As the saying goes, “if this book has 1,000 haters, I’m one. If this book has one hater, it’s me. If this book has zero haters, I’m dead.”
I haven’t had a negative visceral reaction to a book like this since I read Where the Crawdads Sing. For much different reasons, but my hate for both runs deep.
I hate the narrative voice (or should I say voices). And the constantly shifting POV. And the dozens of extremely unlovable, irritating characters. It made it so hard to invest in or care for any single character. It’s also marketed as a retelling of Medusa but she barely felt like a peripheral character?

Medusa’s death was boring, brief, and I hate that we just moved on.

This book was very much “insert trama>pursue revenge” and kinda casually skips past all the r*pe.
Also, what ever happened to the giants? What was the point of all that?
I know many of the characters are introduced to explain this one little thing that another character did that snowballed into a slightly larger part of the plot but good grief.
There were some clever parts and the writing (probably) isn’t bad! I just couldn’t get past my dislike to enjoy it. Not my style.

Content Warnings

emilye's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective sad fast-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

2.75

Content Warnings

sfryman96's review against another edition

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adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

redandread_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

Content Warnings

garnethalo's review against another edition

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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.

Content Warnings

secre's review against another edition

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adventurous sad slow-paced

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

2.0

If Stone Blind had been described as a tale of the ancient Greek Gods and how Perseus ended up on a quest to fetch Medusa's head, maybe it would have been a four star read. Maybe. But it wasn't. It was described as Medusa's story, so I was anticipating something like Circe by Madeline Miller, a novel that told Medusa's story through her own eyes and focused on the portrayal of her. Or like A Thousand Ships by this same author, a novel that directly focused on the unheard female voices of the Trojan war and brought them to life. And oh boy, was I disappointed.

I'd say about 25% of this novel actually has Medusa as a semi-main character and even then, there's a lot of attention on her sisters. The rest of the novel is made up of petty Godly squabbles and fights and Perseus's quest across the land to bring back the head of a Gorgon. It... wasn't what I signed up for. It also frankly didn't interest me that much. I was genuinely interested in the childhood and life of Medusa, I was kind of interested in some of the God side plots although they really needed to be minimised... I just did not care about Perseus. Come on. The story of the boy who beheads the sleeping monster was not the important one here, particularly when he's shallow, selfish and cruel to boot.

What I wanted and what I got here were two very different things. Medusa was essentially relegated to a bit player in her own damn story and that's a crying shame, particularly when I know how well the author can portray the unsung voices. This could have been excellent, it should have been excellent; Haynes certainly has the writing talent and spark to pull it off. But instead of allowing Medusa to stand on the stage alone, she is overshadowed by Gods and men and petty arguments. And I really, really struggled to engage with it because of that.

Don't get me wrong. I'll read the author again. I adored A Thousand Ships. But this... this was a disappointment and it was nowhere near interesting enough to hold my attention.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for my free review copy of this title.

Content Warnings

nak34's review against another edition

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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

Content Warnings

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