A review by hannahbright
The Great Godden by Meg Rosoff

4.0

The ungendered, unnamed narrator gave what could have been a retelling of the somewhat tired trope of the two brothers which one will they pick and made it a more refreshing sort of coming of age story. At surface level it was a beach read, but there were so many tidbits of wisdom and philosophical musings that poke through. “I found myself at different points assigning a gender, or none at all and then questioning myself on how and why this changes my perception of events.” I had the same experience! This definitely added mystery and ambiguity and we never learned much at all about the narrator, still I chose to see him as a male. 
It was simple, yet mesmerizing. I want to read it again just to see if there are things that went over my head because the ending came out of left field for me! The final few pages tidied everything up a little too fast, but other than that this is a perfect read in one sitting kind of novella!