Reviews

OOOO this was such a fun and funky retelling of greek mythology! small town texas is such a vibrant and interesting setting for reimagining the stories of the olympians!!! all of the tangled webs and the drama and the pain and the highly problematic characters are SO well developed and not once was i bored by it??? which i was 1000% expecting. also really just contextualized a lot of greek mythology stories that i hadn’t fully understood or known before! also putting famously immortal figures into the human world makes for a fascINATING turn on the traits of the gods!! like peter/zeus just being a relatively rich real estate man in texas that’s an AVID cheater and bad dad!!!!! preach on it!!!

very cool very good

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“If romantic love contained so much foolishness, waste and want, why seek it out?”

infinite_mirrors's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.0

The Greek gods have gone Southern in this modern re-imagining of classic myths set in Texas. In a refreshing turn of events, this is not another retelling of Hades and Persephone, or Orpheus, or Achilles... but of the lesser-known myth of Orion, and of Aphrodite's affair with Ares. At its core, however, it is a compelling character study of complex, fallible people.

The main cast is comprised of Zeus, Hera, Ares, Hephaestus, Aphrodite, Apollo, and Artemis. Other characters make appearances as well (lots of Easter eggs for people who know their Greek myths!), but they are the focus of the story. They are also all renamed more modern names that are a twist on their Greek or Roman names; Zeus/Jupiter becomes Peter, Aphrodite/Venus becomes Vera, Apollo and Artemis become Arlo and Artie, etc. I'll just refer to them by their Greek names in this review to keep it simple.

One of the main story lines, and I would say the heart of story, is Ares' redemption arc. As he grows as a person and gains better control of his rage, the other characters parallel that growth and self-awareness in their own story arcs. His return to Olympus is the domino effect that sets everything else into motion. I really enjoyed getting into everyone's heads and diving into the dynamics of this family, which is just as messy as their divine counterparts. Each character is so fleshed out, so painfully imperfect and human. Everyone has their own perspective revealed in rotating limited third-person narration, and the author does an amazing job at making everyone sympathetic in their own way, making choosing sides impossible. I especially loved digging into Hephaestus and Aphrodite's relationship. While the pacing is certainly slow and not much really happens in the novel, I never grew bored or felt like the story was dragging. But I do really love a good character study.

I was disappointed to find that this book commits the cardinal sin of straight-washing both Apollo and Artemis. Apollo, whose great romance is canonically a man! He wanted Daphne, yes, but he was in an actual relationship with Hyacinth. Daphne does come up in this story (as a woman named Laurel, which is a cute reference), but Hyacinth is absent, and Apollo is noted as a ladies' man multiple times in the novel. Artemis, known in Greek mythology as the goddess who never sleeps with or falls in love with anyone, is portrayed here as someone who partakes occasionally in casual sex, and - very notably - falls in love with Orion. Asexual and aromantic representation is already so rare in media, and this is the goddess who is literally known for her disinterest in sex or romance! As an asexual, that just felt disrespectful. So, for straight-washing the sun and moon gods, I am taking away a star.