I’ve been a fan of Natsuo Kirino for some time; my first run in with her was with Out. A fellow voracious reader recommended her when I said that there were no female mystery writers.

I read Out, twice, back to back and then moved on to Grotesque and The Real World. I was mesmerized by her ability to create a world and make you the center of it. Everything the characters felt, did, thought…wanted…seemed to be an echo of my desires for them.

The Goddess Chronicle does not disappoint. It starts off as the story of two sisters; Kamikuu and Namima; who’s succumb to their fates of being Yang and Yin on an Island that regarded them as workers beyond the human realm.

Natsuo Kirino has a talent for giving you new information and integrating it into a story; in this book she works with a few themes that come up over and over again. Love, Loss, Envy, Fate, Acceptance and Death. This book explores how intertwined we all are, if we would just look for the connections, how sad we are if we would examine our decisions and how hurt we would be if we knew the intent behind everyone else’s actions.

Kamikuu was destined to be the Oracle of the island while Namima was fated to be the keeper of the dead; as Namima’s story widens you learn some more about the history of the Islands, the Gods who made them and the Goddess who is very much trapped in her role like all of the other important women in this book.

The Goddess Chronicle truly is that; a small intersection in the story of the Goddess Izanami’s very long, very varied existence. It is this larger story that helps you understand the finer points in the story of Kamikuu and Namima.

Another great read by Natsuo Kirino. Too tempted to re-read rather than move on to another book. The other gorgeous thing about a Kirino books is that there is always another layer, meaning, symbolism there…and you can always find it if you re-read and pay attention.