The Helm of Darkness (War on the Gods, book 1)

By A.P. Mobley

Blurb: 

Andy and Zoey are two normal teenagers living in the modern day—that is, until they’re knocked unconscious in a freak storm sweeping the United States.

When they wake up, the world they know has been tossed away. Their city is in ruins, strange creatures walk the earth, and worst of all, everyone is gone. They stumble across Diana and Spencer, two kids around their age who possess incredible magical abilities, and who claim to be the demigod children of Greek gods. Not only that, they also claim the year is 500 AS, five hundred years after the gods conjured a massive storm that destroyed most of humanity and helped them take the world as their own once again.

Andy and Zoey are soon handed an impossible task: To save humanity. To lead a war on the gods.

They’ll have to battle monsters, death, and their own inner demons to survive and to protect the people they love.

Review: 

The Helm of Darkness was an arc I gained through Book Sirens (a arc finder website). This was my first time downloading a book from them with the intention to review. Now I did originally have a lot more notes but my phone was smashed, so I’m doing some of it from the top of my head sorry.

This book is set in the future but because of what happens in the story it feels like the past, which can get confusing. Especially since the chapters that state the date make it more confusing. 

The book is about two main characters Zoey and Andy. It begins with them in High School dealing with usual issues such as the passing of a father or school bullying. Then not very far in, giant arrows start falling from the sky and are killing everyone. Years and years pass and they are resurrected through a demi-god sacrifice as they need to fulfill a prophecy to take down the gods (traditional Greek gods). 

This all happens too fast for me. As it seems the beginning bit with their past life was to give us an idea of what the characters are meant to be like. But because it was rushed, I didn’t feel that attached to them. Even as I read more about them. Andy also got on my nerves a lot by moaning all the time about his dead family. Like he too was dead up till this point, a one or two times mention would have been enough.

Anyway Andy and Zoey are met by two demi-god’s Spencer and Diana, they are to help with their mission to find the objects they need to finish their quest. The first item being the Helm of Darkness which Hades had in the underworld. I liked the concept a lot, not just of the mission but of the whole return of Greek Gods. I enjoyed how it included real myths within the book too, I love finding out more about Greek Gods. Which was the reason I picked this book up.

However, I didn’t think the book really pulled the concept off. It felt weird throughout for me. I also didn’t appreciate the choice of names for the demi-god’s. Spencer and Diana don’t have the same strong vibe like the likes of Hercules for example. It was a well written book, but just lacking things that I would have liked.

I did appreciate the scene in the ending. It was very unexpected and the book had been predictable and too easy of tasks for them up till that point. The main characters were both Mary Sue’s. None of the tasks were particularly struggling for them. I think that was the main thing I enjoyed the least. There was plenty of action and demon fights, maybe even too many fights. But they were all short, so the victory's didn’t feel sufficient enough. They also kept getting help from an outsider which just made them pretty invincible. 

I also feel the book lacked emotion fully. It did try to capture it but it struggled to interest me enough. All the characters had suffered a lot in the past and it did get brought up but it just wasn’t done well enough for me to feel for them.

I would say overall it was an okay read and is probably someone else’s cup of tea. Usually, I will see a book series from beginning to end but with arcs I feel I’d prefer to only read the next ones if I rate the first book 4 stars or more. In this case I’m giving it a 3.5 as the ending was good enough to pick up the score. Sadly, it does mean I won’t be continuing this series.

Rating: 3.5 runes out of 5 

written by Lauren