I feel bad, because 'Hekate: The Witch' is an epic, atmospheric, gripping, thrilling, engrossing, and at times beautiful, insightful and important poetry read, and I wanted to love it, because Hekate/Hecate is one of my favourite deities, and I loved Nikita Gill's 'The Girl and the Goddess: Stories and Poems of Divine Wisdom', 'Fierce Fairytales: & Other Stories to Stir Your Soul', and 'Great Goddesses: Life Lessons from Myths and Monsters'.
Because despite the powerful, passionate writing, and the female empowerment and journey, at the end of it all it is a rather standard, conventional story, and it is shockingly, highly heteronormative, with an unnecessary romance it really could have done without. For a Geek mythology retelling in 2025, this is inexcusable and unforgivable.
I will try not to spoil much, but near the end, there is a, *ahem*, gigantic battle, where a god gets hurt and bleeds, and this angers Hekate enough to go full god mode and ultimately win the day, even though gods are immortal and no one is in danger of dying (this is a problem in a lot of books about gods and goddesses, and not only in Greek mythology, in fact, where there are no stakes, nor meaningful losses, or any losses). It's made a big deal because how dare anyone - any creature - make a god bleed! It's the winning turning point of the battle and war! It's laughable. And elitist, which runs counter to one of 'Hekate''s messages, about the arrogance and warmongering of power-hungry and paranoid gods, who are their own worst enemy, yet think they are superior to the lowly mortals whose lives they destroy for fun.
For a book titled 'Hekate: The Witch', very little is in it about Hekate's witchcraft. She collects herbs and makes potions with almost no fanfare, and that's it. No rituals, no going over the potion making process, no insight, no detail, nothing on how she learns her craft and develops into her magic. She barely casts any spells, and she can collect stars from the night sky in order to revive the dead, with no explanation as to how she achieves that.
Even her necromancy is downplayed, as is her ability to split herself into three - representing the Triple Goddess; the maiden, the mother, and the crone. This amazing power only happens a few times, and it's treated like nothing, and over far too quickly. What does the unique power mean to Hekate? What does having two other versions of herself mean to her? I have no idea. It means nothing. It symbolises nothing.
I... I... what?!
She meets the Fates themselves, for fuck's sake! She should mirror them, and be a pupil, a ward, a sister, a daughter, or a threat to them, but nothing of the kind is ever acknowledged! The Fates are pointless! A pointless presence!
Oh, and apparently Hekate can fly - she 'had learned a spell for flight over my years of witchcraft' (page 376), none of which we ever see - and she doesn't use it until like, the last eight pages when the climactic war is already over and it is the least needed. Don't look at me, I just work here.
Hekate might be a witch, but she could be any goddess. Her witchcraft isn't treated as anything special. Her torch lighting is utilised and revered more than her spellcasting. Her necromancy, which is the chips-are-down reason why all other gods fear her, including Zeus, is at the end brushed away with a shrug, like the rest of her powers. She could be any deity (further emphasised by how she needs help from male gods constantly), based on what 'Hekate: The Witch' reveals, when it is supposed to be a retelling of her origins, her coming-of-age story, and her power reclaimant.
Other details are forgotten about or tossed aside, such as Hermes - one of the "good" gods here - turning Cadmus and Harmonia into a single snake staff, and this is never brought up again. Ever. And Hekate has her silver hound, gifted in one of the book's most memorable and powerful scenes, but her owls are only mentioned once. Once. The cover lies.
I can't even remember if the moon receives a passing mention. I don't think it ever makes an appearance. It isn't factored into anything. Hekate is in the Underworld for 80% of the book, but according to ancient mythology, it is a major part of her identity as a predominant triple moon goddess, associated with the night and magic, and lunar phases and cycles are a big part of witchcraft in any culture. A full moon is on the bloody cover, for goddesses' sake.
Goddessdamn it! The cover lies!
I felt empowered and riveted in anticipation whilst reading 'Hekate: The Witch', but by the final few pages, that excitement petered out, and I was left feeling underwhelmed and disappointed. It is largely the lack of explained magic and the unessential hetero, dependable and dull romance that is at fault.
The modern poetic retelling tome is still good, and compared to my other three-star disappointments this year, it is perhaps the best. However, it is a disappointment nonetheless. What it gets right makes what it gets wrong stand out all the more in bafflement and bewilderment. No bewitchment.
It is about a Hekate who is very powerful, and determined, fierce, and feared by the Greek gods and Titans, and is a saviour for women. Contradictorily, she is male dependent, and constantly needs rescue, aid, reliance, information, wisdom, observation, motivation and reassurance by men--gods, who are her prevalent superiors, companions, acquaintances, and present loved ones. She is like a helpless, confused child who is in way over her head whenever she is with them. She falls in love with a god, who I won't bother to name in my review, because he's hot. How original.
I cannot stress enough how unnecessary and out of left field Hekate's love life is to her story. It's like 2000s-2010s YA.
This is not the Hekate/Hecate I know and admire.
She is surprisingly faltering in her revenge against the gods, as well, considering everything, and in the first half of the book it is suggested she might be prone to vengeance, as one of her motivators (her primary goal is finding her purpose as a god), but it is yet another detail forgotten about later on.
'Hekate: The Witch' - where her title and purpose as the "Goddess of Witchcraft and Necromancy" falls incredibly short in comparison to doting on the male gods in her life.
I reiterate, plainly: when it comes to Hekate's witchcraft, show don't tell!
At least it is a thrilling, epic, educational exploration of Greek mythology and the deities throughout the ages. The Titan war, Hekate's parents Asteria and Perses, Kronos, Styx, Nyx, Gaia, Mnemosyne, Kore, Demeter, Queen Hecuba, Odysseus, every inhabitant of Hades/the Underworld, and so many others, are namedropped, and play important roles in how they relate to Hekate.
Motherhood, grief and bereavement are vital themes, handled quite well and consistently.
I like that it is pointed out how the very concept of womanhood is seen as a threat to the patriarchy, and that's why it has been demonised, shamed, mocked, beaten and treated with violence for centuries, if not millennia.
'I was starting to feel as though my entire existence was a threat. Perhaps this was what womanhood was. The dangerous knowledge of who you are and what you could do with that power if pushed.' (page 277)
Feminism: depressingly relevant and needed in 2025.
I am sorry. No offense is meant by my middling-to-negative opinions and comments in my review of 'Hekate: The Witch'. I have positively no doubt Nikita Gill worked exceedingly hard in researching for and writing this poetry and narrative power ballad. I just think it could have been better. It should have been better.
Final Score: 3/5
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