I really liked the mix of cultures featured in this book, and the contextualising of them within their culture was really interesting. It was very good to hear about more than just the 'common' Greek and Roman deities, however apart from that I wasn't convinced by the wat Elmer was reading them into significance today - I'd have preferred either a fully personal read or a proper historical one. I admire her resolve to make this book not academic and to have no footnotes etc but for me that was a big loss.

Beautiful illustrations, powerful and evocative retellings of myths in first person which were really engaging and historical contexts rich with deep research, this book was unexpectedly fascinating.

A really fascinating and unique book that I devoured! And it's led me down a new path of discovery and doing research for myself on so much that I knew little or nothing about before!

The author picks 10 ancient goddesses from a variety of cultures around the globe and introduces them to us in a very clever way! She begins with a retelling of their myth, and then expands into the history, culture and politics that were relevant to each story in that part of the world at that time and it really does give you more of a sense of each character. She also wants you as a reader to see yourself in some of these characters and hence the retellings have a more relatable spin to them.

It was a wonderful way to learn more about the different cultures in the world and how each of them treated women, and continue to do so! The mix of history with mythology was perfectly pitched to connect with readers coming in to this with either a good knowledge of the subjects, or like me, those who want to learn more and it has really opened my eyes up to a wider range of characters who I want to learn more about. Highly recommended!!

This is a really cool book; not only does it compile 10 stories about amazing goddesses but each story is accompanied by an essay giving a deeper exploration of that particular Goddess. This would have been a perfect read for my degree thesis, if it only had been written 30 years ago... You don't have to read these in any order, pick a Goddess and let your journey begin, dip in and out as your mood and interests take you. Such a brilliant idea.

Although a bit bit of slow burner, it is well worth sticking with this book. Beautifully written and truly a masterpiece.

A beautiful interpretation of the Goddesses, I loved it. It was so different to what is available and I enjoyed reading about them in this way.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalley for an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

10 powerful legends, myths and goddess stories in this beautiful book. I really enjoyed learning about each one . I found myself falling into each chapter. I highly recommend to anyone who is looking for a beautifully written book

Goddess with a Thousand Faces by Jasmine Elmer offers an exploration of diverse goddesses from around the world. While the author’s passion for the subject is evident, the book falls short in a few areas.

Elmer’s writing is engaging, and she successfully brings these ancient figures to life. The historical context provided for each goddess adds depth and understanding. However, the book could have benefited from a more cohesive narrative structure. The chapters sometimes feel disconnected, making it difficult to follow a clear thread throughout.

Additionally, while the focus on lesser-known goddesses is commendable, some of the chapters feel rushed. More in-depth exploration of certain goddesses and their associated myths would have enhanced the overall experience.

Overall, Goddess with a Thousand Faces is a worthwhile read for those interested in mythology and feminist perspectives.

I found this book hard to begin with and not a favourite of mine. It is a little too descriptive for me but this may be as I read it on holiday and there was a lot going on around me. I did find some of the stories interesting but as mentioned above, not really for me.

An amazing introduction to the world of mythical goddesses and their legacy today. Beautifully written and easy to get lost in.
Loved every moment of reading it - especially as I did not know what to expect from it at all, and was very pleasantly surprised.

Before I start this review, I’m going to state for the imaginary record that I am not a classicist, but I am someone who, on account of her MA dissertation, has written a hell of a lot about classical religion and formidable Goddesses over the past couple of months, so I like to think I know what I’m talking about. Is this to do with my 15,000-word behemoth about the commercial success of PERCY JACKSON? Yes, but you get the picture.

GODDESS WITH A THOUSAND FACES is an anthology of modern reimaginings of some of the more formidable goddesses of historical and mythological pantheons. By mixing retellings and historical contextual work, Elmer aims to bring such goddesses as Inanna, Freja, Artemis and Sedna - among others - into modern contexts for modern readers.

