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davidbetz106 's review for:
Stone Blind
by Natalie Haynes
adventurous
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Written in a very informal manner, so it is easy to read. I think that helps make these old mythology stories more approachable, but it does take some of the gravitas out of it.
This book had a clear agenda to retell the story of Medusa to reframe her as a victim and tell how awful the men in her story treated her, and I honestly don't have a problem with that because it's very true and these men in the story clearly suck. However it seemed like the author had plucked out that particular grievance from all of the mythology and focused all of her attention on it, while there are SO many other horrible things going on like rape, murder, cheating, greed, etc from so many other characters. And women are being victimized by those actions throughout the book. So my problems with the book are not about the concept or even the agenda, but in the imbalance across all of the stories and characters. She could have rewritten several aspects of this book with her agenda and then it would have been more balanced.
However I have realized that I am remembering the mythology well after reading the book, so the idea of making it informal story telling was successful to make me remember the characters.
This book had a clear agenda to retell the story of Medusa to reframe her as a victim and tell how awful the men in her story treated her, and I honestly don't have a problem with that because it's very true and these men in the story clearly suck. However it seemed like the author had plucked out that particular grievance from all of the mythology and focused all of her attention on it, while there are SO many other horrible things going on like rape, murder, cheating, greed, etc from so many other characters. And women are being victimized by those actions throughout the book. So my problems with the book are not about the concept or even the agenda, but in the imbalance across all of the stories and characters. She could have rewritten several aspects of this book with her agenda and then it would have been more balanced.
However I have realized that I am remembering the mythology well after reading the book, so the idea of making it informal story telling was successful to make me remember the characters.