I'd like to extend a warm welcome to Amy McNulty, author of Nobody's Goddess, a new YA fantasy from Month9Books. I love a little more insight into characters before I read a book, and Ms. McNulty was kind enough to indulge me :)
Meet
the Characters from Nobody’s Goddess
Noll
Noll is seventeen for much of the story,
although you see her as a child in the prologue and she’s sixteen at the start
of the plot when some important events occur in her life. Noll’s a rambunctious
tomboy with voluminous, curly black hair. (Her full name, Olivière, is too
“girly” for her tastes.) She loved playing with the village boys as a child and
taking them on “adventures” to fight “monsters” such as sheep and shadows and
old women. Never content to do what anyone else tells her, she insisted on
being their leader, calling herself the “elf queen,” two words she learned from
the village’s legends of mythological kings and queens.
When the last of her friends found their
goddesses among the local girls, Noll became sullen and removed from most
people, although she still enjoyed playing with the adventurous younger children
in the village and her dearest friend Jurij. She’s both embarrassed by the idea
of a man finding the goddess in her and humiliated that she’s one of the oldest
women ever to still not have her man find her, although she’s reluctant to
admit that out loud. She’s never gotten along with her gentle sister, Elfriede,
and things grew even worse between them when Jurij found the goddess in
Elfriede. Noll didn’t realize it at the time, but she had a crush on him that’s
evolved into love as they grew older. She’s so blinded by her feelings for
Jurij that she’s afraid for his life. His Returning celebration is around the
corner, the day when Elfriede proclaims her love for him and he can remove his
mask—but if her love isn’t true, he’ll die. Noll thinks Elfriede doesn’t know
the extent of her feelings, that she can’t love Jurij as much as Noll does, so
she’s putting Jurij’s life at risk.
Quote: “I’m a woman and I can love where I will, even where love will never find
me!”
Jurij
Jurij was a quiet and submissive child,
which makes his role as a man devoted to his goddess easy for him. He’s rugged
but not overly well-built with short, wavy dark hair, and he’s probably
good-looking, but he wears a mask (usually a stag design), so how would most
people know? He, like the rest of the men in the village, has pointed ears you
can see behind his face coverings.
Jurij appears as a child in the prologue
and is fifteen at the start of the story but eventually ages to seventeen by
the end. He’s devoted to Elfriede, the young woman almost two years older than
him in whom he found the goddess as a child. He loved playing with his friends
before then, but he was often teased for being weaker than the rest of them and
happily let Noll take him under her wing as he became the “elf queen’s” most
devoted servant. After he finds the goddess in Elfriede, he still considers
Noll his friend, which is an oddity in the village, as most men care little for
others beyond their goddesses and their families after they fall in love. He
has no romantic feelings for Noll whatsoever. It’s impossible for him to feel
that way because of the nature of love in the village. Ever good-natured and
supportive to those he loves, it’s difficult to make Jurij angry, although Noll
somehow manages to upset him from time to time.
Quote: “It’s her or no one. Her or the commune. Her or death.”
Elfriede
Elfriede is about ten months older than
her only sister Noll and is seventeen and then eighteen for most of the story.
She’s dainty and enjoys housework and cooking and hates dirt and disorder, so
she and Noll clashed from an early age. She was the one who inspired Noll to
become the “elf queen,” though, as she called her that when she placed a crown
of flowers on her head. Elfriede is a fairer brown than her sister and has
golden, wavy hair like their mother. She didn’t like little boys much growing
up, although she and her many girl friends had crushes on older men who would
never love them, since they’d all found their goddesses by then.
Elfriede is known to be sweet-natured
and helpful, but she does get angry easily when things don’t go her way. Noll
is the most frequent recipient of her anger, which usually comes in the form of
a sharp rebuke and tapping her feet with her arms crossed—nothing too
frightening, but enough that Noll doesn’t think of her sister as the gracious
woman she appears to be to everyone else. She was horribly embarrassed when a
younger, awkward boy found the goddess in her and it took her a while to get
used to his affections. She has, however, embraced her destiny and considers
herself in love with Jurij. Whether her love will prove true enough to keep him
alive when he removes his mask remains to be seen.
Quote: “Noll, how could you? How could you be so selfish? You won’t be happy
until you have Jurij for yourself. You’d rather he die than be with me.”
The
lord
Not much is known about the village’s
mysterious lord. He never comes down from his castle, instead sending his mute,
pale servants down to the village to request things in writing, and allowing
men in the village to deliver goods to his castle beyond the woods. He doesn’t
tax his people, and his only decree that interferes in their lives in any way
is that they invite everyone in the village whenever there’s a Returning
celebration in which a woman seventeen years old or older proclaims her love
for her man and he can at last remove his mask. Not everyone has to attend, but
everyone must at least be invited. No one’s defied this order to see what would
happen if the invitations weren’t all made, though.
Some people call him the “heartless
monster” and there are rumors that he’s lived a long time because he has yet to
find his goddess, and no man will die before he finds his goddess. He wears clothing
made of black leather at all times, and even wears black gloves to cover his
hands. Instead of wearing a wooden animal mask like the rest of the men in the village,
he prefers to cover his entire head with a black veil, which he pins together
at his shoulders and covers with a pointed black minstrel-style hat.
Quote: “Men have no choice but to love, for that is their curse. Women are free
to love, for what good it does.”
Thanks for the awesome post! This novel sounds quite intriguing. It's on my TBR list, and I can't wait to read it.
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Nobody's Goddess
The Never Veil #1
Amy McNulty
YA Fantasy
April 21, 2015
Month9Books
Chapters
Indigo | Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | TBD
In
a village of masked men, magic compels each man to love only one woman and to
follow the commands of his “goddess” without question. A woman may reject the
only man who will love her if she pleases, but she will be alone forever. And a
man must stay masked until his goddess returns his love—and if she can’t or
won’t, he remains masked forever.
Seventeen-year-old
Noll isn't in the mood to celebrate. Her childhood friends have paired off and
her closest companion, Jurij, found his goddess in Noll’s own sister. Desperate
to find a way to break this ancient spell, Noll instead discovers why no man
has ever chosen her.
Thus
begins a dangerous game between the choice of woman versus the magic of man.
And the stakes are no less than freedom and happiness, life and death—and
neither is willing to lose.
About the Author
Amy
McNulty is a freelance writer and editor from Wisconsin with an honors degree
in English. She was first published in a national scholarly journal (The
Concord Review) while in high school and currently spends her days
alternatively writing on business and marketing topics and primarily crafting
stories with dastardly villains and antiheroes set in fantastical medieval
settings.
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