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aspiringcowboy 's review for:
Stone Blind
by Natalie Haynes
challenging
dark
slow-paced
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
i'm not a greek mythology guy, despite numerous attempts. it's just not something i was ever able to get into. so i'm leaving this unrated, since i don't feel qualified to speak to whether or not to how the myth was represented with this story, but i do have thoughts as a reader in general, so here goes:
i. the writing style feels very stiff, and to a degree, disingenuous, like it's attempting to mimic something else and not quite working out. there's a level of pretention i do not like, and there's multiple chapters that are incredibly condescending to the reader, and it's really frustrating. the dialogue feels unnatural and the gods don't really speak like Gods, and i guess that's not inherently a bad thing, it can be done well, but it isn't here. also the phrase "not like other girls" is used unironically and i just really needed the author to choose whether they wanted to do commit to a more "modern" tone or not, because it was so inconsistent.
ii. for a book about medusa... it does not feel much like it's actually about medusa. there are large chunks of the book where she's just entirely absent. around page 230 i actually searched her name to see when the last time she had been mentioned - it was page 204; she's not mentioned again until page 243 - but what i noticed when searching was that there is only 183 results that came up when i searched her name, as opposed to the 331 (!) that come up when i search perseus. and it's not just about the numbers; when we do get chapters focusing on medusa, she just feels like such a non-character. i don't feel like there's anything done to really make her "sympathetic", though i hate the notion that she somehow needs to be "sympathetic" for people to care about her rape. but it's just never about her??? not even her rape????? it happens in a single sentence and she's raped because she "chooses" to allow poseidon to assault her instead of a mortal girl because he delivers her that ultimatum and the narrative presents it as so "selfless" and she's Such A Good Person because she cares about humans despite them thinking of her as a monster. it's very weird. and the fact that the only aftermath we see/exploration of her feelings about the subject is saying that she's now scared of the sea - but it feels like it centers her sister's feelings more than hers. i really thought we would get an exploration about her feelings and state of mind after the rape but nothing is there. instead we spend SO much time on the POVs of zeus and athene and POSEIDON and i don't get it. why do we need scenes of athena being assaulted by hephaestus? why do we need a chapter about the battle between the gods and the giants and who i believe is hercules (though he's never named)? it's very confusing to me. not even medusa's death is about her because we don't even get it written out; there's nothing about HER feelings.
iii. i don't understand the presentation of perseus in this book, and how he is simultaneously a petulant, whiny child, but also a Big, Scary, Violent Man (despite being 16). i don't understand the (again, condescending) narration about his choice to undertake the quest to save his mother from being forced to marry a man against her will; there's a whole chapter where the narrator whines that it's "not a big deal" for her and that she'd be "fine", despite the fact that?? a 'marriage' like that would undoubtedly also involve her being raped???? the way perseus is described as incapable but an undeniable threat just does not work for me. he is so scared, until he isn't, and there's a sort of bioessentialist narrative* at play where it seems like the writing is insisting it's his nature because He's A Man. which is weird. i don't know why it has to be one way or another, with medusa as the villain/victim OR perseus as the villain/victim, and why they both can't be victims of circumstance and the gods and powerful people who think they can do whatever they want with everyone.
*in the brief description of medusa's death, the book says "But there is no battle to be had between an armed man and a sleeping girl. Don't forget." but.. they are both 16. why is he suddenly a Man but she is a girl? it gives bioessentialist vibes
iv. i've already said the book doesn't feel like it's about medusa and mentioned some random scenes that i don't understand the inclusion of, but i want to harp again on how absolutely irrelevant some things feel. i don't know why athene gets so much time dedicated to her, and i don't know why she's presented as nothing more than a lapdog for zeus. i don't get why we have to spend so many pages detailing how hera harasses the victims of her husband. i don't understand why we get a perspective from andromeda. it just bored me a lot because i really DID want to read about medusa's perspective.
v. i don't think the book handles rape very well. i don't know how accurate it portrays the rape of medusa, but i did some cursory searching and couldn't find that it occurred because poseidon gave her a choice?? the whole thing was really uncomfortable and felt weird and like the author really needed medusa to do something "heroic" to make her death so tragic and like i said, i feel like the average person would find all of it tragic regardless?? but there's a weird comment about another (attempted) rape that almost felt like it was trying to be snarky/funny, and considering the topic, that seemed way out of touch:
i. the writing style feels very stiff, and to a degree, disingenuous, like it's attempting to mimic something else and not quite working out. there's a level of pretention i do not like, and there's multiple chapters that are incredibly condescending to the reader, and it's really frustrating. the dialogue feels unnatural and the gods don't really speak like Gods, and i guess that's not inherently a bad thing, it can be done well, but it isn't here. also the phrase "not like other girls" is used unironically and i just really needed the author to choose whether they wanted to do commit to a more "modern" tone or not, because it was so inconsistent.
