Spark of Divinity

I don't think I've read anything quite like this. A twenty-three year old woman with a shitty job, shitty apartment, and shitty social life dies in a car accident. Very relatable. She ends up being chosen to become a goddess,  but must usurp the power of another goddess in exchange.

I find that the writting has been very well done so far. The grammar and writing style, my two pre-requisites for a good story, are both excelent. The characters are all both interesting and life like.

The most compelling part of the story are the hints that there is a lot of knowledge being kept from both the main character and the readers. There are a lot of questions that need answers, such as why Tara was really chosen for godhood. 

Tara also strugles to navigate this new world of gods and prevent her existance from fading to nothing. I think there are a lot of interesting stories to tell here. My one hope is that the story doesn't get bogged down in godly politcal games where nothing really happens.

I look forward to how Tara's story unfolds.

I only made it to chapter 9 before it lost me. It may improve and I hope so. But my issue is that the character behavior snaps back and forth between extremes so fast it gives me whiplash. The two main focuses at this point, the MC and her guide are of course the main contenders.

The guide alternatively refuses to answer basic questions, or even divert them, instead reacting angrily that the MC would dare ask. Then she'll happily explain something else, typically of minor importance. And all the while making comments about how these new things should be obvious or that the MC is making a bad choice, but without an explanation as to how those are so. 

The MC on the other hand alternates between thoughtful consideration or attempting to get information about things that seem fairly inconsequential to her current situation. Frequently demanding and not receiving answers. And then on the other hand she rushes forward and ignores at best as someone try's to explain something, hurrying to get to what her (very limited) understanding provides as the next goal. 

With all of that I just couldn't keep going, it's an interesting concept and I can see fun options to explore. But the character behavior is just too jagged and incomprehensible to me. 

Style, good and consistent, not sure what else to say. I liked the balance of description and narrative, and I felt like the descriptions were generally well written. 

Story, I liked where it could go, but it wasn't there yet. What I've read so far just felt like it jumped around too much.

Grammar was good, only occasional spots where I got tossed out of the story, and some of those were surely me. 

Characters were my main issue. I just had too many problems with the flipping between extremes. And it seems likely with this behavior the MC will need a bunker's worth of plot armor regularly. That or die out and prove her own concept. 

I hope the author will continue to write and improve, despite my issues I felt like there was good writing here, just some work needed. If your looking for something different in a story I'd say it's worth a try, you may find it more enjoyable than I did.

This book starts off more or less like a typical Isekai but has a more interesting approach.

The Good

What's most compelling about this book are the strongly written characters. The main protagonist, That she starts off in a deadend job and far from where she wants to be in life feels like it should appeal to Melenial and Gen-Z readers who can easily relate but her strong characterization makes her not feel like an audience insert.

The approach to the afterlife is novel. I like how it is reduced to burocracy and personality tests as if reincarnation were an application for yet another deadend job.

While as mentioned earlier this book starts off in a fairly typical isekai direction, with a protagonist who is killed right away to have adventures in a new world, it avoids the most typical tropes. She doesn't find herself in the sword and sorcery D&D style reality that we so typically see. She is still very much a part of our reality but it is a new part of our reality with interesting god realms to be explored.

The Bad

The grammar and style choices often leave much to be desired. It's nothing which can't be overlooked but does make the read a bit clunky.

Along similar lines, there is often an overabundance of dialog and an underuse of description. Scenes often feel rushed or telly and the impression is that the author isn't always trying to show the reader what's happening and fully pull us into the world.

I feel like the rules of the magic system are very restrictive and limit story possibility. In a world with gods it seems very unfortunate that direct interaction with the human world is declared very specifically limited. It seems doomed to keep the two sides of reality mostly separate which kills off the possibility for a lot of potentially fun developments.

The Verdict

It's a solid story with strong characters. In spite of its flaws it manages to keep a reader's interest and pull them along for the next chapter. Definitely not recommended for fundamentalist Christian types but for everyone else it's worth a read.