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cleverbaggins's review against another edition
dark
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
I don't usually rate books super badly. Usually I just assume it's not for me and move on. This is one of the few books I've read that I actively hate.
I was so excited for this book. So hopeful. The content warnings needed to be 100% more specific. It is graffic and Grim and without hope. Only a couple of the characters are likeable and they're treated horribly by the main characters.
I thought this book was going to be clever. I thought the scifi aspects, the variety of species and cultures would be explored. They weren't.
This is a book that wanted to say a lot and tried the hardest and most complicated way to do it and then what it had to say was horrible.
It's advertised as matrix and a hades/persephone retelling. What the author is missing is that the darkness in both of those has hope. Has people fighting for right. Has love and the rise of a new future. This book has none of it.
I'm actively angry. This book made my skin crawl. There was nothing explored that should've been and I regret all the people I suggested it to when they wanted more retellings. You couldnt pay me to try another of the authors works.
I was so excited for this book. So hopeful. The content warnings needed to be 100% more specific. It is graffic and Grim and without hope. Only a couple of the characters are likeable and they're treated horribly by the main characters.
I thought this book was going to be clever. I thought the scifi aspects, the variety of species and cultures would be explored. They weren't.
This is a book that wanted to say a lot and tried the hardest and most complicated way to do it and then what it had to say was horrible.
It's advertised as matrix and a hades/persephone retelling. What the author is missing is that the darkness in both of those has hope. Has people fighting for right. Has love and the rise of a new future. This book has none of it.
I'm actively angry. This book made my skin crawl. There was nothing explored that should've been and I regret all the people I suggested it to when they wanted more retellings. You couldnt pay me to try another of the authors works.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Slavery, Sexual violence, Rape, Violence, Trafficking, Religious bigotry, Racism, Xenophobia, War, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Misogyny
venealosille's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, War, and Child abuse
Moderate: Deportation and Addiction
boocwurm's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
An Afrofuturistic retelling of the myth of Persephone set on Eleusis, a new planet where humans sought refuge after aliens attacked Earth. The book jumps through time and perspectives to follow three interconnected storylines: A young girl is kidnapped from her agrarian community by a violent warlord; Genetically modified twin brothers use their unnatural gifts to search for a missing young boy in Eleusis’ city; A young woman navigates her relationship with a powerful man and the destiny he hopes she’ll achieve.
There was a lot to unpack in this book. Brissett explores dynamics of race, class, identity and what it truly means to be human—demonstrating how humanity may evolve and escape terror, but certain societal horrors might persist. The Kresge, the alien race who initially attacked Earth, have settled onto Eleusis alongside humans, and their motives are unclear. I found many parallels between the human/Kresge dynamic and the dynamic between Black/Indigenous peoples and white colonizers and enslavers, exploring ideas of righting past wrongs, deeply rooted distrust and persisting power systems. Having gotten through the plot and world-building on the first read, I’d like to revisit this book later to explore these ideas more deeply.
The multiple storylines are very separate in the outset—spanning a decade—but move closer and closer together as you near the end. At first, these time jumps were a little confusing, but nothing more than your average time-jump book. I was much more confused by the shift in perspectives. The POV changes from first to third person at seemingly random times. Even by the end, I couldn’t quite grasp the intentionality behind the first-person sections… The worldbuilding was also a bit confusing, although we got there by the end. The author introduces new terms in early chapters and then explains them in depth in later chapters; I wished some of these explanations had come a little earlier so they’d mean more to me during the story’s foundation.
I liked the characters and their relationships quite a bit. Cora, the main character throughout, is a strong and powerful person who doesn’t let others’ desires for her path define her. If you know the Persephone myth, many of the characters and story tidbits will seem familiar to you, and I quite enjoyed those callbacks (and I’m sure there are many I missed). I also quite liked the author’s writing style. She uses a lot of artful repetition toward the end that I felt really brought the stories together into one cohesive narrative.
Overall, this was a clever sci-fi tale that examines much more than the usual, asking us to examine humanity with a new backdrop.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, and Murder
Moderate: War and Kidnapping
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