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A review by horrorghoul
Call Me Athena: Girl from Detroit by Colby Cedar Smith
4.0
TW: Arranged marriages, cultural racism, violence
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: Mary lives in a tiny apartment with her immigrant parents, her brothers, and her twin sister, and she questions why her parents ever came to America. She yearns for true love, to own her own business, and to be an independent, modern American woman—much to the chagrin of her parents, who want her to be a “good Greek girl.”
Mary’s story is peppered with flashbacks to her parents’ childhoods in Greece and northern France; their stories connect with Mary as they address issues of arranged marriage, learning about independence, and yearning to grow beyond one’s own culture. Though Call Me Athena is written from the perspective of three profoundly different narrators, it has a wide-reaching message: It takes courage to fight for tradition and heritage, as well as freedom, love, and equality.
Release Date: August 17th
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 546
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What I Liked:
• The novel was very moving
• The story flowed
• The writing was very interesting
What I Didn't Like:
• The many times I had to hear “I am Athena”.
• It felt a little bit rushed at times
Overall Thoughts: Fun fact; I live in Northeast Ohio, which has a huge Greek community. It was interesting to see the history of the Greek over the generations in this book. Mary was an easy character to love. You travel with her as she deals with being forced into a marriage so she’ll bring money to her family and security to her life. That’s not what Mary wants of course. She wants love and a choice.
I loved the changes of timelines as we move along into the different decades. It’s easy to understand all that Mary wants but as you listen to Mary’s parents you can see that they were searching for their own freedoms too.
Final Thoughts: This book really can show you how each generation doesn’t think the one before could ever understand where they’re coming from. I love that we get to travel this path with the author. I adored that this was based on the authors own grandparents.
IG|Blog
Thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this advanced copy. All thoughts and views of this book are my own.
*****SPOILERS*****
About the book: Mary lives in a tiny apartment with her immigrant parents, her brothers, and her twin sister, and she questions why her parents ever came to America. She yearns for true love, to own her own business, and to be an independent, modern American woman—much to the chagrin of her parents, who want her to be a “good Greek girl.”
Mary’s story is peppered with flashbacks to her parents’ childhoods in Greece and northern France; their stories connect with Mary as they address issues of arranged marriage, learning about independence, and yearning to grow beyond one’s own culture. Though Call Me Athena is written from the perspective of three profoundly different narrators, it has a wide-reaching message: It takes courage to fight for tradition and heritage, as well as freedom, love, and equality.
Release Date: August 17th
Genre: Historical Fiction
Pages: 546
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
What I Liked:
• The novel was very moving
• The story flowed
• The writing was very interesting
What I Didn't Like:
• The many times I had to hear “I am Athena”.
• It felt a little bit rushed at times
Overall Thoughts: Fun fact; I live in Northeast Ohio, which has a huge Greek community. It was interesting to see the history of the Greek over the generations in this book. Mary was an easy character to love. You travel with her as she deals with being forced into a marriage so she’ll bring money to her family and security to her life. That’s not what Mary wants of course. She wants love and a choice.
I loved the changes of timelines as we move along into the different decades. It’s easy to understand all that Mary wants but as you listen to Mary’s parents you can see that they were searching for their own freedoms too.
Final Thoughts: This book really can show you how each generation doesn’t think the one before could ever understand where they’re coming from. I love that we get to travel this path with the author. I adored that this was based on the authors own grandparents.
IG|Blog
Thanks to Netgalley and Andrews McMeel Publishing for this advanced copy. All thoughts and views of this book are my own.