Reviews

Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes

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joeydrozario's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

mcbroomm's review against another edition

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4.25

Fast paced and really enjoyed the writing style. Love these kinds of retellings

onyxisalive's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

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

2.25

The writing of this book was okay - it is predominately written in third person (with the exception of some POV's); the different POV's do not have a distinct voice between them, because of this it makes it difficult to become attached to the characters as they don't feel real.
Due to the constantly changing POV's in this book it makes it near impossible to become attached to any of the characters. The exception being Medusa at the start, this happened for me due to the relationship with her sisters and her being in the story before the conception of her trauma. Most of the female characters are only added when their trauma happens this makes it much harder to grow attached to them and makes the events much less emotional.
Due to this wide scope of POV's the impact of the book is lessened as it means their is less time to develop each character, making some events not feel realistic, and making it difficult to connect with anyone.

The stone chapters

felt like a waste of time and I did not care about them at all.

In regards to Medusa, I really liked her at the start,

but her death did not hit hard at all. This was mostly because of the way it is told through her cut off head. Who has such a drastic personality change in such a short period of time and shows very little empathy I found her insufferable. I really hated the head chapters through the book. I did not like that the head was constantly yelling at the reader for things, which at some points in the story, we have very good reason to believe. It made her seem really insufferable and made it impossible for me to care about her; consequently, severely reducing the impact of her death.

In regards to the books message, it was interesting on the surface level, but it did not feel like the author dove deep enough into the various different aspects of it. The really horrible characters barely got any acknowledgement of wrong doing,

the book spends most of the time getting annoyed at Perseus - who we have no reason to be mad at until the end of the book (a character change, by the way that felt rushed and, as a result, completely unrealistic (even if it felt like it would make sense in theory)).

The really horrible characters are either treated humorously after their wrongdoings or like children. Instead of focusing on specific characters it instead focuses on the wrongdoings of many character and as a result many of the traumas feel either unrealistic or overshadowed by other plot points.

Other than Perseus,

the female characters themselves are actually some of the most petty and angry, with very few of them being likeable. Most of them have the same personality and are completely unlikeable.

It felt like the book focused too much on the rage of the females and their infighting instead of levying any hate the way of the Greek Gods - which could have been done in the head chapters which would have made the infighting between the females feel more like it had a point.

In regards to the positive, I really did like the sections at the beginning with Medusa and her sisters I really grew attached to them

(even if it was ruined later).

Also, the comedic sections of this book were really funny and did not feel like the messed with the serious tone of the book too much - I would definitely be interested in reading a less serious and more comedic book by this author.

All in all, it had potential, but I really wish the story had stayed more streamlined and centralised on one or two characters instead of 10 - I feel like it could have been really good if that was done as most of my issues with this book stem from this one issue.

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