I am proud. I am defiant. I am Hekat, precious and beautiful. The god sees me. I am seen by the god.

In a family torn apart by poverty and violence, Hekat is no more than an unwanted mouth to feed, worth only a few coins from a passing slave trader.

But Hekat was not born to be a slave. For her, a different path has been chosen. It is a path that will take her from stinking back alleys to the house of her god, from blood-drenched battlefields to the glittering palaces of Mijak.

She did not want a beautiful face. Not if that meant she was precious to Abajai, and Yagji, to all the men who sold beautiful girls for gold.

Wowee, how to rate this one? DNF @ 30% (which, mind you, is page 218). Mijak is a brutal and savage world. Hekat is a brutal and savage girl. The god is a brutal and savage god that connects everything.

He was like Retoth, a small nothing perosn who left no footprints on the world.

Let's start with Mijak. Miller has done a phenomenal job fleshing out this society, as reflected in the cadence of the narrative and the dialogue (that not every reader will be able to handle) as well as the events that transpire. It is a man's world with no place for women other than the breeding of more men. It is founded on the ruling of seven warlords, where warriors die with honor. The only break in it's very stringent rules is the fact that women can become both warriors and godspeakers (and aren't treated as lesser) for no apparent reason other than perhaps providing a way for Hekat to advance in power.

His fear was food, his fear was drink. She ate and drank him as she danced for the god.

Speaking of Hekat...let me be clear: you are not made to like her. She is a sociopath. Her characterization is how cruelty begets cruelty and how repeated cruelties can be internalized in horrible and fractured ways. In the beginning you are lent some empathy for her circumstances. She is the unnamed, unwanted spawn that is sold for some coin which is the only good she could be used for her father. With her slavers she is shown kindness for the first time but internalizes her specialness as being above the rest...of being on equal footing as her slavers. It's understandable given her circumstances...it made me think about grooming in our society. However, when she eventually finds out she is a special slave but a slave none-the-less she renounces her slavers and instead decides to be a slave to the god.

I am Hekat, godtouched and precious. What do I care for the friendship of men?

Perhaps following Hekat further would have been enough to disabuse me of the book. However, it ultimately came down to the fact that the religion saturates every character's thoughts and actions...so much so that it scrubs them of any real personality. It became a litany of the god wills, the god thinks, follow the god, honor the god. Having a strong religious presence is fine but not to the point of having all the characters become automatons.

This is not for everyone. If you need a light in the darkness or a character to whom you can give some love and feel good about, this book is not for you. It wasn't for me.

For something similar but done infinitely better...I'd recommend [b: And I Darken|27190613|And I Darken (The Conqueror's Saga, #1)|Kiersten White|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1449153532l/27190613._SY75_.jpg|41682914] instead. Emily May's review here.