Beautiful photo by hopelesspocusreads!
Happy Monday, fairies!
I hope you had a wonderful weekend cosied up with a book or two!
Welcome to day one of our readalong of The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart! I’m so excited to be reading this one, and I hope you are too!
With today being our first section, we’ll be reading from the beginning to the end of Chapter 11. Get ready to dive in!
When you’ve finished today’s section, catch up with me – and everyone else – in the comments down below so we can discuss the beginning of the book. Happy reading!
Please be warned, the following section will include spoilers for The Gods Below by Andrea Stewart from the beginning to the end of Chapter 11. Please only read on if you have finished reading this section!
–!SPOILERS!–
Immediately we’re introduced to an almost dystopian-esque setting, a world which seems near uninhabitable and in need of Restoration. We meet Hakara (15) and Rasha (9), sisters doing everything they can to survive in this world, from ocean foraging to potential sinkhole mining to find goods they can sell.
Pretty quickly we’re met with action as the Restoration approaches – a process seemingly sent by the God Kluehnn to restore this apparent wasteland into a lush, thriving scene. The only problem is, doing so requires an immense amount of matter…matter that can be taken in the form of people. The citizens of Kashan will either adapt or disappear in this Restoration, and who’s to say both Hakara and Rasha will survive? Can you imagine how terrifying that would be? What do you even do in that situation?
Well, Hakara and Rasha try to outrun it…try being the keyword here. In all of the panic, the sisters are separated, and we see Rasha become one of the ‘adapted’, quite literally seeing the world anew in her new body. The description of the world through her new eyes sounds truly beautiful compared to her living conditions before, and it’s easy to see why some hope for the Restoration to come!
Cut to 10 years later.
Hakara doesn’t know if Rasha is alive or not. All she knows is sinkhole diving, and her desperate need to save money to find Rasha again. The gems she mines for have become a secret side-hustle, and she can’t resist attempting one of her riskiest dives yet to mine a gem bigger than she’s collected before! But Hakara overestimates her ability to hold her breath, sucking in the toxic air before she can escape. Her arms begin to feel strange, stronger almost…what’s going on? Hakara herself has no time to think about this during her escape, but what do you think is happening here? Should we be worried?
Meanwhile Rasha, now 19, begins her calling as a Godkiller. With only three from each burrow making it through the trials, we’re bound to see a competitive streak to Rasha. What do you think these trials will entail? Do you think Rasha is cut out for them?
With the sister’s paths set, we meet more characters; Mullayne, who seems to be on a journey to the centre of the earth, his cousin Sheuan, who is taking care of his workshop in the meantime, and Nioanen, who seems particularly worried about losing his divinity. We’ve only seen a snippet of these characters so far, but they each give an interesting POV for our story outside of the sisters. How do you think their stories will intertwine?
Before we delve too far into their stories though, we snap back to Rasha, who undergoes her first trial and is dubbed a Neophyte! This is the first glimpse we see of just how dangerous the Godkiller trials can be, and leaves us on edge for the end of our first section!
I don’t know about you, but I am so intrigued about all of the characters we’ve been introduced to! We seem to be circling the sisters the most currently – what do you think their part in this story will be? Will they see each other again?
Do you have any predictions for the rest of the book so far?
Come and share your thoughts and theories down below, and until then – I’ll see you tomorrow!
Love,
Ashleigh
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I was happy when it was just Hakara and Rasha and that back and forth from one world to the other made sense. Then I got overwhelmed by so many new characters and no link as of yet with any of them, but I hope we will get more answers in the next section or at least find some ways they cross their paths.
I love the lush world but I feel like I’d try to flee if I didn’t know what it entailed. It’s too risky to remain. We don’t even know if Hakara would have remained and she seems quite resourcful, though Rasha felt stronger in the last chapter as well!
It’s definitely giving us a motive to keep reading, to find out how all of these characters are linked! I think I’d run away too, I’m not sure how I’d feel about being ‘restored’ …or not
Love the introduction to the world, it’s so imaginative! I genuinely enjoyed learning about the lore and can’t wait to learn more about the godgems. I didn’t expect so many POVs, but my favourite was definitely Hakara’s. The fact that she annoys everyone until they give into her is so funny. I hope she and Rasha get to see each other again – I just hope it’s in this book and not the sequel. I also like Sheuan’s POV and the schemes she has up her sleeve!
I don’t yet have any theories for how the rest of this book will unfold, but I’m strapped in for the ride!
Annoying people into getting her way is something I can respect ahaha! I wonder how far that will get her 😂
I feel the world building is a bit overwhelming and having so many differents POVs from the beginning it’s not super helpful. But I’m intrigued, I’m liking all the characters so far, Nioanen possibly being my future favourite for obvious reasons (cat). haha
I liked the way the sisters bond is portrayed but I’m more drawn to Hakara’s story for now. I feel Rasha is walking on a dark path and I wonder if in future she’ll even want to meet with her sister again… time changes lot of things!
The cats always become a favourite part, it’s inevitable 😂 Interesting thoughts about Rasha! We met her so young, and her life changed so much since then…it’ll be interesting to see how she’s grown, for sure!
Huh. That was…a lot of character intros. I’m really just interested in the sisters so far, so it was hard to focus on all the others. I wonder what it will be like when they reunite…Rasha is already so far from the innocent child that Hakara remembers. And what’s up with Hakara and the gems and the gas??
10 years is such a long time, especially when both were so young when their lives changed! It’ll be intriguing to see if the sisterly bond stays true or if it’s broken after so long!
I really like that the two main characters are sisters! And I believe Hakara will do anything forRasha. But I am afraid Rasha will go in a different direction, a direction Hakara can’t follow her on. Rasha will think Hakara abandoned her.
I think the stones are intriguing, what do they do and did Hakara ingest one? Does she come from the gods?
Oooooh interesting theories! I suppose all we can do is wait and see!
I’m enjoying the story so far and there are plenty of interesting hooks. I preferred just Hakara and Rasha’s POV, as I often feel a bit thrown out of a story with several POVs, but will keep reading. I’m especially looking forward to the sisters’ reunion.
I wonder if the sisters will remain the main two or if we’ll come to love other characters even more so!