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3.58 AVERAGE
3.58 AVERAGE
I loved this story 3 One of the best i have ever read with greek mythology romance.
Love this book and their take on gods and demi gods. Great creativity to create a world that can have both old and new legends. This series is really great and since I read it from the library, I decided I needed to buy these even though I had already read it. These were a must have in my bookshelves.
I was looking forward to this story, but unfortunately, I was very disappointed with it. The plot was a retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth, but with modern trappings and a few new twists. Unfortunately, the plot was rudimentary at best, and very boring to me as well. There was a bit of an ick factor with the age difference between Hades and Persephone, and Persephone's sarcasm was repetitive, especially with all her eye rolling. Hades was a weak version of himself, especially since he's the brooding bad guy of Greek Mythology. Members of the YA audience might find it interesting as an introduction to Greek Mythology, but experienced Greek Mythology readers may not find it entertaining.
Review originally posted on my blog here
I started off thinking that this was probably going to be just another re-telling to add to the list, but a few things made it stick out. Most importantly was the portrayal of the gods and other people that originally appear in Greek mythology. All of the ones that had at least somewhat important roles in the story were unique characters. Hades, Cassandra and Charon were the characters that stood out the most to me as having personalities different than I have ever seen them written as before. Hade's personality was one of the things that made me really enjoy this book, to be honest. It was just so much different than any way I've ever encountered him before.
Also, Persephone herself was not one of those annoying main characters. She did NOT like being told what to do without explanation or sitting back and letting everyone else do things for her. She struggled through the whole book to make people listen to her opinions and not decide things for her.
The writing style in this book is fairly simplistic and straightforward, but for me it really fit the storyline and the characters. It made it so that I could sit down and read a good chunk at a time without getting mentally tired at having to think all the time, but I could also pick it up and read a page or two quickly when I had a few minutes spare and not have to re-read, just jump in. It was refreshing to read, although that could have something to do with me reading another book at the same time that was much, much darker. Along with being straightforward, I found the writing was also smooth and flowed well.
Here's a quote that stood out to me for some reason that I still can't figure out. I think that it captures how the Underworld is portrayed in lots of modern re-tellings, and especially how it is portrayed in Persephone.
"I couldn't believe I'd ever been intimidated by the Underworld. It was just like the living realm. Life went on, so to speak. People were still people, and they continued to do the things that made them happy."
The Good: The characters, the writing.
The Bad: Started off being similar to other re-tellings.
The Verdict: 4/5. Definitely worth the read!
This book was supplied by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Kaitlin!
I started off thinking that this was probably going to be just another re-telling to add to the list, but a few things made it stick out. Most importantly was the portrayal of the gods and other people that originally appear in Greek mythology. All of the ones that had at least somewhat important roles in the story were unique characters. Hades, Cassandra and Charon were the characters that stood out the most to me as having personalities different than I have ever seen them written as before. Hade's personality was one of the things that made me really enjoy this book, to be honest. It was just so much different than any way I've ever encountered him before.
Also, Persephone herself was not one of those annoying main characters. She did NOT like being told what to do without explanation or sitting back and letting everyone else do things for her. She struggled through the whole book to make people listen to her opinions and not decide things for her.
The writing style in this book is fairly simplistic and straightforward, but for me it really fit the storyline and the characters. It made it so that I could sit down and read a good chunk at a time without getting mentally tired at having to think all the time, but I could also pick it up and read a page or two quickly when I had a few minutes spare and not have to re-read, just jump in. It was refreshing to read, although that could have something to do with me reading another book at the same time that was much, much darker. Along with being straightforward, I found the writing was also smooth and flowed well.
Here's a quote that stood out to me for some reason that I still can't figure out. I think that it captures how the Underworld is portrayed in lots of modern re-tellings, and especially how it is portrayed in Persephone.
"I couldn't believe I'd ever been intimidated by the Underworld. It was just like the living realm. Life went on, so to speak. People were still people, and they continued to do the things that made them happy."
The Good: The characters, the writing.
The Bad: Started off being similar to other re-tellings.
The Verdict: 4/5. Definitely worth the read!
This book was supplied by the author in exchange for an honest review. Thank you, Kaitlin!
'Persephone' is a fun, imaginative, smart retelling of my favorite myth, fusing modern culture with a rich world of magic. I had such a great time reading this. I ate it up in just a few days. With its irreverent sense of humor and its intelligent references, it reminds me most of Joss Whedon, in particular the livelier, funnier seasons of "Buffy" or "Angel."
Persephone, a modern high school girl, is more than a bit surprised to learn that the Underworld is a real place, her mom is a real goddess, and she (Persephone) is on the verge of coming into her own powers. Soon Persephone gets temporarily stuck for her own protection in the realm of Hades, who's a hot and introverted immortal (his introversion really endeared him to me), and through her we get a visit to a richly and cleverly drawn paranormal world.