This is one of those books which, as it reaches a wider audience, might be fairly polarising. It’s very much not a deep and heavy piece of scholarship, and in a market where efforts are being made to make non-fiction less intimidating to wider readership, this is something which potentially works to its advantage: however, this is one I would love to hear some opinions from other classicists on. One thing the book definitely has to its advantage is its illustrations, as denoted by its cover (see above): each goddess has a corresponding illustration, which works effectively to break up the anthology into palatable sections, and which creates effective imagery through which to view these anthropomorphized deities. However, in the actual execution of the book, GODDESS WITH A THOUSAND FACES unfortunately does not live up to its glossy image.

One of the more egregious aspects of the book comes in the form of the retellings themselves, which are all written in first-person present tense (for reference, dear reader, if I say that I’m currently writing this review, that’s the tense I’m using here). It’s obvious where this approach comes from in the current market - whether it’s the work of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, or countless others leaping on the trend, first-person mythological reimaginings are massive money-makers in the current fiction market, and so it’s easy to draw comparisons with commercial interests on behalf of the current literary market. However, for a piece of non-fiction, this comes across as ineffective at best, and insensitive at worst. Firstly, this jars with the purpose these goddesses serve within culture: while they are anthropomorphised, with gods of such pantheons as the Greek taking on often unfavourable traits to reflect on the tenuous nature of the natural world and how these pantheons developed to explain these natural events, they are divine, and consequently unknowable. While even in Homer we see the Olympians aiding in the affairs of humanity, such as Athena appearing repeatedly in The Odyssey to aid Odysseus, it is consistently clear that they are divine beings, not humans, and these anthropomorphisations work to make them understandable to humans who fundamentally cannot understand the divine in its raw form. Secondly. this is almost an insensitive way of approaching divinity, especially as many of these goddesses are still worshipped in numerous ways and cultures today: Elmer even mentions the contemporary importance of these goddesses in numerous cultures, including that of Rangda, who continues to have cultural significance in Bali. Unlike reimagining historical figures, who have left human artefacts and writings behind, or of human mythological figures, who are quite literally engineered to establish the role of humanity in these stories (for instance, that of Briseis in Pat Barker’s THE SILENCE OF THE GIRLS, who works as an effective protagonist to demonstrate how ownership of women motivates the Trojan War from its inception to its conclusion), these goddesses are unknowable figures of religious importance, and this first-person narration undermines any of this depiction within culture. Similarly, the first-person narration only exists within the book to establish fundamentals about these figures’ depictions, which means that these sections often come across as clunky and artificial.

Something the book does well, however, is its adoption of numerous cultures within the text in order to establish the widespread nature of these goddesses throughout human culture and history: alongside Greek and Norse deities, who are featured often in such anthologies, we also get information about Inuit, Sumerian, Balinese, and Maori goddesses, meaning that a much more diverse outlook is taken (something aimed at by Dialogue Books, and thus is very obvious within the text’s aims). Similarly, lots of the historical context makes for interesting reading: while sometimes a little surface level, understandable for a text which discusses numerous cultures, there are discussions about the Indian caste system, Indigenous communities, and diverse religious concepts, which make for good introductions to those who might not have encountered these subjects before. Strong stances are also taken on destigmatising Voodoo and on the usage of the term ‘Inuit’ as opposed to more commonly-used slurs, and so it’s good to see these overdue conversations happening in a book from a prominent imprint.

However, the book unfortunately has other issues which also deter or undermine its message on numerous occasions. There are several editorial and continuity errors which don’t appear to have been caught: we get a definition of animism three times over the course of four pages in Sedna’s chapter, and Inanna is mentioned to have been the first goddess discussed in the book, when in actual fact, she’s more like the fourth or fifth. As I’ve mentioned in previous non-fiction reviews, it’s almost more important to make sure these errors don’t occur in non-fiction, since it then places doubt in the minds of readers as to the accuracy of the other information being presented in the text. Similarly, the book has a bad habit of sometimes devolving into new-wave woo-woo territory, particularly in how it depicts femininity. In her discussion of the Egyptian goddess Isis, Elmer remarks that “In a world where rationality often takes precedence, her archetype encourages women to embrace their instinctive abilities and emotional intelligence.” (268). This consistent belief throughout the book asserts a gender-essentialism to knowledge, in that men are inherently rational and women are inherently emotional. In fact, this is something discussed by Ursula K. Le Guin (whose work I adore) so, since she phrases it far better than I do, I’ll quote her in full:

“But I didn’t and still don’t like making a cult of women’s knowledge, preening ourselves on knowing things men don’t know, women’s deep irrational wisdom, women’s instinctive knowledge of Nature, and so on. All that all too often merely reinforces the masculinist idea of women as primitive and inferior – women’s knowledge as elementary, primitive, always down below at the dark roots, while men get to cultivate and own the flowers and crops that come up into the light. But why should women keep talking baby talk while men get to grow up? Why should women feel blindly while men get to think?”

