An unusual fantasy tale resides in NOBODY'S GODDESS.
In this land, the children run and play, so at first we
think the masks and tales about goddesses are just games.
But the boys have to wear masks while the girls must never
gaze towards the castle - this could start an earthquake.
When boys reach 13 years, they will see a particular
girl and find a goddess to love and respect in her. Our
guide Noll is, by 16, wondering if she will lose all her
playmates to girls, like her pretty sister Elfriede. Nobody
has seen a goddess in Noll, and she thought that suited
her, but it's starting to get lonely.
The one unmarried woman in the village, Ingrith, tells Noll
that if you look at a man's face without loving him, and
nobody else loves him, he will vanish. If a man isn't loved
in return, his goddess can send him to join the wretched
commune. Everyone has to believe the tales, and that day
an earthquake alarms the quarry men. Ingrith resents the
command of the lord in the castle, his sinister servants,
and how this man doles out the blessings of the First
Goddess. Tragedy strikes when she pushes her defiance too
far.
Noll loves Jurij, the boy who falls for her sister, and as
a result of what Noll feels is a curse, Jurij can never
love anyone but Elfriede. Noll gathers her courage to walk
blindly to the castle, hoping to ask a favour. She doesn't
realise that this will change her life.
Amy McNulty's story takes a little while to unravel as it
is tightly wound from the start. The tensions abruptly
switch between Noll's familiar world and another in which
she discovers that men can actually give women orders. This
is a deeply philosophical tale wrapped and presented as a
medieval fantasy, with more than one romance teetering on
the edge of despair. The enigmatic dark lord in the castle
proves a memorable antihero in the same vein as BEAUTY AND
THE BEAST. I'm impressed by this original world and the
quality of the writing. NOBODY'S GODDESS is a compelling
adventure and an extraordinary accomplishment. Young Adults
and adults alike will find Amy McNulty's heart-grabbing
story a great read.
In a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love
only one woman and to follow the commands of his "goddess”
without question. A woman may reject the only man who will
love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever.
And
a man must stay masked until his goddess returns his
love—and if she can’t or won’t, he remains masked forever.
Where the rest of her village celebrates this mystery that
binds men and women together, seventeen year old Noll is
just done with it.
She’s lost all her childhood friends as they’ve paired
off,
but the worst blow was when her closest companion, Jurij,
finds his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate to find
a
way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers
why
no man has ever loved her: she is in fact the goddess of
the
mysterious lord of the village, a Byronic man who refuses
to
let Noll have her right as a woman to spurn him and who
has
the power to fight the curse. Thus begins a dangerous game
between the two: the choice of woman versus the magic of
man. And the stakes are no less than freedom and
happiness,
life and death—and neither Noll nor the veiled man is
willing to lose.
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