Kaitlin Bevis has done her homework. The side characters are nearly all inspired by mythology (some famous, like Orpheus; some more obscure, like Pirithous), but they are all fleshed out as individuals. The Underworld's features include lots of the geography we know from myths: various rivers with different magical properties, a hell-like area (Tartarus), and an awesome palace for the royalty. But it also has fun modern features like the ability to transform your rooms into a spa, and redo your wardrobe telepathically. But among the diverting innovations and renovations, darker and sadder scenes crop up, as is fitting for the afterlife: Orpheus will move you (naturally), and you'll cheer for Persephone when she demands to know why the hell the gods allow all the horrible things in the world to happen. (Though it's not like anyone can be expected to have a good answer to that.)
As a sucker for the Persephone/Hades relationship, I thought the romance was quite well handled. They keep up amusing banter, which lapses into sweet tenderness when Hades leaps in to protect Persephone from dangerous forces, and they share a couple of good "KISS HIM!" moments. It's clear they love each other, enough that I felt satisfied with where things end in this installment, but I very much look forward to watching their marriage of convenience mature into a full-blown steamy one in the next two books!
Persephone, a modern high school girl, is more than a bit surprised to learn that the Underworld is a real place, her mom is a real goddess, and she (Persephone) is on the verge of coming into her own powers. Soon Persephone gets temporarily stuck for her own protection in the realm of Hades, who's a hot and introverted immortal (his introversion really endeared him to me), and through her we get a visit to a richly and cleverly drawn paranormal world.
Kaitlin Bevis has done her homework. The side characters are nearly all inspired by mythology (some famous, like Orpheus; some more obscure, like Pirithous), but they are all fleshed out as individuals. The Underworld's features include lots of the geography we know from myths: various rivers with different magical properties, a hell-like area (Tartarus), and an awesome palace for the royalty. But it also has fun modern features like the ability to transform your rooms into a spa, and redo your wardrobe telepathically. But among the diverting innovations and renovations, darker and sadder scenes crop up, as is fitting for the afterlife: Orpheus will move you (naturally), and you'll cheer for Persephone when she demands to know why the hell the gods allow all the horrible things in the world to happen. (Though it's not like anyone can be expected to have a good answer to that.)
As a sucker for the Persephone/Hades relationship, I thought the romance was quite well handled. They keep up amusing banter, which lapses into sweet tenderness when Hades leaps in to protect Persephone from dangerous forces, and they share a couple of good "KISS HIM!" moments. It's clear they love each other, enough that I felt satisfied with where things end in this installment, but I very much look forward to watching their marriage of convenience mature into a full-blown steamy one in the next two books!
So much potential but everything was so obvious, and the pacing and plot were haphazard. I was bored to tears and stuck wondering why I should care about any of the characters. I'm giving it two stars instead of one because it wasn't Twilight bad.
I honestly didn’t think I’d like this book as much as I did ! I love anything Hades & Persephone so I thought I’d give it a try as I was trying to reach my reading goal for the month but I loved it, was fun to read I’m gonna continue on with the series
Couldn’t get into the book and I had other books become available to me that I wanted to read first. I may come back to revisit this books at a later time
More reviews available at my blog, Beauty and the Bookworm.
Let's start with this: I did not enjoy this book. It intrigued me, because I love stories based off myths and fairytales, and the story of Persephone and Hades is one my favorites. I read and devoured Meg Cabot's Abandon series a year or two back, which was based on the Persephone story and was absolutely delicious. I was hoping that Kaitlin Bevis' adaption would be more along those lines. It wasn't.
The story is about Persephone, who is in high school when she abruptly finds out that she's a goddess, that the god of winter is after her, and that the guy who rescued her from her is now her husband. Suddenly living in the underworld, does Persephone fret her pretty little head off about her mother and friends on earth? No. What does she do instead? She shops. She drinks coffee. She designs dresses and re-decorates her room. Apparently the underworld is like suburbia. Eventually, of course, she gets her butt in motion and actually does something, but only after pages and pages and pages of her fretting about like a regular sixteen-year-old, not one who should have larger concerns than the view outside her bedroom windows. Other annoying things about her: men fall in love with her at first sight (multiple times, and not just Hades; Hades gets a pass because that's how the myth goes).
The supporting characters annoyed me just as much. The gods are supposed to thousands of years old, and yet they all act like a bunch of teenagers. Hades, Thanatos, Demeter...all of them seem to not possess an ounce of sense in their god-like heads, as did their lackeys the Reapers, Charon, and even Persephone's friend Melissa (who was, to be fair, an actual teenager). Boreas, as a villain, was completely lacking from the picture. Cassandra, who should have been awesome, was merely annoying instead. Bevis decided to do away with the part of Cassandra's curse that dictated that no one would believe her visions, instead deciding to go with the curse ended when she died, which basically means Cassandra knows everything that's coming and tells Hades about it in advance so he can deal with it, and Persephone never needs to. Cassandra could have been an incredibly compelling character, but was instead relegated to cheesy, annoying sidekick.
