Dark Goddess by Sarwat Chadda

For review: Puffin. Published 1 July 2010
From Goodreads: THE DARK GODDESS will take Billi to Russia to rescue Vasalisa, a young girl Billi’s promised to protect. To save her, Billi must defeat the werewolves that serve the witch Baba Yaga – and the Dark Goddess herself.

Baba Yaga is sickened by the destruction and corruption humanity has spread across the natural world. She recognises mankind has become a plague upon the Earth, and her duty is clear: to cleanse the planet and rid it of the pestilence of Man. Billi is sent to stop her, but does she have the right?

Betrayed and alone, Billi faces a final mighty battle in the abandoned ruins of Chernobyl.

To say I wasn’t sure what Sarwat Chadda was going to do after the ending of Devil’s kiss would be an understatement. I loved the first instalment so I began reading Dark Goddess with both excitement and trepidation. I needn’t have worried! Dark Goddess is awesome – I absolutely loved it!

This time the action moves from London to Russia – and I Ioved the Russian setting and the legend of Baba Yaga – it worked really well. It was interesting to see Billi out of her comfort zone. Ivan is a great addition to the series - I adored him. I also really liked Vasalisa and enjoyed her interactions with Billi. There was some great character development too – especially with Billi. She certainly doesn’t feel like a 15 year old girl anymore! There were also some great father / daughter moments and I am pleased that he is more of a ‘father’ in this one. He still treats Billi more like a soldier than a daughter but I guess that makes sense given the world they live in. I do really love his character and if I had to criticize the book it would be that I wanted him to be in more of it.

Again the story is very action packed – things happen all the time that you don’t see coming – or at least I didn’t - and I found it all very exciting. As with Devil’s Kiss you are not sure if all the characters will make it to the end – which gives the whole thing a sense of urgency. I do think there was much more humour in this instalment which added to characters and story as a whole. I still laugh when I think about the Holy Grail!

I just love the way Chadda has managed to make this series grow. Dark Goddess is not a rehash of the first book - instead it is something completely different - letting the characters grow and evolve naturally. Will everyone love this book as much as I do? I don’t know. All I can tell you is it ticks all the boxes for me and if I could bottle it's magic and sprinkle it over every other YA book I read I would! I really, really hope there are many more instalments to come!