Full review will be live on my blog on October 22: https://inkandplasma.com/2020/10/22/the-girl-and-the-goddess/

Rating: 4.5 stars rounded up to 5.

Trigger warnings, taken from the front of the book: anxiety, bigotry, biphobia, body shaming, bullying, child abuse, depression, guilt, homophobia, internalised misogyny, misogyny/sexism, poverty, racism, sexual assault, terrorism, violence, war.

Thanks to Ebury Press for the eARC of this book, it has not affected my honest review.

I honestly have never requested anything so fast. I love Nikita Gill's work so much and I always wait impatiently for the next thing she produces. I saw this one and instantly requested, and the second my review copy came through I abandoned what I was already reading so I could dig in. The Girl and the Goddess is a little different than Nikita's previous work, as it's actually a full novel told in verse. Still I devoured it just as quickly as ever, because Nikita's storytelling is as lyrical and beautiful in a full length novel as it is in instagram snippets and the poetry anthologies.

The Girl and the Goddess is packed with stories within a story. Paro is told the stories of her gods and goddesses throughout her life, the deities appearing to her when she most needs the lesson that they have to offer her. I don't know much at all about Hindu deities and mythology, or, in all honesty, much about the partition of India other than what I've learned this year through a little online reading. While that's not the focus of this book by any means, I found it both accessible and intriguing. I got enough information that I didn't feel lost at all in the story, but I've still finished the book with a strong desire to raid my library for books on Hindu mythology. Each of the deities stories were heartwarming and distinct in tone, and I liked the way that they knitted into Paro's story neatly to show Paro relating to her faith at different times of difficulty in her life. I also liked that the deities addressed inconsistencies in their stories, and how myths can reflect the intentions and biases of the storyteller.

While there's a lot of ways that I obviously can't relate to Paro personally (as an extremely white British reviewer), I felt the queerness and self-discovery in this book vividly. The struggle of a loving, but not understanding, family is one I identify with in a lot of ways and I loved the way that Paro learned to empower herself but was still tied to her family closely. I also got excellent found family vibes from the friendship group, and we all know that I'll do literally anything for a group of queer women supporting each other. Paro's story was wonderful and beautiful, even in the painfully raw parts, and I loved the whole thing fiercely. It has all the magic of Nikita Gill's usual retellings, plus an interesting and vivid story of self-discovery, and I wish I could have had a copy of this in my hands when I was a confused and worried queer teenage girl. The illustrations are particularly gorgeous and I can't wait to see a finished copy of this book so I can see them properly on the page.