The settings were also cringe-worthy; the underworld is apparently just like suburbia, very Stepford Wives-ish but without the menace lurking underneath. Tartarus could have provided an interesting component but was, again, pushed off to the side so that Bevis could talk more about Persephone's flowershop in the suburbs of the underworld.
And the romance? Pretty much non-existent. Hades falls in love with Persephone at first sight, as per the myth, and that's about it. There's no real development of their relationship on either side. Oh, and the winter that descends upon the world is from Boreas, not from Demeter missing and searching for her daughter. No, Demeter is totally okay with her daughter going off to the underworld and marrying a guy thousands of years older than her. What? What what what?
And the writing! Bevis skips from one incident to another with no smooth transitions, to the point that at the beginning of the book I found myself wondering what the heck was going on at some points. "Where did this come from?" I wondered, for a long time before realizing it was a completely different scene and time, there just hadn't been any transition to it. Unnecessary adverbs abound, Hades sighs about every two seconds... I could go on, but I won't.
If you're looking for a young adult adaptation of the Persephone story, try Meg Cabot's Abandon instead; while I certainly had some issues with it, it left a much better impression overall than Bevis' adaptation did. If you want a young adult story of a girl coming into crazy nature powers and falling in love with a death god, try Kresley Cole's Aracana series. Both, I think, would be far better options than this book.
1.5 stars out of 5.
Let's start with this: I did not enjoy this book. It intrigued me, because I love stories based off myths and fairytales, and the story of Persephone and Hades is one my favorites. I read and devoured Meg Cabot's Abandon series a year or two back, which was based on the Persephone story and was absolutely delicious. I was hoping that Kaitlin Bevis' adaption would be more along those lines. It wasn't.
The story is about Persephone, who is in high school when she abruptly finds out that she's a goddess, that the god of winter is after her, and that the guy who rescued her from her is now her husband. Suddenly living in the underworld, does Persephone fret her pretty little head off about her mother and friends on earth? No. What does she do instead? She shops. She drinks coffee. She designs dresses and re-decorates her room. Apparently the underworld is like suburbia. Eventually, of course, she gets her butt in motion and actually does something, but only after pages and pages and pages of her fretting about like a regular sixteen-year-old, not one who should have larger concerns than the view outside her bedroom windows. Other annoying things about her: men fall in love with her at first sight (multiple times, and not just Hades; Hades gets a pass because that's how the myth goes).
The supporting characters annoyed me just as much. The gods are supposed to thousands of years old, and yet they all act like a bunch of teenagers. Hades, Thanatos, Demeter...all of them seem to not possess an ounce of sense in their god-like heads, as did their lackeys the Reapers, Charon, and even Persephone's friend Melissa (who was, to be fair, an actual teenager). Boreas, as a villain, was completely lacking from the picture. Cassandra, who should have been awesome, was merely annoying instead. Bevis decided to do away with the part of Cassandra's curse that dictated that no one would believe her visions, instead deciding to go with the curse ended when she died, which basically means Cassandra knows everything that's coming and tells Hades about it in advance so he can deal with it, and Persephone never needs to. Cassandra could have been an incredibly compelling character, but was instead relegated to cheesy, annoying sidekick.
The settings were also cringe-worthy; the underworld is apparently just like suburbia, very Stepford Wives-ish but without the menace lurking underneath. Tartarus could have provided an interesting component but was, again, pushed off to the side so that Bevis could talk more about Persephone's flowershop in the suburbs of the underworld.
And the romance? Pretty much non-existent. Hades falls in love with Persephone at first sight, as per the myth, and that's about it. There's no real development of their relationship on either side. Oh, and the winter that descends upon the world is from Boreas, not from Demeter missing and searching for her daughter. No, Demeter is totally okay with her daughter going off to the underworld and marrying a guy thousands of years older than her. What? What what what?
And the writing! Bevis skips from one incident to another with no smooth transitions, to the point that at the beginning of the book I found myself wondering what the heck was going on at some points. "Where did this come from?" I wondered, for a long time before realizing it was a completely different scene and time, there just hadn't been any transition to it. Unnecessary adverbs abound, Hades sighs about every two seconds... I could go on, but I won't.
If you're looking for a young adult adaptation of the Persephone story, try Meg Cabot's Abandon instead; while I certainly had some issues with it, it left a much better impression overall than Bevis' adaptation did. If you want a young adult story of a girl coming into crazy nature powers and falling in love with a death god, try Kresley Cole's Aracana series. Both, I think, would be far better options than this book.
1.5 stars out of 5.