Reviews with content warning for Violence - Stone Blind

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

155 reviews

unfinishedduet's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional 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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sas_ram's review against another edition

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3.75

So describe this story in a few words: victim-blaiming, multiple timelines/perspectivs that take away from Medusa, less focuse on Medusa than expected (it's just as much Athenas story as Medusa's), not that mythologically correct ending, makes the gods look almost human, Athena is egoistic as hell, you literally get to know more about Athenas character than Medusas, there are some parts that are much better in how it's written than most of the story. In general in just lacks depth.
It is a good read but definitly not one of the best retellings out there.

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aj_langley's review against another edition

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dark informative mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

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maddieemp's review against another edition

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adventurous dark sad fast-paced

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

4.0

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ivegotyourpaperback's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

All the stars ever. This is by far my favourite read (or listen) of the year.

The author herself did a brilliant dramatic reading which I was riveted by. Her tone and the way she have each character a unique voice and personality was a delight to listen to.

While this is the story of Medusa, it’s made all the richer by also getting to know the interconnected characters that I’d heard of on their own but never realised they had a connection to Medusa’s myth. There are various POV’s of Goddesses, mortal women, the 3 Gorgon sisters, even an object (the Gorgoneion), the snakes on Medusa’s head, Stone (yes, as in the rock), and more.

I love how some of the POV’s seem to ‘break the fourth wall’ (so to speak), as if the character is directly addressing the reader.

The coercive sexual assault of a 16 year old girl trying to protect others was heartbreaking (thank goodness the details of the assault weren’t on page). The aftermath made me cry (which I almost never do when reading). The entitlement to a girl’s body radiating from Poseidon is reminiscent of so many SA stories we hear about today.

But with the horror of the tale it also has incredible moments of beauty highlighting the importance of the company and comfort women can provide to each other during life’s various trials and hardships.

It was hugely satisfying for me that even when Poseidon is trying to be the great ruler of his kingdom he still comes off as second fiddle to Zeus in this story. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like either of the deities but the thwarting of Poseidon’s authority is a minor karmic justice for the grave crime committed against Medusa.

I also loved the portrayal of Perseus as a bumbling idiot, rather than a self-confident epic hero . It’s portrayed that he doesn’t actually know what he’s doing, and drives home the point that what he’s doing isn’t right, because he doesn’t have any strong feelings about the murder of an innocent person, who’s minding her own business. He’s got blinders on - his only motivation is his mother. Speaking of which, the text does a great job of pointing out that, this whole quest to ‘prove himself’ to the king, probably never needed to happen.

Standout characters for me were Métis (short though her appearance was), Stheno (surprisingly funny) and Hera (Sassy, spiteful bitch).

Favourite quote (from Zeus’ POV): “He assumed that Hera was busying herself turning one of his favourite girls into a cow, or a weasel, or whatever, which means it may well be too late to intervene and save her. Although there was always the possibility that the world had just gained an attractive new cow, so all was not lost.”

Content warnings:

⚠️rape

⚠️adultery

⚠️sexual coercion

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zimmerlemon's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective

4.0

Interesting!
I liked the writing style for the most part. Some of the references are pretty deep into the mythology so it’s more fun if you already know the stories or are willing to look things up lol. There are a TON of different POVs.
Also a warning that for a book about Medusa, she has surprisingly little airtime.

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renettereads's review against another edition

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dark funny medium-paced

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

3.25

Stone Blind has unfortunately been my biggest disappointment of the year so far. Sold as a Medusa story, I was excited for an underdog of Greek myth to finally get her story and for it to be done some justice. I think the fact that the text wasn’t taken seriously enough, in my opinion anyway, is what bothered me most.

The gods were a parody of themselves and for a story about Medusa, there weren’t very many scenes with her in it.

I can understand what Natalie Haynes was doing here, and think that this particular retelling just wasn’t written for me.

In saying that, parts of it made me laugh and I did like that Persues’ true colours were on show. It also showed off the pettiness of the gods, but it just didn’t scratch the itch I was hoping it would.

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