While I did very much enjoy “Axoim’s End”, I do agree with reviewers who say this book is even stronger than the first. I feel like Lindsay Ellis really hit her stride in this book and it makes me really excited for the future of this series.

While reading, I was thoroughly engaged and the story didn’t hit any lulls like AE did. I also really enjoyed the character development and I especially liked seeing how Cora’s psyche morphed as the plot progressed. The addition of Kaveh was much needed and his perspective added a lot of depth to the themes being explored.

All in all, I highly recommend “Truth of the Divine” and I’ll be impatiently waiting for book 3!

3,5* rounded to 4
It's not easy to review this book as it's well written and it deals with serious topics but it's also very bleak and I assume I wasn't in the right mindset to appreciate it.
Lindsay Ellis can surely write and delivers a bleak story, a bit too disturbing at times.
There's some fascinating moments and I struggled a bit at times.
I will try and read it again as I think this review is based on my current emotions.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I absolutely adored the first book in this series, Axiom's End was an absolutely wonderful read, and I loved talking to Lindsay about it last year. As such, I was super excited when I was accidentally sent my gorgeous hardback, sprayed edged, signed edition almost two weeks early. Yes, I went for the swankiest version I could find and I did not regret it. I had to get a couple of books out the way before getting into it, but couldn't wait to devour this book and have the review up as fast as I can. So if I'd gotten it early, why is the review coming out so long after release? Well, I could give you some excuses, but the real answer is that whilst I read the first book in a few days this one was a lot longer a read for me, but not because of the physical size of the book, but because it hurt to read it at times.

To clarify, I'm not saying it hurt to read because it was bad; it's not one of those books where it's so badly written that it feel like it's a pain to get through. This book hurt to read because of the content, and how well Lindsay was able to portray post traumatic stress, panic attacks, and trauma. It hurt to read because it so accurately captured what it's like to live with trauma, it reminded me of those kind of feelings, and it hurt.

Before the book even begins there's a small introduction that informs the readers that the book was going to be dealing with hard issues, that it include things that could be upsetting to some readers, but despite that I was hopeful that there would be a lot in this book to enjoy, that the wonderful story of Cora and Ampersand would continue on from the first book, and those hopeful, heartwarming final moments of Axiom's End would continue on. And at first we got this, the book picks up a few months later, and whilst Cora is dealing with a lot of trauma from the events of the first book Ampersand is there to help her through it. He's there to comfort her and care for her, he watches over her as she sleeps to keep the nightmares away. It was so wonderfully kind and sweet, and you very much felt like you were watching real love developing between these two.

Sadly, this doesn't last, as very quickly into the story a new player is introduced in the form of Enola Gay, another of Ampersand's race who has come to Earth. There's a lot about Enola that readers will find surprising, and he goes through a lot of complex changes across the course of the book that means he's not just a replacement antagonist for Obilus; if anything I'd struggle to really call him an antagonist even if his presence does spur pain and hardship for our main couple.

After Enolas arrival things change for Cora and Ampersand, and those moments in the early stages of the book where we see Cora struggling through her trauma with Ampersands help begin to pale in comparison compared to the pain that is to come. Pain that effects both of them. There are large portions of this book where I was genuinely afraid for both of them, especially Ampersand. I was worried that the things they were going through, the trauma that they were processing was going to be too much for them. I rarely find myself worrying about characters dying in books during big action scenes or dramatic moments, but a long, slow progression into more and more psychological pain that could at best leave the character forever changed, and at worst lead to their death? That was a threat that felt so real so often over the course of this story.

Thankfully, it isn't all a painful journey, thanks in part to Enola Gay and the new energy he brings to the book, but also thanks to the new human protagonist, Kaveh. An investigative journalist and writer, Kaveh is more mature and has more world experience than Cora, and is able to bring his experiences with some of the harder parts of life to Cora's struggle and help her through her trauma.

Honestly, at first I wasn't sure what Kaveh was going to bring into the mix, and I was more than a bit suspicious of him and his motivations. Part of me was waiting for him to show his true colours and betray Cora and do something awful, but he was honestly one of the best, most engaging, and most wholesome characters in the book. I quickly came to like him, and I loved how much he just wanted to help his new friends and wanted to make sure that they were okay.

