Demi-Gods by Eliza Robertson is a magnificent, little gem of a book that will read like a tale you would have picked up in English class.

Seriously, Eliza's writing feels like it should be in a hall of fame somewhere. The way she crafted the story was marvelous and I'm thoroughly impressed by her skill. And this was only a debut?! Imagine how much better she's going to get.

But, despite it being this masterpiece of a book, it was honestly not for me. I didn't enjoy this book one bit. I wanted to DNF it, but I also wanted to finish it because Eliza's writing deserved the respect of a finished read. It wasn't the writing style or the tone, it was just the plot that had me feeling kinda 'meh'. I felt like I didn't know where this book was going and by the end I still didn't feel like it had a concrete beginning, middle and end. Despite it being a contemporary beauty, it just felt like a story not a novel.

There's lots of strange familial/non-familial incest in this book. Lots of hookups with the new boyfriend's kids and strange ties throughout the story. It's an unsettling story, but Eliza makes it intriguing. I would say this book is not for the faint of heart, easily.

We watch Willa's life and family dynamics change as she experiments with sex and emotions, all in the 50s. It's dark, unsettling, bizarre, and abusive at times. The entire family turns out to have issues and you watch how people influence each other and take on each other's traits.

My biggest con was the lack of quotation marks in my copy. I couldn't tell what was supposed to be dialogue every once and a while, so I'd have to go back and re-read sections over and over, which just distracted me more than anything.

If I could have my wish, I would want this examined or explained to me. Why was this book made this way? What are the themes? I want an English Professor to break it down because I think this is the perfect book to be analyzed. There's something there that I'm not seeing. Oh, how I miss those high school days with English essays... just me?

I would say this book is in a niche market. You'll either love it or you won't. I can see why so many people love it, but it's just not for me. I can totally appreciate it and I think Eliza deserves all the cred, but it's just not a book I'll pick up again. All the love!

One out of five stars. ( )

Summertime in the early 1950s. Willa and her older sister Joan would like to have a relaxing time at their summer home together with their mom. But the mother has a new lover, Eugene, and to the girls‘ surprise, Eugene has invited his two sons to spend the summer with them. Kenneth and Patrick are slightly older than the girls immediately attract their attention. No, they definitely are not like brothers and sisters, Joan and Kenneth quickly fall for each other. For Willa and Patrick things are not that easy. Over the next years, they regularly meet and between Willa and Patrick a strange connection is formed. On the one hand, the boy can arouse feelings in her, but on the other, what he is doing to her repels her and she senses that his behaviour is far from being normal and acceptable. But what is there she can to about it? It will take years until she can free herself.

“Demi-God” – according to the Merriam-Webster definition, it is a mythological being with more power than a mortal but less than a god or a person so outstanding as to seem to approach the divine. For all female members of the family, the male counterparts are somehow demi-gods, at least in so far as they cannot refrain from their attraction. The mother is charmed by Eugene, Joan falls for Kenneth and also Willa has a special liking for Patrick. It is not quite clear what makes those three that outstanding, but their appeal is obvious. They can exert power over the women in different ways, but it is only Patrick how openly abuses this.

Before coming to this, what I liked especially about the novel was the atmosphere. You can sense immediately that Eliza Robertson is great at creating certain moods and you actually can feel this carefree time of being young during summer holidays when the days seem endless, when the sun is shining and when there are no worries and fears. I also appreciated her characters, first of all the mother who is neither completely stereotypical but nevertheless clearly represents a certain kind of woman of her time. In the focus of the novel are the girls and their relationship. It is not always easy to be sisters, at times they can confide in each other, at others they can’t. Yet, there is something like unconditional love between them, if one needs the other, she can surely count on her.

In this nice and loving ambiance now enters the evil that can be found in human beings. To name it openly, the novel is about sexual abuse, about menacing and exerting power over a weaker person. Willa is first too young, then unsure of how to react and how to qualify what happens to her. It is not the all bad and awful situation – this is what makes the novel especially impressive. It only happens at single instances, partly, she isn’t even sure if she did actually refuse it or even contributed to it happening. This makes it even more awful, because the girl is left alone with her feelings and worries. She plays normal and hides what has happened. It does not take much to imagine that there might be millions of girls out there suffering from the same abuse and feeling helpless and powerless.

Thus, the novel takes up a very serious topic and hopefully some readers might recognize that what Willa is going through is far from acceptable and can find a way of seeking help if they are in need. ( )