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themandimonster's review against another edition
5.0
Beautifully written. I'm never disappointed with Nikita's work.
fatimaelf's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
sad
fast-paced
3.75
I think I expected more from this collection than I got from. Not to say it was bad by any stretch of the imagination, and in fact there were pockets of genuinely great moments and I had some poems I truly enjoyed, but I thought I’d get a little more from it than I did.
I’m no expert in Greek mythology, but I’m familiar enough with it to have recognized many of the stories told in these pages. I appreciate that the beauty of myths is in their recreation: they are told over the course of hundreds of years and they change as they pass hands, just as they’re changing now.
Some poems that I liked, and that I think did good things with the material, were “Chaos to Nyx, Goddess of the Night,” “The Four Stages of a Poisoning,” “The Unloved Gods: Hecatoncheires,” “Athena’s Tale,” “Lessons from Hephaestus,” “The Messenger, the Trickster, Guide of the Dead,” and “Briseis Rememebrs.” I think for the most part the writing in these was impactful, and the poems themselves were easy to get through and understand.
Gill shone brightest when writing known myths from the perspective (third person, I’ll get into her first person forays in a second) of those we normally don’t focus on. Kronos eating his children, for example, and how Gaia came to betray him, was a compelling poem. Athena’s “childhood” raised by her mother in Metis in Zeus’s intestines was also a captivating poem. And I actually (mostly) enjoyed almost all the poems that explored the gods in the modern day: once Olympus fell, and they decided to integrate amongst the mortals, and how they coped or didn’t.
Sometimes the words and phrases Gill used were clunky, the mark of an author trying a little too hard to reach for vibrant imagery or impactful lines. In poetry, clunkiness is more egregious to me than in prose, because nearly whole of poetry is built on the way the words work together. For example, “moon-drenched night sky” in the context of the poem kind of made me roll my eyes.
Ironically, it when Gill least attempted to be poetic that the poetry really gripped my attention: when she was just telling a story of the gods, how they came together, how they fell apart, that’s when the collection shone. That’s actually my main critique of this book of poems — I felt that it should have been a book of short stories. Most of the poems I enjoyed were prose poems, which, at a certain point, kind of just becomes prose. If this had been a collection of short stories that focused on Gill’s version of the gods trying to make it in human society, I think I would have consumed that gleefully.
Many of the other poems, outside of the prose ones, unfortunately, fell into the habit of saying something just to have said it, rather than because Gill had something to say. I think that’s a consequence of trying to make a book of poems solely about Greek gods; she might have found more material to work with had she explored other pantheons.
And I don’t begrudge Gill putting a feminist twist on every Greek myth she retells. As I said, I understand that that’s what myths are for. It was very tumblr-esque at times, because it’s possible to be a feminist and acknowledge that maybe Athena wasn’t a fan of mortal women, but I didn’t have a real problem with the story being told in that way. I got tired fairly quickly of the “girls remember you’re made of FIRE and also WATER and that men HATE YOU” snippets but only because there were too damn many of them.
I also wish Gill had acknowledged that part of the whole thing with the Greek gods in particular is that, well, they kind of sucked. It was well known throughout Greece that their vices were worse than ours. They were not good at all, because they were immortal. We got glimpses of that acknowledgment, but it was drowned out in trying to reframe old stories to where the gods were actually sympathetic in the choices they made. Not all the time — Hera done did goof, she was not a girl’s girl, and we see that.
I also wish Gill had acknowledged that part of the whole thing with the Greek gods in particular is that, well, they kind of sucked. It was well known throughout Greece that their vices were worse than ours. They were not good at all, because they were immortal. We got glimpses of that acknowledgment, but it was drowned out in trying to reframe old stories to where the gods were actually sympathetic in the choices they made. Not all the time — Hera done did goof, she was not a girl’s girl, and we see that.
But when Gill explored the psyche of the gods a little deeper than a lot of her surface stuff, gods like Hephaestus or even Ares, it was much more interesting to read. Only in the third person though, I want to emphasize that. None of the poems that slip into first person have distinct voices, even though they’re meant to represent different gods, so it was difficult to take those ones seriously.
I didn’t hate this collection, really I didn’t, and some poems worked really well. I had too high of expectations, because I’d been wanting to read this for years now, and I think that hobbled much of my enjoyment of it. It’s also possible that these types of poems aren’t for me — the stream of consciousness, prose-like types that are broken up by what feels to be random lines. I won’t rule out Gill for future reading, mostly because when she was on fire, she did light the whole page up.
moth_dance's review against another edition
5.0
Enchanting and insightful.
Pairs beautifully with [b:Psyche in a Dress|14560|Psyche in a Dress|Francesca Lia Block|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386921704l/14560._SX50_.jpg|16589] and [b:Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung|43684703|Wake, Siren Ovid Resung|Nina MacLaughlin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554232390l/43684703._SX50_.jpg|67966057]
Pairs beautifully with [b:Psyche in a Dress|14560|Psyche in a Dress|Francesca Lia Block|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1386921704l/14560._SX50_.jpg|16589] and [b:Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung|43684703|Wake, Siren Ovid Resung|Nina MacLaughlin|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1554232390l/43684703._SX50_.jpg|67966057]
imissyou's review against another edition
3.0
I'm not a fan a of modern greek adaptations, I'm not the biggest fan of this one either but the part "Modern Apollo and Artemis"... let's appreciate some quotes:
1. “For the first time since their birth, Apollo did not know where Artemis was.”
2. “Apollo?’ the youth drawls in amusement. ‘Like the comic books?’
He looks at the beauty he had found so fascinating an hour ago, suddenly being replaced by something else, so young and impossibly fleeting. ‘Like the God.”
3. “His children are thriving.
Asclepius flourishes in every hospital he has ever been to; he sees him often when he stops trying to heal people. Not that his healing powers are ever the same as they used to be, but it wouldn’t matter even if they were. Modern medication is quick, almost as quick as the Gods themselves.”
1. “For the first time since their birth, Apollo did not know where Artemis was.”
2. “Apollo?’ the youth drawls in amusement. ‘Like the comic books?’
He looks at the beauty he had found so fascinating an hour ago, suddenly being replaced by something else, so young and impossibly fleeting. ‘Like the God.”
3. “His children are thriving.
Asclepius flourishes in every hospital he has ever been to; he sees him often when he stops trying to heal people. Not that his healing powers are ever the same as they used to be, but it wouldn’t matter even if they were. Modern medication is quick, almost as quick as the Gods themselves.”
swampbooks's review against another edition
3.0
I’m not a big poetry person and can’t really get myself to sit down and read it straight, so I read this most mornings on my commute to work instead.
Overall, it was good. The poems read like stories which helped me read and understand them. I’m in the process of learning about Greek mythology and think I would like this book more when I’m educated on the lesser gods, who take up a good portion of the poems.
Might read it again at some point in the future when I know more about mythology.
Overall, it was good. The poems read like stories which helped me read and understand them. I’m in the process of learning about Greek mythology and think I would like this book more when I’m educated on the lesser gods, who take up a good portion of the poems.
Might read it again at some point in the future when I know more about mythology.