Godhunter is an Urban Fantasy created by Lily The Litten, whose love for mythology (especially Aztec Mythology), YA fantasy, and disaster protagonists combined into whatever this is.
Miguel Gutierrez is an Ordinary High-School Student. Well, up until within the span of two hours, he releases a whole bunch of angry gods from their magical prison, is told that he's the reincarnation of a god by a British Bengal cat, and is nearly murdered by a Giant Spider.
With the myths and monsters of the world emboldened by the return of the gods, Miguel soon finds that his ordinary life is over; the divine flock to the divine, especially since he's the only one who stands a chance against them. Taking up the mantle of the Godhunter, he sets out to defend against and hopefully defeat whatever comes for him...and, with any luck, find out what caused all this in the first place.
There are currently two books, with a third one planned.
- Shatter the Mirror
- Face the Music
Tropes associated with this series include:
- All Love Is Unrequited: Miguel has a crush on the oblivious Lexi Tanaka though that ends up a subversion, as she kisses him at the end of Book 1. Book 2 reveals that Gabriel Murphy, the drummer of Garage Band GEMINI, has been crushing on Armani James since middle school, but the latter has never noticed.
- All Myths Are True: Yohualli outright says that every story has a kernel of truth to it. Though he also notes that certain stories are inaccurate, citing vampires' supposed weakness to garlic specifically.
- And Now for Someone Completely Different: The prologue of each book is in third person and follows the perspective of someone other than Miguel. They're notable for being the only times when the readers are given information Miguel doesn't know.
- The Atoner: Many, many characters, to the point where it's something of a theme.
- Attention Whore: Armani has an absolutely massive ego, to the point where even his closest friends are beginning to drift away from him. His lack of popularity because of this what leads him to accept Apollo's gift, completely heedless of the consequences.
- Arc Villain: One per book, with the gods serving as the Greater Scope Villains.
- Book 1 has two: the Greek war god Ares and the Celtic Morrigan. The latter ends up the significantly greater threat, kidnapping Miguel's mother to blackmail him with a Friend-or-Idol Decision, and loosing the tarasque on him when he refuses to comply.
- Book 2 has the Siren, a participant in the Blackwell Musical Showcase who is using it to brainwash the students. The problem is, Miguel and Yohualli don't know the siren's identity, and must figure it out from the competitors. It's Armani.
- Book 3 has two again: the Camargo Damasceno household, who are conducting strange and sinister rituals with the gods, and Ravi Bhatavadekar, a black magic practitioner.
- Beautiful Singing Voice: Armani is noted to have an incredibly powerful voice, and Miguel admits he's genuinely talented. As such, the divine improvements that Apollo gifted him fly completely under the radar.
- Because You Were Nice to Me: Ares was initially forced into the role of "Argyris Tantaleas" in order to spy on Miguel and Yohualli. As time goes on, he finds himself more and more drawn to the Gutierrez family, especially Daniella, who reminds him a lot of his late mother Hera. After his sister's schemes cost him his eye and seeing the Olympians' complete lack of care about him, Ares decides to pull a Heel–Face Turn and joins the Mirror Motley for the purpose of protecting his newfound family.
- Beta Couple: Armani and Gabriel, as well as Lexi and Estella.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Chiara Castoro-Magrina is noted to be rather heavyset and chubby, but Miguel finds her beautiful nonetheless.
- Breaking the Fellowship: Shortly before the last day of the musical showcase, the internal tensions in GEMINI reach their peak and Gabriel and Carla quit the group. Armani ends up performing solo. Funnily enough, after the showcase is over, the two actually become friends despite their vitriol as GEMINI members.
- Cats Are Snarkers: Yohualli, the cat Familiar serving as Miguel's mentor, certainly counts.
- The Chosen One: Miguel, the titular Godhunter, is the latest reincarnation of Tezcatlipoca, and as such, is one of the few people standing between monsters and humanity and the only person capable of defending the world from the gods.
- Compelling Voice: Sirens are noted to possess this power, using their singing voices to compel people to do whatever they want. Armani is given this power by Apollo and uses it to become popular, but ends up undergoing a Painful Transformation into a siren.
- Disappeared Dad: Miguel's parents are divorced, and he lives with his mother. His father's whereabouts are never specifically stated, but it's implied that they're not on the best of terms.
- Eating Lunch Alone: Armani at the end of Book 2. While everyone save Miguel, Yohualli, and Chiara has forgotten that he brainwashed them, he's still lost the popularity he gained through the song, as well as his only real friends. Miguel, out of pity, sits next to him.
- Everytown, America: Bloomhill, Massachusetts.
- Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!: Yohualli is in the middle of chewing Miguel out for unsealing the gods when he realizes that the only way Miguel could've undone the locks was if he knew the magic...and the only one who knew the magic was Tezcatlipoca.
- Face–Monster Turn: Armani turns into a siren during the last day of the musical showcase.
- Five-Token Band: The Mirror Motley, to the point where it's joked about In-Universe. In order, we have:
- Miguel Gutierrez, a Hispanic bisexual transgender boy.
- Yohualli, a cat. Who is inexplicably British. Makes sense, as he's a British wizard cursed into cat form.
- Chiara Castoro-Magrina, an Italian-Hispanic.
- Armani James, who is Native American. Also gay; he and Gabriel start dating after they reconcile.
- Vivian Camargo Damasceno, a non-binary Brazilian.
- Liana Lowe, an asexual black girl.
- Lexi Tanaka, a Japanese-American. Who eventually realizes that she is also bisexual.
