Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

42 reviews

garnethalo's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I'll never look at Perseus the same. With the switching veiwpoints, I understood Medusa, the gods, and Perseus better. And I definitely have favorites. A wonderful, captivating read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Misogyny, and Murder

Moderate: Blood and Abandonment

Minor: Animal death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, and Violence

Medusa's story from before she was cursed. If you know Greek mythology, you know why. Also, Greek stories are usually a tragedy!

sierraashley's review against another edition

adventurous funny fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

5.0

Very well done. Love the satire. I was giggling as I'd read, especially when they were making fun of Perseus. Medusa is one of my favorite characters ever and didn't deserve what happened to her and I'm glad someone finally told her story.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, War, Confinement, Misogyny, Grief, and Death

turrean's review against another edition

dark emotional funny sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

The gods are capricious and fate is cruel and I need a drink. 

I applaud the tiniest bit of agency Medusa had in this retelling of her story. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Confinement, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Grief, and Stalking

nak34's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, Sexual harassment, Torture, Death, and Sexual assault

Moderate: War, Grief, Sexism, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, and Child death

katcass's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Grief, Sexual violence, and Death

cnannery19's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Classism, Rape, Murder, Grief, War, Confinement, Death, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Suicide

atamano's review against another edition

adventurous funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Murder, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Confinement, Blood, War, Rape, and Grief

Minor: Animal death

katewhite77's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

I Am Glad I Read This

I tend to avoid myth retellings like the plague simply because I don't know the original material all that well over and above what we are all taught in primary school. I just let myself get swept away by the story. 

I read this because it was on a prize list last year, and I have always loved Natalie Hains as a comic and have wanted to try one of her books for a while. 

Grim, though the tale is, Natalie's humour sings throughout the book, and because of this, I really recommend the audiobook as she performs it herself, which, of course adds another layer to the humour. 

I wasn't expecting to enjoy this book half as much as I did, and I really want to explore more retellings and source material now. Who knew!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, and Violence

Moderate: Grief

bee12345's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.25

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Murder, Violence, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Sexual assault, Rape, Body horror, and Sexual violence

annakh16's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

I‘m a bit torn on how to rate this. Ultimately, I found this story easy to get through and I enjoyed learning from it. 

Poseidon was disgusting, and both Athena and Perseus were utterly annoying - that’s a compliment to the writer, though it did make some of the scenes a bit hard to bear. 

However, in general, the writing felt a bit bare and flat to me - I feel like especially the very emotional scenes could have done with more elaboration.

I also think that the ending felt rushed and quite abrupt.  Perseus‘ story felt somewhat unresolved.

like what about that grandfather he was meant to kill? It was quite important to the story. I‘m not saying it needed a full scene, but at least some mention of his future would’ve been nice.

And Athena‘s story was resolved too quickly for my taste.

Overall, I would recommend this to someone interested in mythology, as I do like the new perspective on Medusa & think she’s a bit underrepresented in the retellings. It’s not my favourite retelling though, and I prefer „A Thousand Ships“ from Haynes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Death, Abandonment, Rape, and Murder

Minor: Confinement and Grief

There‘s an attempted human ritual sacrifice towards the end of the book. Wasn’t quite sure what category that would go into.