Ok, this book happened a bit by accident or divine intervention. I was at a Barnes & Noble looking for Yule cards and needed a quick break. The section by the restrooms in that BN is NOT poetry nor mythology: it’s political non-fiction, but this book was eye level on the shelf facing me as I walked past to the restroom hallway and immediately caught my eye. I couldn’t leave it there when I passed it again on the way out (and no, no one else was in the area or the bathrooms, so I wasn’t taking it from someone who’d set it there temporarily). The universe is demanding and persnickety sometimes.
Hekate The Witch is Nikita Gill’s gorgeous homage to the Goddess in Greek Mythology often dismissed these days (except in certain groups, of course) as Goddess of Crossroads or maligned as Goddess of Witches. In this book, Gill gives Hekate the reverent, detailed, and colorful story such a bold and audacious Titan Goddess deserves.
Her story begins in war, because while Hekate is an immortal child of powerful and feared Titan parents, the Titans and Olympians have been at war for centuries by the time she’s born, and the Titans are losing. When Hekate is still very young, she and her mother, Asteria, must go on the run from Zeus and Poseidon. They find refuge in the Underworld, where Hades, their pursuers’ brother, offers safety to the child who has yet to come into her powers, but cannot save Asteria. So begins Hekate’s new life as an orphaned immortal child in the Underworld struggling to find her place and create a life for herself.
Loss, loneliness, independence, the constant push and pull between settling into others’ constraints and living for yourself: true to Greek myth, Hekate’s story mirrors human struggles in an amplified way. None of her path is easy, none of her relationships are straightforward, and that makes this book captivating. I had a hard time putting it down, and lost sleep over it.
Nikita Gill is a true artist with poetic imagery. The format of Hekate is poetry, so it’s both a fast and stunningly evocative read. If you worry about reading poetry please don’t let that intimidate you: Gill’s writing style is beautiful and accessible. Instead of pages of narrative prose, we have shining moments of description to keep us on the path, evoking the senses in a scene without overwhelming the story’s plot. The characters are still fully developed, the settings are wonderfully painted, and the format allows for fast paced action scenes that work perfectly for battle.
Hekate The Witch is one of my favorite books from 2025. I loved every moment of Hekate’s story, and I can’t wait for the next book in Nikita Gill’s Goddesses of the Underworld series.
No Pithy Phrase 