Goddess of Everything by Paul DeBlassie III
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is a story based in the dark and desolate land of Aztlan Del Norte, it is a land of desert, scrub and sand which is whipped up into deadly storms on a regular basis, it is also home to religion and mysticism all rolled into one. This is where Gabriél de LaTierra lives and works as a psychiatric social worker and healer with his wife and son, as well as his mother Juana De La Cruz who is also the Mother Superior of the Nunnery and Orphanage of he Holy Innocents where Gabriél works with the children who reside there.
Gabriél loves his mother, but this conflicts with the love he has for his wife and his mother is behind it because she wants his love all for herself and to do this, she folds memories and feelings into his mind like silken threads. She has done this since his father died as they mourned at his gravesite, so as to make her the only one he loves, but what she doesn’t know is that he has another compartment she doesn’t see and this is where the spirit of his father left his message that he will always guide him throughout his life when he needs him. He has seen other things as well, the inner beasts of the people around him, shadows of dreams which come to pass in the days after and the spirit of a person, whether bad or good, he sees it all, but as he has grown up, he has become unable to do this as often as he used to, all because his mother blocks them from him with her arts.
As Gabriél prepares for his day, each one being different to the next as he helps the children of Aztlan Del Norte, he is focussing on one in particular that day, however especially when he is refused access to one of his patients, he digs deeper and finds that there have been reports of other children he has worked with disappearing and although the paperwork seems all in order, Gabriél feels that something isn’t right. He has his suspicions as to who is behind the disappearances, however, when he tries to gain clarity through his own mystic practices, what he discovers is more dark than he could have ever imagined and when he returns to his home, wife and son, he realises that the danger is reaching there as well.
Will Gabriél be able to uncover who is behind the dark practices enveloping the land and the children who live within it, or will his judgement be clouded by outside forces and will he be able to face the coming danger, or will his family be reached by the evil in the air? This fast paced drama will leave you reeling as much as it does it’s characters as mysticism, blood and death combine to create a world of darkness which sucks you in.

Reviewed by @roxsannel

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