Becky Bookworm Book Review: The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector

 

Perhaps you know the myths.

Furious, benevolent Gods.

A tree that binds nine realms.

A hammer stronger than any weapon.

And someday, the end of everything.

But few have heard of me.

Looking back, it’s easy to know what choices I might have made differently. At least it feels that way. I might have given up on my title. Told my father he was useless, king of Gods or no, and left Asgard. Made a life somewhere else.

Maybe I would never have let Loki cross my path. Never have fallen in love.

But there’s no going back.

We were happy once.

And the price for that happiness was the end of everything.

The Goddess of Nothing At All by Cat Rector

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

For those who know, think they know, and don't know Loki's rise and fall.
Prepare yourself to watch a train crash with a stunning cast of characters, familiar and new. You will find yourself clutching your chest as you prepare for the inevitable pain, betrayal, lies and heartbreak but equally your heart with feel full for the moments of happiness, joy, love, and unique sense of loyalty, that shine in those unbelievably minute moments, as fleeting as a breath and as short as a heartbeat - before it all ends. Quite literally, in Ragnarok.

Cat has written a masterpiece that explores the whole arc of Ragnarok from the view of those who are not the lead protagonists or antagonists, those who don't wield any great power or position, those who get caught up in it purely down to who they fell in love with, and who their family is.

Loki is neither celebrated or shamed, he is himself. Always conflicted, always changing in both thought, word and deed. And Cat address his shape changing and thus gender changing abilities with great respect and also honesty that would best reflect our growing modern understandings and inclusive attitude towards those of the LGBTQ+ community who can probably relate to Loki for that aspect above all else.

In Sigyn, the reader finds a woman constantly struggling, constantly fighting and constantly trying to secure herself a place in a world, and to retain it.
But when you live amongst the Divine, dealing with a Patriarchal power, then the odds are greater than that of a mortal woman. Alas for poor Sigyn, her chances of achieving her hearts desire only increase but also fluctuate once she starts spending time with the most mercurial of Asgard's inhabitants. She often obtains a taste, a period, albeit intermittent stability but her happiness and sadness falls and rises like the tide against the granite cliff that becomes her heart by the end of the book.

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