Hekate
The Witch
by Nikita Gill
read by the author
Hachette Audio, 2025. 6 hours, 12 minutes.
Review written January 10, 2026, from a library eaudiobook.
Starred Review
This audiobook was simply beautiful. The reader’s lovely accent helped. The whole audiobook, I wondered why they used a reader with an Indian accent to read a story from Greek mythology – and then when I went to write this review, I learned it had been the author’s voice all along. Her voice and accent are beautiful, and it turns out she’s British-Indian, which is also what I was hearing. Lovely!
The story is about a Greek goddess I hadn’t known anything about, though many of the elements of her life were familiar – but now made deeply personal. Hekate was a child of war – when the Titans, including her father Perses, were fighting the Olympians. When the Titans lost the war, Hekate and her mother Asteria had to flee. Asteria found Hekate a safe home in the Underworld, under the care of her sister, the goddess Styx. But Asteria herself had to continue to flee and turned herself into an island to escape from Zeus.
Because of those circumstances, Hekate grew up in the underworld, not knowing her purpose – which should have been given to her by her father at her birth. Meanwhile, she chafes under the “protection” of Styx – and devises her own quest to learn her parents’ fate and to discover her own powers and purpose. So it’s a coming-of-age tale for a goddess and a powerful witch.
And the writing is lyrical and beautiful. This is one of those audiobooks that you can actually tell is a novel in verse – often I can’t tell from the audio, but that wasn’t a problem here. I liked the way many of the individual poems ended with a reversal that would lead you into the next poem.
This is Greek mythology from the inside (or from the underside), seen through the eyes of a child growing into a goddess.
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Teens/hekate.html
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Disclaimer: I am a professional librarian, but the views expressed are solely my own, and in no way represent the official views of my employer or of any committee or group of which I am part.
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