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A review by amberinpieces
Radiant Darkness by Emily Whitman
3.0
Persephone lives in a gorgeous, flowering vale with her mother Demeter and a few nymphs as friends. Unfortunately, Demeter is overprotective and never allows Persephone to leave the vale or have any male contact. She also incessantly infantilizes Persephone and she cannot imagine living like this for all of eternity. She needs a change. She needs to be allowed to blossom into adulthood. One day, Persephone smells a new flower in the vale and follows her nose up a path she has never explored. There she finds an attractive man sitting in an elaborate chariot with six black, winged horses. She does not reveal herself the first time, but she does continue to visit the little clearing, both scared that the man will be there and that he will not be there.
Radiant Darkness is a retelling of the Persephone myth with Persephone revealing the true story. Everyone believes that Hades abducted her and that she was miserable in the Underworld when, in fact, she fell in love with him and willingly went with him to the Underworld to be his wife and queen. For her whole life, her mother, Demeter, infantilized her and refused change. Persephone felt unloved and trapped at home with her mother and in the Underworld she tastes a freedom she never had and is allowed to bloom into a woman. But then she learns that the whole time she has been gone, Demeter has caused drought and more and more people are dying and entering the Underworld. When this changes nothing, Demeter changes tactics and allows it to rain and flood, with much faster results. Zeus orders Persephone back, but right before she leaves, Hades shares a pomegranate with her that she grew and they both eat of it after they profess their love for each other and that they want to return to each other.
Read the full review here.
Radiant Darkness is a retelling of the Persephone myth with Persephone revealing the true story. Everyone believes that Hades abducted her and that she was miserable in the Underworld when, in fact, she fell in love with him and willingly went with him to the Underworld to be his wife and queen. For her whole life, her mother, Demeter, infantilized her and refused change. Persephone felt unloved and trapped at home with her mother and in the Underworld she tastes a freedom she never had and is allowed to bloom into a woman. But then she learns that the whole time she has been gone, Demeter has caused drought and more and more people are dying and entering the Underworld. When this changes nothing, Demeter changes tactics and allows it to rain and flood, with much faster results. Zeus orders Persephone back, but right before she leaves, Hades shares a pomegranate with her that she grew and they both eat of it after they profess their love for each other and that they want to return to each other.
Read the full review here.