Note: This copy of Hekate: The Witch was provided by NetGalley.

There has been a preponderance of books around deities recently and while none have really piqued my interest, this book on Hekate, did. This was partly because Hekate, the goddess of witchcraft and necromancy, appears in the game Hades 2 as the mentor to the main protagonist of the game. This was enough for me to be curious about this deity, and this retelling of her origin by Nikita Gill seemed like a nice place to start.

This book is the story of Hekate, a child born of war with the blood of Titans within her. This was not in her favour as the Greek Gods were ruthless in ensuring their supremacy by eradicating any or all potential opposition to their power. The book covers Hekate’s childhood, from fleeing her home, to being orphaned and cared for by Styx in the underworld. As with anyone being confined, Hekate is ever curious about what lies beyond, and finds herself looking for ways to escape what feels like captivity to her. With the aid of some unlikely allies, we take this journey with Hekate as she comes into her power, discovers that gods always have ulterior motives, and that the only language they understand is one that is spoken from a position of power.

This book was a very interesting listening experience for me, partly because some of the chapters are written in verse. While this did make for an interesting experience, the disparity in chapter lengths, and how they ended at times, made it a little hard to consider this as one continuous book as compared to a collection of snippets. This was heavily prevalent in the beginning of the book, but less noticeable towards the end. Another point is the accent of the narrator. While I am all for authors narrating their own books, the accent felt off for a Greek Goddess. This got better as the book progressed or I wasn’t sure if it was just me acclimatising to the narrator’s voice.

Outside of this, the book was quite a decent listen but I have mixed feelings if whether it would have been better to read the physical copy as compared to listening to the audiobook. Maybe the best experience is to listen to the audiobook while having the physical copy in hand? A bit much I know but this is my first experience of a story with poetry interspersed so heavily, so see what works best for you. I find it a little hard to recommend this due to the writing style. It’s a nice introduction to Hekate, but done in a very unique way.

Links:

• Goodreads: Hekate: The Witch – Nikita Gill
• Wikipedia: Hades 2