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grav_ityGreek mythology, girl power, definitely not "Percy Jackson for girls".
I have never been one of Aphrodite's girls. We got off on the wrong foot ("Firebrand"), and I've sort of never recovered. She's so useless as a Goddess. I was always a child of Athena, and thus I remain.
I have also never been much for Helen of Troy. But what's important here is that she's not Helen of Troy. She's Helen of Sparta. And Helen of Sparta is way, way cooler.
We live in a time of myth's turned upon their heads. Where the pretty girls know that their beauty is their curse before it becomes apparent, and they take the time to prepare for how screwed they are. That's my kind of heroine, obviously, and it makes this Helen much, much more palatable than the traditional one.
Helen is beautiful and everyone loves her, and she knows exactly how useless that makes her. So she learns to fight, learns to find the truth behind the myths, learns to be a free girl (or at least as free as she can) using her brain and her face and her ability to try. So it was an interesting, if somewhat rushed and frenetic, retelling. I look forward to the sequel.
Clytemnestra was also interesting (I swear, if Kassandra is a villain in the sequel, we might have to stop reading), because I can totally see her becoming the person legend tells us she did (I also think it will be interesting to see how she comes to marry Agamemnon, and what Menelaus looks like). Likewise, Leda and Tyndareus were well portrayed. We don't really see Castor and Polydeuces much beyond "bratty older brothers", and they're going to be dead soon, but we'll see how that turns out.
Oh, and also, there's a MAP! So the book gets a 7.5 out of 10. ;)
I have never been one of Aphrodite's girls. We got off on the wrong foot ("Firebrand"), and I've sort of never recovered. She's so useless as a Goddess. I was always a child of Athena, and thus I remain.
I have also never been much for Helen of Troy. But what's important here is that she's not Helen of Troy. She's Helen of Sparta. And Helen of Sparta is way, way cooler.
We live in a time of myth's turned upon their heads. Where the pretty girls know that their beauty is their curse before it becomes apparent, and they take the time to prepare for how screwed they are. That's my kind of heroine, obviously, and it makes this Helen much, much more palatable than the traditional one.
Helen is beautiful and everyone loves her, and she knows exactly how useless that makes her. So she learns to fight, learns to find the truth behind the myths, learns to be a free girl (or at least as free as she can) using her brain and her face and her ability to try. So it was an interesting, if somewhat rushed and frenetic, retelling. I look forward to the sequel.
Clytemnestra was also interesting (I swear, if Kassandra is a villain in the sequel, we might have to stop reading), because I can totally see her becoming the person legend tells us she did (I also think it will be interesting to see how she comes to marry Agamemnon, and what Menelaus looks like). Likewise, Leda and Tyndareus were well portrayed. We don't really see Castor and Polydeuces much beyond "bratty older brothers", and they're going to be dead soon, but we'll see how that turns out.
Oh, and also, there's a MAP! So the book gets a 7.5 out of 10. ;)