In a similar way, many of the most obvious parallels to modern life as portrayed by these goddesses are ignored in the text in favour of making each mini-conclusion separate from one another, and thus sometimes goes against the retelling Elmer presents. For instance, Artemis’ chapter revolves around one of her most prominent stories in Greek myth, in which the hunter Actaeon encounters her bathing in a forest pool, and in vengeance for looking upon her body without her consent - and as a fierce defender of her chastity - Artemis transforms him into a stag so he is torn apart by his own hounds as punishment. Elmer chooses to relate this myth to women’s supposed connection to nature - again, I echo Le Guin’s words about women’s knowledge being relegated to the primitive and instinctive - but in actual fact, would this story not be more relevant as a story of consent, bodily autonomy and lack of sympathy for sexual harassers? In a similar way, with Dialogue Books publishing this text in the UK, is it not inherently colonial to encourage Western female audiences to adopt Inuit, Balian and Maori goddesses as their symbols? These are figures of importance within their own cultures and religions, and so a tenuous line exists here that I fear risks being violated by this premise.

Overall, my issues with this text can be summed up with a line in the last chapter, in which, by stating what the reader is supposed to have taken from each goddess, Elmer states: “Get all sexy with it like Freja.” (271). For reference, the Norse goddess Freja symbolised marriage, love and sex, and in the story Elmer chooses to highlight, Freja has sex with a group of dwarf smiths in exchange for a fine gold necklace, but is then shamed by the wider gods of Valhalla after being betrayed by the trickster god Loki. In modern terms, we might view this through the lens of sexual exploitation and revenge porn - which is quite literally how Freja is treated by men in this story. Still, Elmer chooses to link this to Freja’s position as a figure of sexual freedom, which seems to be at odds with the story itself (much like Artemis’ story). This sentence really summarises the key flaw with the book: it seems to forget that it is discussing divine figures of religious importance, and so comes across as surface level and, quite often, disrepectful: after all, would any book about prominent female religious figures ever print “Get all sexy with it like Mary Magdalene.”? While a Classical outlook often places deities as characters within stories alone, it is important to regard that, for centuries, these goddesses were figures of the utmost importance within worship, and in many cases, still are: for instance, the goddess Kali, mentioned within the book, is still widely worshipped throughout Hinduism. While this is a book which does hold some merit - namely in its historical work - it is one which would have benefited from a different format, and makes the fundamental mistake of forgetting the heart of its subject matter.

*GODDESS WITH A THOUSAND FACES was released by Dialogue Books on the 12th of September, 2024: remember to support your brick-and-mortar bookshops, particularly indies! Thank you to Dialogue Books for an eArc in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book and it was nice having an anthology of feminine deity mythology with the lore behind it.

The stories of the goddesses and the lessons we can take from them stuck with me a long time, especially the betrayal of Sedna, the grief of Isis and the shaming of several others, something many women can identify with today. Goddesses from a broad cultural spectrum are represented in this book and the lore is explained really well and readers are encouraged to explore their own femininity and societal attitudes throughout.

Each story was short so I didn’t have to remember a load of detail, which made it an ideal read as lately I’ve been tired, busy and struggling to concentrate. That said, I would have liked the selected stories of each goddess to have been a bit longer as some felt extremely brief.
Overall a great book to introduce the reader to many goddesses and keeping their legend alive through telling their story.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an ARC of this book. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Really enjoyed this book, full of indepth and background information about different Goddesses. Some I didn't really know much about so learnt something new which is always good.
Thanks to netgalley for an advance copy to read and review.

