A review by shonaningyo
Goddess of Yesterday by Caroline B. Cooney

4.0

I read this back in middle school, and I absolutely loved it. It had everything I needed. I don't even know what I need to like a book, but this book very quickly sucked me in.

I loved how Alaxandra was so naive that she didn't even know what a statue was. She believed that they were transfigured by a monster into stone; 10 times out of 10 she is referring to Medusa and Gorgon Co.

She is sold by her father who lives on some nameless island and is taken in by a king. Soon she somehow ends up caught in the middle of one of Greek literature's most famous epics: That being, the kidnapping of Helen by Paris of Troy. Alaxandra uses her cunning and common sense, along with her own personal goddess that she believes in--the goddess of yesterday--to help her through thick and thin, and all of the obstacles that plague her.

I liked how, though Greek (at least I think), she had her own goddess to worship. And I recall that one of her masters's wives was all, "Oh you have your own goddess? Cool. Worship her while we worship our own deities." Seriously? It's that easy for them to take in another idol or figure to worship? They had no problem with it? Cool. lol

An awesome blending of the Greek mythological "universe", so-to-speak, and a bright young girl as a main lead who is doing everything she can to survive pillaging, conniving elders, all the while hiding her own secret, lest she be found out and killed.