'Dark Goddess' - Sarwat Chadda

[bookgazing]

Being a fangirl often feels a little bit like you’ve missed the signs pointing out ‘Polite Boundaries’ and crossed over into ‘Creepy Town’. You talk about the object of your fangirlishness all the time. Every topic you think of seems to relate to it. You seek out other people who talk about your new obsession. You start 'following’ sources (probably down scary, dark alleys) so you can find out more. Then you write another post about that series, band, film - whatever it is you’re crushing so hard on and feel like your interest might be getting a little bit too much, but you ignore it because you just have too much to say about this piece of entertaining media.

Yes, it’s time for me to review Sarwat Chadda’s young adult novel, ‘Dark Goddess’ all of three months after I reviewed his first novel 'Devil’s Kiss’. This is the second novel following Billi Sangreal the only female squire belonging to The Knights Templar. I hope I don’t go overboard, but I promise my love comes from a non-creepy place.

The book opens strong and bloody, pumping up the shock and battle factor in the early pages. Billi becomes involved in a fight with a clan of werewolves called the Polenitsy who have broken a vow to the Templars and started hunting humans again. The opening of this sequel is less concerned presenting violent emotional conflict, as in ‘Devil’s Kiss’ opening pages. Instead this equally violent opening (not to seem out for blood all over again, but I’m fine with violence when it’s in a paranormal battle) focuses on thrusting readers into an exciting, hard fought battle and uses the extreme tension of Billi’s described fight for survival to encourage readers to bond with this heroine by willing her to win:

'The shape turned its long lupine head and out of the darkness predatory grren eyes glowed. Its snarl was deep and low, so elemental that the air quivered. Big Red stepped closer, dragging its long, still-bloody claws along the plaster, digging deep grooves along both walls. There was no way past it. Behind Billi was a window and a four-metre drop. She was trapped.'

The werewolves Billi has been tracking attack a farmhouse and inside Billi discovers a girl called Vasilisa, who the Polenitsy seem desperate to recover. When it emerges that Vasilisa is a Spring Child, or medium and the werewolves intend to feed her to their dark goddess Baba Yaga, the Templars take on the task of protecting Vasilisa.

Billi is still recovering emotionally from the events of her first major fight with evil, detailed in ‘Devil’s Kiss’. I mentioned in my review of that novel that Billi’s ability to remain open and caring, even when everything around her makes it clear that caring can bring pain, is one of my favourite things about Billi’s character . In this book readers meet a different Billi, one sure that the only way to live as a Templar and avoid pain is to keep from caring about others. At first Billi doesn’t want to look after Vasillisa, as she’s been hardened by her experiences. Even her dad notices that 'She's changed...'. As she gets to know Vasilisa she begins to care about the girl, but knowing how Vasilisa’s life will progress, knowing how emotionally hard her friend Kay was when he came back from his psychic training in Jerusalem and well aware of the short life span of a Templar Billi keeps herself apart from her. However, she’s incapable of cutting herself off from her emotions (hurray) and she’s soon making promises she can’t keep to her young charge in the hope of protecting her.

The friendship between the two girls adds a powerful emotional element to the book. As Billi tries to save Vasilisa it seems to be hinted, by the way that Vasilisa is present in her dreams of Kay, that by saving this young medium Billi is trying to atone for what happened to Kay. I’d also argue that she’s trying to save herself by saving Vasilisa, trying to allow the young girl to keep some of her innocent trust in the world. Although readers might try to keep their feelings in check, knowing that Chadda is a writer who will kill any of his secondary characters to heighten the power of his books, it’s hard not to get swept up in the girl’s friendship. I love that. I love that Chadda makes his readers mirror Billi’s struggle with her knowledge and her emotions. I love that he has the power to make me care and then devastate me.

Vasillisa is stolen away to Russia by members of the Polenitsy and Billi, Elaine, Gwaine and a new knight called Lance travel to find support from the larger, Russian equivalent of the Templars, the Bogatyrs. Here Billi meets Ivan, son of the last hereditary Bogatyr leader and *brief pause for a sigh of pleasure* Ivan is awesome too. He’s fashionable, wry, determined, charming in his occasionally skeevy way, angry and hurt over his father’s death, desperate to lead well and he always carries a glock. Does this not sound like the boy for Billi? Chadda has created a ‘she saves him, he save her’ couple dynamic in ‘Dark Goddess’, matching Billi with someone equally driven and yet playful, honest and interested in others with no ulterior motive.

