could have been explained better.