The Gatekeeper's Sons by Eva Pohler Published by Green Press/Eva Pohler on August 13th 2012
Pages: 384
Format: ebook
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Fifteen-year-old Therese watches her parents die. While in a coma, she meets the twin sons of Hades—Hypnos, the god of sleep, and Thanatos, the god of death. She thinks she's manipulating a dream, not kissing the god of death and totally rocking his world.
Than makes a deal with Hades and goes as a mortal to the Upperworld to try and win Therese's heart, but not all the gods are happy. Some give her gifts. Others try to kill her.
The deal requires Therese to avenge the death of her parents. With the help of Than’s fierce and exotic sisters, the Furies, she finds herself in an arena face to face with the murderer, and only one will survive.
The Gatekeeper’s Sons by Eva Pohler is the third book in the Spark bundle. I was pleasantly surprised by the Greek mythology theme. I don’t think there are enough books that use deities of old, whether they are Greek, Norse or another mythology. It only takes a short to figure out that the sons of the gatekeeper are Morpheus and Thanatos, and Hades is the gatekeeper. This story focuses on an unlikely hero, Death.
This book is only slightly longer than the second book, Starstruck, but a quarter in, I had the feeling that I had read more than that whole book. I feel that there’s a lot of unnecessary information and the ‘show, don’t tell’ rule is broken more than once. But there are more reasons that the suspension of disbelief was broken.
I didn’t feel Therese was as real as she could’ve been. She’s fifteen, but it feels as if she deals with the problems she faces as an adult. The death of her parents seems trivial. She falls in love with the god of Death and death doesn’t scare her since her parents died. But I don’t see her growth. Her feelings for Than don’t grow either. They’re there, suddenly. In Than’s chapters, you hear her doubts and insecurities, but her attraction isn’t explained. Is it his divine power that makes him so attractive? If so, why aren’t other women going wild for him?
Hades does say something interesting, something most people don’t realise. He talks about the beauty of mortality.
“The advantage of mortality is clear to us, but not to them, and that is why those left behind suffer. They miss the company of their loved ones, but it is the feeling that the deceased no longer exist that hurts the most. This is the cost mortals must pay. Let me put it to you this way: Mortality is better than immortality, but only the immortal have the ability to see this, and there lies both the irony and the cost of human happiness.”
This quote made me think. It’s a strong theme that could’ve made the story better if Therese saw this as well. But her mind is only focused on being with Than and keeping the people she loves, save. She doesn’t consider what those people will think if she becomes Death’s bride and she leaves them.
2,5 stars. I wanted this to be a good book, but the writing makes it impossible for me to rate higher than this. I liked the story, I didn’t like the execution. It’s stylistically not for me, although I can understand that some people might enjoy it. I doubt I’ll read the rest of the series.
Check out my reviews of the other stories in the Spark bundle as well:
The Dark Realm by Anthea Sharp
Starstruck by Brenda Hiatt
Sworn to Raise by Terah Edun
