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A review by moonytoast
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Natalie Haynes is slowly becoming one of my favorite authors and I'm glad to say I enjoyed Stone Blind as much, perhaps more, than I expected given my experience with her other works regarding Greek myths. She has a particular style that I really love where certain perspectives within the narrative will seem to engage in conversation with the reader of the story, both here and in A Thousand Ships.
As someone whose first encounter with much of Greek myths was in Percy Jackson & the Olympians, I think the way that Haynes conveys these stories is quite engaging and serves to reframe the narrative around Medusa and the Gorgons as supposed monsters as well as the standard perception of Perseus' quest to retrieve the head of one of the Gorgons. Here, Medusa is a living, breathing character whose immortal Gorgon sisters are also made human through their fears and anxieties about protecting Medusa from harm... and the raw devastation in their failure to do so. In a twist of our common understanding of the Greek myth, Haynes paints Perseus as a coward whose accompliments are solely due to excessive aid from multiple gods on behalf of Zeus. Here, he is a coward that uses the Gorgoneion at the mere inkling of conflict or obstacle to his goals and unabashedly revels in the mass death it causes, regardless of whether the victims are guilty or innocent of some slight against him. It is a far cry from the story told in Percy Jackson, but I think that it holds much more truth about the way men acquire and wield power.
Once again, Haynes manages to weave together a beautiful tapestry of myth and breathes new life into this story of a woman repeatedly violated by the whims of the gods. (Also: Haynes is an excellent narrator and I definitely recommend listening to the audiobooks of her work if you're an audiobook reader and love Greek myth retellings!)
My current ranking of Hayne's work that I've read:
1. A Thousand Ships
2. Stone Blind
3. Pandora's Jar
As someone whose first encounter with much of Greek myths was in Percy Jackson & the Olympians, I think the way that Haynes conveys these stories is quite engaging and serves to reframe the narrative around Medusa and the Gorgons as supposed monsters as well as the standard perception of Perseus' quest to retrieve the head of one of the Gorgons. Here, Medusa is a living, breathing character whose immortal Gorgon sisters are also made human through their fears and anxieties about protecting Medusa from harm... and the raw devastation in their failure to do so. In a twist of our common understanding of the Greek myth, Haynes paints Perseus as a coward whose accompliments are solely due to excessive aid from multiple gods on behalf of Zeus. Here, he is a coward that uses the Gorgoneion at the mere inkling of conflict or obstacle to his goals and unabashedly revels in the mass death it causes, regardless of whether the victims are guilty or innocent of some slight against him. It is a far cry from the story told in Percy Jackson, but I think that it holds much more truth about the way men acquire and wield power.
Once again, Haynes manages to weave together a beautiful tapestry of myth and breathes new life into this story of a woman repeatedly violated by the whims of the gods. (Also: Haynes is an excellent narrator and I definitely recommend listening to the audiobooks of her work if you're an audiobook reader and love Greek myth retellings!)
My current ranking of Hayne's work that I've read:
1. A Thousand Ships
2. Stone Blind
3. Pandora's Jar
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Violence, and Sexual violence
Moderate: Murder and War
Minor: Grief and Blood