Prepare to fall under the spell of powerful writing.
Indeed, I was immersed - enchanted - throughout reading 'Great Goddesses'. From morning til night, I was almost brought to tears by the end of it at midnight. The writing of each poem is digestible as well as tasty, and they all can be read in a breeze. I also learned so much more about Greek mythology than I did before.
The feminist perspective helps to bring a broader, multidimensional scope to the Greek goddesses, the Greek gods (yes, even they receive their own modernised POV poetry segments; even Ares is made sympathetic!), the nymphs, the monsters, the mortals, the victims, and the queens. There is proud LBTGQ content, such as in regards to Apollo, and Athena's relationship with Pallas, which I wasn't even aware of before reading (Pallas Athena is Athena's chosen name, after her fallen love). I have a newfound respect for Persephone (birth, spring name Kore), and she and Hades are one of my OTPs.
The black and white sketched illustrations are lovely and express character emotions perfectly.
The poems are so clever and painfully, soulfully human; a creative, imaginative mind and heart that endorses kindness and equality and justice to all women is nothing to be frightened of.
My only real complaint is, despite what the cover illustration and blurb suggest, there is very little of Medusa featured in this poetry collection about female Greek mythology figures. All we get is several verses of Athena's POV towards Medusa as she had apparently empowered the sexual assault victim by turning her into a monster to be feared by men, thus making her her own woman and goddess. Er... okay. And there's a short segment about gorgons and how they're only reduced to monsters by men because powerful women terrify them and ugly evil women to be killed violently are easier to handle than women who tell the truth. Seriously, Odysseus's dog (Cerberus's past life) has more pages dedicated to him and his POV than Medusa!
Despite this, the beautiful magic of 'Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from myths and monsters' cannot be denied. I think I might read more of Nikita Gill's work in the future. She possesses stunning, sparkling talent and knowledge. What I didn't get from 'Becoming the Villainess' by Jeannine Hall Gailey, I got here.
Every woman is a goddess, for she carries a deep, vast, varied, changing, temperamental, tempestuous, torturous, agonising universe inside of her.
Spellbinding. Transcending. Cosmic. Relevant.
Final Score: 4/5
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