The Thirteenth Guardian

I just finished The Thirteenth Guardian and I am still blown away by the action packed, devastating, gripping, philosophical, hopeful and character driven story.
It really is thought provoking and KM Lewis managed to take some biblical and mythological events and give them a natural spin all while spinning an original myth around it.
I also think the author did well in bringing different point of views together towards the end and weaving a strong and compelling tale of science, belief and nature's force.
I also got the feeling that this story would do great as a movie, so powerful written were many of the scenes.
The only weak point of this book - for me - was the revealing of the original myth the author created as I think it was too often hinted at throughout the entire story only to be told somewhat rushed towards the end. But seeing this is to be a trilogy I hope there will be some more to this mythology and naturally the characters that are affected by it the most.
I'd recommend this book to fans of The DaVinci Code, The Core and Armageddon.
Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for letting me read this ARC.

*I received an eARC through NetGalley but all opinions are my own*

oh man, oh man when I read the description of this I IMMEDIATELY sat down and read it. I am fascinated by the mythology of religion and there is just NOT enough biblical lore in books and the thirteenth guardian just made me realize how much I want that void filled.

so since there aren’t any reviews for this I wanna try to be thorough with my review but I’m a delinquent so pardon my in-eloquentness.

plot:
we follow a cast of characters as the world faces the “plagues of egypt” which is just a whole lot of catastrophic events that basically kills everyone on earth. our main characters are six individuals who are to be protected at all cost as they have a certain genetic code that makes them super important.

alright so first lemme tell you why this wasn’t a 5 star book because that’s the real tea that’s important here.

FIRST, and most importantly is the diversity SUCKED ASS. for a book to be published in 2019 and only three of the ONE IN SIX BILLION PEOPLE to have this gene weren’t white is unacceptable. every character was white minus a half-japanese/half-white female and half-white/half-cuban twins. on top of that, every one lived in a western country and was FILTHY rich. I’m not sure where lewis was going with it but she made SO many references to how wealthy someone was, the designer clothes they wore, the tech thy had, etc etc. this spills into minor characters that just show up during the book as well; everyone was white, and everyone was rich. it was reallllyyyyyy annoying and just unrealistic. I cannot express how much more interesting it would have been to see the perspectives from someone in kenya, india, argentina, etc as they experience the apocalypse. very disappointing and shame on lewis for this. there’s really no excuse for this behavior in 2019, no ma’am.

SECOND, the pacing wasn’t the best. I was hooked during the first 40% however, 40-65% really dragged on. it was all just travel travel travel and I felt like I was watching an apocalyptic fellowship of the ring (which now that I say that does sound pretty badass,, moving on). it was really slow but there was a ton of action so it could have been worse. also lewis REALLY wants you to read till the very end until she gives you ANY information which left me both frustrated and gripping at my chair. I just wish we got a litttttllleee but more backstory and character development mixed with some more foreshadowing to make the ending more satisfying.

now onto why I enjoyed the book.

SECRET SOCIETIES YALL !! S E C R E T S O C I E T I E S !!! this is a trope that IS NOT used enough and I am TIRED of it. and this book isn’t about just any secret society but A SECRET SOCIETY RAN BY WOMEN,, YOU HEARD ME RIGHT.

and again,, biblical lore is BANGIN. so many references to exodus and egypt and so many ancient civilizations that had my history-loving heart BURST.

also the prologue already got me with experts from the edda and hesiod BIG YEA BOI HOURS

wrap up the thoughts:

the lack of diversity sucks and is inexcusable. I even though about giving it just a 2.5-3 stars because of it. but the concept was so gripping that I have hopes for the rest of this series. this is more of an introduction to the story as the last 15-20% is really where all the revelations/relevant stuff happens but it was definitely worth it. I would recommend this to anyone who likes national treasure/secret societies/religious myths because it was a quick and fun read through and through.

The thirteenth guardian, well where to start, I went into this book knowing nothing and it blew me away, from the first chapter I was hooked, the history aspect,the different character points of view over different continents and the hidden history stories had me captivated for page 1 . I'm not a very religious person but even all the religious text and information that was incased in this book was great and surprisingly powerful. This book has now become one of my favorite books of all time, which in comparison to some of my all time favorites such as Jurassic Park, Harry Potter (all of them), Vicious, The KingMaker Chronicles and Stalking Jack the Ripper series just to name a few, this book has something unique and awe inspiring about it that will make reading it a vivid and sometimes terrifying experience that everyone needs to do.