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A review by carladionisio
Persephone's Orchard by Molly Ringle
4.0
Opinião em português no blog Pepita Mágica: http://pepitamagica.blogspot.pt/2015/10/especial-halloween-livro-persephones.html
I received a digital arc from the author through "Fangirls and Fanboys" group from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
I need to start this review by stating that I’m a huge Ancient Culture lover, especially Greek Culture – chiefly about its mythology. Therefore, while I was taking my degree I took several classes about this theme, even though the main focus of my degree was performing arts and cinema. Having said that, any book that uses mythology in general, and the Greek mythology in particular, it’s a must read book. I have a personal relationship with Dionysus (my surname is directly related to the god of wine, theatre and madness), but Hades is, without a doubt, one of the gods of the Greek pantheon that most fascinates me. Maybe because he is kind of “neglected” and poorly explores in the myths.
Persephone’s Orchard, for the reason I already stated, was an obligatory book for me. And I have to say that I was so happy that I liked this book so much. I must confess I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to like it, for several reasons: its writing; the way the myths were going to be used; etc… but nothing like that happened. I enjoyed it a lot! Firstly, I think the author was very intelligent in the way she approached the myth about Persephone’s kidnap, because, as the author, I always thought it was more than just a kidnap. Maybe it was my naivety, but I always believed Hades had “kidnap” Persephone’s because he loved her (okay, it’s a twisted way of showing it) and, in my wildest dreams, that feeling was corresponded by Persephone. Hades always had a “bad reputation” among other gods, and maybe because of that, drastic measures were needed. For me, it was never an actual kidnap. And it was what Molly Ringle did. She created a beautiful love story between two Greek gods, who fought against everything and everyone, and from their several different lives, they always find each other.
Hades and Persephone’s myth is not the only myth in this book, there is more; and we have a lot more characters than just those two: Aphrodite, Hermes, Zeus, Hera, Apollo, among others, and I think it was a really good thing about the book. To be honest, the parts I most loved were the ones about the memories, the flashbacks about the gods’ lives and such, although the story that took in the present (Sophie and Adrian) was also really interesting and I liked it.
Albeit, I’d like to have seen more about the way the gods died and how they reincarnated in mortal people throughout the history of humankind. It’s a subject that is always present, but we never actually see it. How did Hades die? Or Persephone? Ou any other god in this book? And, on top of that, I thought that Thanatos was a bit poorly developed in the story. If we think deeply about it, it kind of makes sense, since not even the characters know much about it. Thanatos is just a scary omnipresent shadow of destruction – a bit like the actual idea of Thanatos in the mythology.
Molly Ringle has a fluid and interesting writing. Despite the several jumps in time, she has the ability to keep the story coherent and making sense all way until the end. It keeps us hooked to every word. Definitely, it’s a well written book and it’s notorious the author put a lot of thinking on those words. Since it’s a saga, I want to keep reading *so much*!
I received a digital arc from the author through "Fangirls and Fanboys" group from Goodreads in exchange for an honest review.
I need to start this review by stating that I’m a huge Ancient Culture lover, especially Greek Culture – chiefly about its mythology. Therefore, while I was taking my degree I took several classes about this theme, even though the main focus of my degree was performing arts and cinema. Having said that, any book that uses mythology in general, and the Greek mythology in particular, it’s a must read book. I have a personal relationship with Dionysus (my surname is directly related to the god of wine, theatre and madness), but Hades is, without a doubt, one of the gods of the Greek pantheon that most fascinates me. Maybe because he is kind of “neglected” and poorly explores in the myths.
Persephone’s Orchard, for the reason I already stated, was an obligatory book for me. And I have to say that I was so happy that I liked this book so much. I must confess I was a bit worried that I wasn’t going to like it, for several reasons: its writing; the way the myths were going to be used; etc… but nothing like that happened. I enjoyed it a lot! Firstly, I think the author was very intelligent in the way she approached the myth about Persephone’s kidnap, because, as the author, I always thought it was more than just a kidnap. Maybe it was my naivety, but I always believed Hades had “kidnap” Persephone’s because he loved her (okay, it’s a twisted way of showing it) and, in my wildest dreams, that feeling was corresponded by Persephone. Hades always had a “bad reputation” among other gods, and maybe because of that, drastic measures were needed. For me, it was never an actual kidnap. And it was what Molly Ringle did. She created a beautiful love story between two Greek gods, who fought against everything and everyone, and from their several different lives, they always find each other.
Hades and Persephone’s myth is not the only myth in this book, there is more; and we have a lot more characters than just those two: Aphrodite, Hermes, Zeus, Hera, Apollo, among others, and I think it was a really good thing about the book. To be honest, the parts I most loved were the ones about the memories, the flashbacks about the gods’ lives and such, although the story that took in the present (Sophie and Adrian) was also really interesting and I liked it.
Albeit, I’d like to have seen more about the way the gods died and how they reincarnated in mortal people throughout the history of humankind. It’s a subject that is always present, but we never actually see it. How did Hades die? Or Persephone? Ou any other god in this book? And, on top of that, I thought that Thanatos was a bit poorly developed in the story. If we think deeply about it, it kind of makes sense, since not even the characters know much about it. Thanatos is just a scary omnipresent shadow of destruction – a bit like the actual idea of Thanatos in the mythology.
Molly Ringle has a fluid and interesting writing. Despite the several jumps in time, she has the ability to keep the story coherent and making sense all way until the end. It keeps us hooked to every word. Definitely, it’s a well written book and it’s notorious the author put a lot of thinking on those words. Since it’s a saga, I want to keep reading *so much*!