Review #156: Oppression by Jessica Therrien

Hey everyone! I have some more reviews for y'all tonight, and I hope you enjoy them :)

Oppression is the first in the Children of the Gods series by Jessica Therrien. Goodreads says:

   Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She's been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than the average person, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she's closer to eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal.

For Elyse, these things don't make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she's been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability.

Or so she thinks.

Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her.

Among so many of her kind, she should not be very remarkable--except for the prophecy. Some believe she will put an end to centuries of traditions, safeguarded by violence, which have oppressed her people for centuries. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning--and she's not entirely willing to play by their rules.

This book was pretty fricking awesome. I loved the authors take on the Gods, their origins and their present. The take was fresh and completely intriguing. In this world the Gods weren't really Gods, but people with extraordinary abilities, whom the ancient Greeks mistook for Gods. I loved the story itself, with Elyse going on her journey, and her quest concerning her friend Anna One thing keeping this book from being truly amazing was the insta-love. I hated how quickly Elyse and William fell in love. I know I know, there is a major component that make them get together so quickly, but still. It felt like this: Meet, talk, boom in love! I wish their relationship developed better, slower. Also William had controlling tendencies at times, which pissed me off.

Elyse was a pretty awesome character. I loved reading about her history, and her friendship with Anna. I think her friendship with Anna was my favorite part of the book. You could feel their friendship leap off the page, it was so natural. I loved Elyse's determination, and watching her figure things out and try to carve out her own path. Despite her insta-love relationship with William, she was a strong protagonist. William was alright, and I'm not going to lie his ability at first made me giggle. Like I said, he had controlling tendencies which really angered me. I also thought he was a bit too clingy to Elyse. Kara was an awesome character. She felt so real to me. She was conflicted, evil yet sweet, horrible yet she nice. I really went back and forth on how I felt about her as a character. She was probably my second favorite character. I also loved William's friendss, especially Nics and Sam, whose relationship made me smile and giggle. Ryder honestly scared the shizz out of me. I got chills every single time he appeared. 


Ms. Therrien is a great writer. She really immerses you in this world pretty quickly. Like I said, I loved her fresh take on the Gods, and she built her world extremely well. It must have taken a while to think it all out, and I commend her on that.


I'll next be reviewing The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan.


Until next time, viva la literature!