This book spoke to me in a way I wasn’t really expecting. I loved the stories, each so different but all speaking of womanhood in different guises.
I didn’t want to put it down; I was so drawn into the goddesses lives and experiences and the embodiment of power they demonstrated.
A good read and even though the subject matter is fiction, it still gives a picture of the strength we have as female and what it is to be Woman.

It is a very ambitious book exploring different Goddess figures worldwide through various periods. The introductory chapter didn't really grab me but once that was out of the way it was a dream.

The author has researched the concept to the nth degree and her writing brims with confidence. A very interesting read that I would recommend.

I will be buying copies for the women in my life.

I’d love to know how other readers felt at the beginning of this reading journey and then towards the end, especially after reading the afterword. It really puts a different slant on things. I also think that is indicative of the general gist of this book. What we see, what we are told, where and with whom do we connect, why and what that says about our own experiences in life.

Not gonna lie, the first goddess we encounter, her story made me have a core reaction of anger. There is an element of control, choice and ownership – I’ll give Freyja and the author that. My gut was screaming misogyny, patriarchy and the injustice of it all. Along the way the bigger picture becomes more evident.

In the end the book – and I’m sure opinions can differ on whether it is our perspective or the perspective of others – is a canvas of womanhood. A multi faceted kaleidoscope of the strengths, characteristics, personalities, experiences of the women – the goddesses, and how it relates to women of today.

I really enjoyed the read and highly recommend it, and also hope there will be more of this genre bending material from this particular author.

I can’t leave a review without mentioning the stunning hardback cover and the art for each goddess. at the start of every chapter. It gives the story the other-worldly feeling it deserves, and yet simultaneously it is a story grounded with facts – which creates a reading experience like no other. The cover and the story stays with you. It made me want to shout – Awaken and Fight. We are all of them and they are each one of us.

Goddess with a thousand faces took me by surprise in a good way. From the blurb; I'd expected a purely fantasy book, but instead I was presented with a combination of factual mythology and history, and fantasy, focussed around ten Goddesses.

It's told in such a way that you don't feel bogged down with information, but it encourages you to go do further research of your own, if one of the Goddesses piques your interest. The book is balanced with a brief fantastical story featuring the Goddess and then a factual section where we learn how the Goddess fitted into her cultural society.

It encourages you to embrace and explore what femininity means to you. The author sets out to depict the stories from a feminine perspective - often literature can be distorted over time, as historically males were the main writers. But please note - this novel isn't designed to be exclusive of males; she notes that 'I wanted to rebuild aspects of our femininity - regardless of biological gender, for we all possess inherent female qualities'.

I adored the inclusivity of the different cultures and that masculinity/femininity is not biologically determined. Most of these Goddesses were completely unknown to me before the read, and I enjoyed having a short introduction to their stories.

The Goddess included are;

*Freya
*Artemis
*Rangda
*Inanna
*Kali
*Mawu-Lisa
*Sedna
*Hineunui-tepo
*Huitaca
*Isis

Loved it! I just fell into this book and it was fab! Thank you so much for letting me read and review this book!

I love myths and legends so I requested an ARC of this because I thought it would appeal to my interests, having previously enjoyed Clair North, Jennifer Saint, Pat Barker.
However, this was not what I expected. It seemed neither literary nor exactly non-fiction, so was disappointed on both fronts. It appears to be more of a gathering of several texts, told first as a story and then contextualised in a sort of explanatory journal.entry. To be honest, I only managed the first entry so I can’t really confidently say it goes on like that. Perhaps I should have done more research before I requested it. Maybe it’s aimed at YA readers?

I'm not sure this accomplished what it set out to do. When the ten goddesses featured in this book were established, it was within the context of the time. They were then reinvented over and over again. And lets remember that for most of them, we have no access to the original myths. What we have of mythology now is 4th hand fan fiction. Valuable as a resource but trying to 'correct' it with a feminist lens is pretty useless. Persephone existed long before the Hades and Persephone myth everyone is rewriting. Hades was added around 1000 years later. So this is fine as a primer but not enough of a deep dive for me.