ii. for a book about medusa... it does not feel much like it's actually about medusa. there are large chunks of the book where she's just entirely absent. around page 230 i actually searched her name to see when the last time she had been mentioned - it was page 204; she's not mentioned again until page 243 - but what i noticed when searching was that there is only 183 results that came up when i searched her name, as opposed to the 331 (!) that come up when i search perseus. and it's not just about the numbers; when we do get chapters focusing on medusa, she just feels like such a non-character. i don't feel like there's anything done to really make her "sympathetic", though i hate the notion that she somehow needs to be "sympathetic" for people to care about her rape. but it's just never about her??? not even her rape????? it happens in a single sentence and she's raped because she "chooses" to allow poseidon to assault her instead of a mortal girl because he delivers her that ultimatum and the narrative presents it as so "selfless" and she's Such A Good Person because she cares about humans despite them thinking of her as a monster. it's very weird. and the fact that the only aftermath we see/exploration of her feelings about the subject is saying that she's now scared of the sea - but it feels like it centers her sister's feelings more than hers. i really thought we would get an exploration about her feelings and state of mind after the rape but nothing is there. instead we spend SO much time on the POVs of zeus and athene and POSEIDON and i don't get it. why do we need scenes of athena being assaulted by hephaestus? why do we need a chapter about the battle between the gods and the giants and who i believe is hercules (though he's never named)? it's very confusing to me. not even medusa's death is about her because we don't even get it written out; there's nothing about HER feelings.
iii. i don't understand the presentation of perseus in this book, and how he is simultaneously a petulant, whiny child, but also a Big, Scary, Violent Man (despite being 16). i don't understand the (again, condescending) narration about his choice to undertake the quest to save his mother from being forced to marry a man against her will; there's a whole chapter where the narrator whines that it's "not a big deal" for her and that she'd be "fine", despite the fact that?? a 'marriage' like that would undoubtedly also involve her being raped???? the way perseus is described as incapable but an undeniable threat just does not work for me. he is so scared, until he isn't, and there's a sort of bioessentialist narrative* at play where it seems like the writing is insisting it's his nature because He's A Man. which is weird. i don't know why it has to be one way or another, with medusa as the villain/victim OR perseus as the villain/victim, and why they both can't be victims of circumstance and the gods and powerful people who think they can do whatever they want with everyone.
*in the brief description of medusa's death, the book says "But there is no battle to be had between an armed man and a sleeping girl. Don't forget." but.. they are both 16. why is he suddenly a Man but she is a girl? it gives bioessentialist vibes
iv. i've already said the book doesn't feel like it's about medusa and mentioned some random scenes that i don't understand the inclusion of, but i want to harp again on how absolutely irrelevant some things feel. i don't know why athene gets so much time dedicated to her, and i don't know why she's presented as nothing more than a lapdog for zeus. i don't get why we have to spend so many pages detailing how hera harasses the victims of her husband. i don't understand why we get a perspective from andromeda. it just bored me a lot because i really DID want to read about medusa's perspective.
v. i don't think the book handles rape very well. i don't know how accurate it portrays the rape of medusa, but i did some cursory searching and couldn't find that it occurred because poseidon gave her a choice?? the whole thing was really uncomfortable and felt weird and like the author really needed medusa to do something "heroic" to make her death so tragic and like i said, i feel like the average person would find all of it tragic regardless?? but there's a weird comment about another (attempted) rape that almost felt like it was trying to be snarky/funny, and considering the topic, that seemed way out of touch:
Ask Daphe, she'll tell you. Well, no, I suppose she won't tell you, because she turned into a tree rather than be raped by the Archer. And even then he couldn't resist tweaking her leaves. Trees have a word for that sort of behavior.
the last sentence is just confusing. is that supposed to be a joke?
i'm also not a fan of how athene says zeus still cares about danaë and that's why he made sure she and perseus came to safety with "a man who had no interest in women" so that she wouldn't be assaulted, i guess. using a gay man (who apparently had a wife in the real myths???) like that just gives me the ick. i may not know much about greek myth but i know there's plenty of lgbt rep so why do this?
overall, just not a very well written book, with a confusing premise. i just don't know what the point is. if it was to explore medusa as a character, it did not do that! very disappointing
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Violence, Murder