- Joshua Sutton, a straight white male.
- Ares, a Greek god.
- Ravi Bhatavadekar, a pansexual Indian.
- Estella Winters, a Scandinavian lesbian with a bit of French from her father's side.
- Garage Band: GEMINI, originally a rock duo formed by Armani and Gabriel; Carla Anderson joined as the bassist later on. By the time the series starts, it's on the verge of imploding, due to both Gabriel's jealousy over Carla and Armani's growing ego. By Book 2's end, the band's broken up and Armani has lost his only two friends in school.
- Heel–Face Turn: Several members of the Mirror Motleynote started out as enemies. Admittedly, Armani's powers were messing with his mind and Vivian was just a pawn, but the other three play it completely straight.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: This is how Miguel kills the Morrigan, impaling her on Ares's spear.
- Inadequate Inheritor: Yohualli initially sees Miguel as this, believing him to be an extreme downgrade from the incarnations before him. By the end of Book 1, however, he admits he misjudged him, and that he's a perfectly worthy successor.
- Incompatible Orientation: This was what ultimately killed Miguel and Joshua's relationship. The two started dating when Miguel identified as female, and while they tried to make it work after he started his transition, Joshua ultimately called it off since he was unable to see himself dating another guy.
- Informed Attractiveness: In-Universe. Miguel notes that whoever wrote sirens as being beautiful was probably blind, because Armani is more terrifying than beautiful.
- I Want My Mommy!: Played for Drama when Miguel has a major breakdown after his mother is kidnapped by the Morrigan, sobbing on the kitchen floor and repeatedly crying out for her.
- Later Played for Laughs when Ares, after watching Miguel kill both the Tarasque and the Morrigan, squeaks out a terrified "Mother, help." Though this becomes Harsher in Hindsight given the reveal later on that Hera is dead.
- Jerkass Gods: Pretty much all of the gods, who went mad and nearly destroyed the world before Tezcatlipoca sealed them away. You know it's bad when Ares is one of the nicer ones.
- Kindhearted Cat Lover: Miguel adores cats, and while he's extraordinarily awkward, he's a good person at heart.
- Love Interest: Three of them, spread out over the course of the series. Of the three, Lexi and Ravi prove Romantic False Leads, and Miguel and Chiara are the Official Couple.
- The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life: Discussed in Book 2, where Yohualli tells Miguel that relationships between mythicals and mortals don't tend to end well. Not because of the masquerade, but because mortals have a habit of dying horribly whenever a mythical—especially a god—takes an interest in them.
- Middle Child Syndrome: Implied. Armani has two older siblings and two younger ones, which could help explain his Attention Whore tendencies.
- New Transfer Student: Chiara starts attending Blackwell High School in Book 2.
- Painful Transformation: Based on his constant screaming, Armani's transformation into a siren was...not a pleasant experience.
- Protective Charm: Chiara's amulet is revealed to be one of these, protecting her from the effects of Armani's song.
- Queer Establishing Moment: Miguel has two.
- The first is when he both crushes on Lexi while admitting Armani is very attractive in spite of his ego, revealing him to be bisexual.
- The second is a few chapters later, where he offhandedly mentions that it's his curse to suffer from terrible cramps. It's eventually confirmed that he's talking about period cramps, and is a Transgender man.
- Reincarnation Romance: Invoked, subverted, and ultimately played straight. Faced with being one of the only gods left on Earth after her husband sacrificed himself to seal the cursed ones away, Chicomecoatl chose to join the mortal reincarnation cycle in the hopes of reuniting with him. While their various incarnations did tend to be geographically close, most of them never met, much less fell back in love. However, their current incarnations, Miguel and Chiara, did end up in a relationship, playing the trope straight in the end.
- Relationship Upgrade: Downplayed. Lexi kisses Miguel on the cheek at the end of Book 1, but Book 2 makes it clear that while they're both attracted to each other, they're not actually together yet. They hook up for real at the end.
- Sadly Mythcharacterized: Lampshaded—Miguel notes that for all of Yohualli's gushing over Tezcatlipoca, the actual stories about him paint the picture of a rather unpleasant figure. Yohualli pointedly ignores him.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Ares gets the hell out of dodge after Miguel kills the Morrigan and coldly asks him if he'd like to be next.
- Sealed Evil in a Can: Long before the events of the series, Tezcatlipoca sealed the various mad gods into a magical chest where they could do no harm. The plot is kicked off when Miguel stumbles into Yohualli's haven, finds the chest, and undoes the locks.
- Socially Awkward Hero: To say Miguel is awkward would be a major understatement.
- Struggling Single Mother: Daniella Gutierrez has been divorced for seven years, and has her hands full raising her son Miguel.
- Token Trio: Albeit a more unique example than most—the Power Trio consists of a Hispanic male lead, an Italian-Hispanic female friend, and an indigenous male friend.
- Trans Relationship Troubles: Averted with Miguel and Lexi's relationship, as she already knew he was trans before they started dating and doesn't care. Played a bit straighter with Ravi, who wasn't aware (though he didn't think it was that big a deal when Miguel did reveal it) and averted again with Chiara, who learned it when they were Just Friends.
- Wacky Homeroom: Miguel's classmates consist of the cheerful and hyper Lexi Tanaka, egotistical drama queen Armani James, conspiracy theorist Liana Lowe, his ex-boyfriend Joshua Sutton, and a smattering of other characters. Book 2 sees Chiara Castoro-Magrina join the class.
