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Book Review: These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa

book cover for These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa

These Vengeful Gods by Gabe Cole Novoa reminded me of a mix of the Hunger Games books and the TV show Arcane in the best way! I’ve read other books by this author that I really enjoyed but this might be my favorite one yet!

In this book, we follow Crow, a trans teenager living with his uncles in the Shallows, the lowest and most neglected part of the city. Crow is a descendent of the god of death, and has survived a genocide that wiped out most of the other descendants of death. Because of his godly heritage, Crow has some supernatural abilities and uses those abilities as an underground street fighter to earn money. When Crow’s uncles are arrested for helping Deathchildren refugees escape the city, Crow vows to save them by entering a championship known as the Tournament of the Gods, where the winner is granted a boon from the gods.

This book has so many elements that I absolutely loved. The world building is so good- I felt like I was in the city with them as they travelled around it. It definitely gives Arcane-esque vibes with the Shallows being similar to the Undercity and the upper city levels similar to Piltover. While this comparison can be made to really any place (fictional or otherwise) where there are vast disparities in wealth between two areas, I kept picturing Arcane in my head as I was reading (which was excellent because I love Arcane!)

The characters are what really drew me to this book though. Crow is very lovable and goes through so much, but is still so resilient. He also has an incredible (and all queer!) found family, made up of equally lovable characters. They seem very real and each one was unique. I liked getting to know each and every one of them, but I particularly liked Crow’s sponsor. The tournament tasks were the least interesting part of this book, but obviously they were very important to moving the story along! However I could have read just a whole story about the Crow crew hanging out together and been just as happy!

Overall I thoroughly recommend picking up These Vengeful Gods if you’re looking for a fantastic read!

I received this book from NetGalley as an ARC. All opinions are my own.

★ ★ ★ ★ ★

Rating: 4.5 stars

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