A Review: The Book of the Nine Ides, by Benjamin Goshko

Benjamin Goshko’s Book of the Nine Ides presents a lot of interesting ideas. You have a transgender teenaged protagonist apparently suffering from a mental illness, an epic fantasy world full of magic and mystery and a recurring theme of guilt and self-sacrifice.

Basically, Goshko has enough material for three great books. Unfortunately, at least in this readers opinion, Goshko put them all into one very short book or very long short story. It has a lot of potential, I’ll give it that. It’s well edited and well told. Goshko is very adept at putting us inside Ashley’s head, he never gets lazy or strays to stereotype. She develops in a compelling and logically way throughout the read Unfortunately, a lot of the supporting cast don’t get the same treatment. Most of them seem very static as far a character arc should go. This is forgivable, though, because the Book of the Nine Ides is primarily Ashley’s story.
My only major complaints are a few unresolved plot points and one utterly predictable confrontation. We are told about a lot of Ashley’s past, as a reader, I’d rather be shown.

Also, Personally, I thought it was a little short to be priced at $2.99.

In short: A good quick read. 4 out of 5 stars.