Outside of the character developments Truth of the Divine begins to explore this new world in some very big and very important ways. In videos on her Youtube, and in the interview I had with her, Lindsay has said that this is the book that made her want to write this story, and that in some ways the first book was what she had to get through in order to write the stuff that really interested her. And I can see why she was eager to explore this.

The book begins with a world that's now well aware of alien life existing. And whilst they humanity as a whole might not have seen what these creatures are like, they understand that their mere existence is going to change the world. There are people who are open to accepting these aliens, to seeing them as people deserving of rights, whilst others believe that human rights should be restricted to humans only, and a new form of rights given to them instead. This opens the door to conversations about what it means to be a person, what defines us as humans, and how trying to categorise certain types of beings being allowed certain rights is a very dangerous, slippery slope that could see people falling into these categories, and these arguments being used to deny human rights to some.

It's heavy stuff for sure, and its intentionally reflective of the world we live in now, as well as our own history. With the book being set in the early 2000's the more direct focus of how these questions of rights and categories can be used against people in a world of heightened fear and hatred following the September 11th attacks, and the increase in Islamophobia and hatred of people from the middle east. But, this is something that you can see parallels to with other groups in the past, such as with people of colour, the Jewish community, women's right, the gay rights movement; as well as the attack on trans rights that's happening today. This may have been another factor that played into the feelings I had when reading this book, that the world that was being created here was is so frighteningly realistic and reminiscent of the fight for my own rights that's happening now that it made the already depressing feel of the book worse for me. But these are the kind of conversations that are important, and these themes are so incredibly relevant that they need to be discussed, even if it's in the form of our entertainment.

I don't want anyone to come away from this review thinking that I didn't like this book, or that it was a bad read because of how much I've focused on the more 'depressing' elements. This was a book that I loved. It took a story and characters that I absolutely adored and did some brave things with them, it pushed them in challenging directions and treated them in a realistic way. Was it always easy to read? No, but life isn't always easy. Sometimes you've got to fight through so awfully dark things in order to reach moments of true happiness and self acceptance. And this is what's happening here. It's an important part of Cora and Ampersand's journey. A journey that better involve them doing it in book three. You know we all want it Lindsay.

Truth of the Divine is easily one of the best books I've read this year, it's a fantastic follow-up to one of my favourite novels. If you enjoyed the first book I'm sure you're going to love this; but be prepared for one rocky journey.

On the whole, I did enjoy Axiom’s End. I thought the premise was solid and the story was enjoyable but it wasn’t perfect. It was a little dense in places and I occasionally found myself lost.

The Truth of the Divine picks up Cora’s story and she’s not doing well. She’s suffering frequent panic attacks and nightmares. Things don’t get much better for her. Or the world.

The main premise of the story is deciding what constitutes a person and Ellis weaves her narrative around the subject very well. It’s not an easy topic to broach but the cases of both sides are presented very clearly and I did find myself being more persuaded by Cora’s side, not surprisingly.

Speaking of Cora, I did find her to be a lot more sympathetic in this book. She is clearly going through a lot, suffering with her own trauma as well as being able to feel Ampersand’s. Their relationship is a very strange one but I do enjoy their interactions. It’s a weird mix of romantic and comforting and although I do think it is a bit weird, I also liked reading it. Cora also works well with Kaveh and I enjoyed reading his character a lot. Their interactions were sweet and I think he was just the character she needed to be with while she was going through all this trauma.

Once again, the novel isn’t perfect. It does flow a lot better than Axiom’s End and it definitely isn’t as dense but there were times when it felt like the story was treading water while it moved from one set piece to another. The end of the novel promises something new and different which I am looking forward to reading about.

On the whole, The Truth of the Divine is an improvement on Axiom’s End but it still suffers from some problems that need to be ironed out. I enjoyed the characters and the journeys they went on and the story mostly works well. It’s just a little long in places.

Also, as a Beatles fan, I love that all the parts are named using Beatles lyrics.