Island of the Dying Goddess is a stand-alone grimdark fantasy novel that follows Anawar, an immortal explorer, as he is stranded on the island of Sawarrgh. Everything about this island is wrong and twisted, and forces Anawar to battle his own supressed memories whilst fighting both for survival and freedom.

Setting off at a fast pace and already in the thick of action, it rarely lifts it’s foot from the accelerator. Anawar is a very engaging character that I immediately wanted to know more about, although a number of others are introduced who are also well drawn and varied in personality and goals.

The story kept me guessing often, in part due to one of my favourite things about this book. Many stories will structure their pantheon in a way that is very familiar to western readers. The god of the hunt, or sun, or harvest for example. This is where Island of the Dying Goddess felt fresh. These deities were clearly drawn from less familiar cultures and their strangeness for me only enhanced the reading experience, descriptions of which have stuck in my mind several days after finishing the novel. Without adding any spoilers, in particular the hall (you’ll know which one when you get there) left a vividly painted and haunting image with me.

The premise of the book is excellent, and I felt engaged throughout. Only the inconvenient distraction of a full time job and other such obligations prevented me from finishing this book faster.

There were only a couple of minor gripes for me, that did not ruin an otherwise very interesting read. There was a couple of moments where information already supplied was repeated a few scenes later, which didn’t feel necessary to move the story forward. There was also a few scenes where dialogue was very exposition heavy, which to me didn’t flow like a real life conversation.

Other than this, I felt Ronit drew on some very personal experiences and threaded them into a well thought out idea. I would definitely be interested in reading more of Ronit’s work in the future. The story is definitely grimdark, and I would suggest it would be a little dark for younger readers – perhaps something more for an adult audience. If you’ve enjoyed the grimdark genre and want try out a book with a strong premise, fast paced, and with a very interesting pantheon I recommend giving Island of the Dying Goddess a read.