When readers first meet Ivan, Billi is rescuing him from a vampire, later Ivan shoots a werewolf that is trying to tear her throat out, showing that Chadda is in favour of gender equality in the life saving department. When Ivan wants to find the perfect present for Billi, her gets her an expensive gun, because he understands that Billi likes weapons. The first time Ivan calls her beautiful is when she’s dressed in chain mail for battle (yes alright I awed a little bit at that) because he understands her and sees her strength as a part of her to be celebrated. And just as Ivan likes Billi the way she is, Billi comes to like all of Ivan, even his cockiness, with his ‘yes I usually date super models’ comments. They love each other as they are!

Honestly Chadda is one of the coolest writers I’ve come across in ages. ‘Dark Goddess’ includes a society of deadly female werewolves, Russian mafia types, a secret male descendant of Anastasia who wears a diamond ear stud and loves beautiful guns, descriptions of the beauty of new and old weapons, plane crashes, a show down at Chernobyl.... it just goes on. He appeals to my violent, fantasy side.

He’s also one of the most responsible, cool writers I’ve come across. He writes violence, but he makes sure he tempers the glory that can automatically attach itself to violence in fiction when it helps to save the world by including scenes where Billi expresses reluctance at killing any member of the Polinetsky tribe that isn’t actively fighting them, just because werewolves are ‘Unholy’. He also shows the consequences of human villians becoming desensitized to violence, in what I thought was a chilling scene where Billi finds victims of violence chained in a storage container. So he’s still pushing the idea that violence can be put to a righteous purpose, by making the Templars warriors out to save the world by killing the Unholy, but he offsets this with reminders that violence shouldn’t always be your first solution, not even when the enemies you’re fight are supernatural monsters.

There’s so much good stuff in this book, I’m going to have to resort to a list to find the space to fit it in:

The use of a witch and a female group of paranormal creatures as the villains. I thought I was going to have major issues with that aspect of the book, but Chadda does so much work to make sure that his novel doesn’t devolve into ‘womenz, they are evil’ clichés.

The remarks about the state of the planet, which make the way we relate to Baba Yaga and the werewolves interest in removing the human race from the planet so much more complicated. I only occasionally felt this message becoming a bit preachy.

Billi and Ivan realise that their enemies goals may not be so far removed from their own (saving the world) although they would never agree with how Baba Yaga and the werewolves go about it (trying to wipe out humanity). I thought the base message of the need to try to understand peoples motives, despite the awful way they might try to achieve things was subtle and very relevant.

Sharper plot, sharper writing and better transitions from scene to scene than ‘Devil’s Kiss’. I also thought it was interesting to see just a couple of experimental devices crop up in this book (like a three sentence chapter).

There were still a few things I thought didn’t work so well, but then I am picky and most of them are tiny issues. What really stuck out to me was the ending. Chadda writes effective endings and I was freaked out by this one, but when ‘Devil’s Kiss’ ended I felt like it was implied that the ending was possibly a cliff hanger and the strangeness of the final page might mean something in the next book. That wasn’t really the case, at least the voice Billi hears on the final page wasn’t referred to in ‘Dark Goddess’. When I finished ‘Dark Goddess’ the ending had a similar cliff hanger feel, but because the books plots are self contained, rather than connecting I expect this potential cliff hanger feeling will prove to be false too. The ending was effective and it made me sad and a little afraid, but if what happens on the final page has no significance in the next book/rest of the series should there be more than three books I’ll feel a little like the scare factor was only inserted to provoke a final artificial spike of feeling.

The only other big bother for me was Billi’s relationship with her dad. Billi learns something so shocking in the first book and I expected their relationship to be better, but still tense. Instead it seemed fairly clam and I found that a little unrealistic. I expected to still see some problems between them, especially as their relationship was so central in the first novel and there were times when I found their new, kinder relationship just too easy in relation to all their history.

So many of my favourite fangirl inspiring projects have been cut short that I’m equal parts wary and hopeful that the projected third book will get bought by a publishers, but maybe positive energy (and money) can make a third Billi book appear. Whatever happens I know I’ll be paying out money for whatever Sarwat Chadda writes next. Good luck to him!

Other Reviews

The Booksmugglers
Wonderous Reads (including a guest post by Sarwat Chadda on his trip to Russia and ancient female characters)
Rhiana Reads
Alpha Reader
Reading in Color