Charlotte Kersten

2.5 stars rounded up to 3 for how incredibly sweet and earnest this book is.

So What’s It About?

What if all the legends you’ve learned were wrong?

Brutally attacked by one god and unfairly cursed by another she faithfully served, Medusa has spent the last two thousand years living out her punishment on an enchanted isle in the Aegean Sea. A far cry from the monster legends depict, she’s spent her time educating herself, gardening, and desperately trying to frighten away adventure seekers who occasionally end up, much to her dismay, as statues when they manage to catch her off guard. As time marches on without her, Medusa wishes for nothing more than to be given a second chance at a life stolen away at far too young an age.

But then comes a day when Hermes, one of the few friends she still has and the only deity she trusts, petitions the rest of the gods and goddesses to reverse the curse. Thus begins a journey toward healing and redemption, of reclaiming a life after tragedy, and of just how powerful friendship and love can be—because sometimes, you have to sink in the deep end of the sea before you can rise back up again.

What I Thought

This is my second Medusa retelling of the year, and I chose it because I was looking for a super sweet, fluffy hurt/comfort type romance. In that regard it absolutely delivers, but it also has a lot of strange baggage that holds it back from being as enjoyable as it might otherwise be.

As far as the trauma recovery elements go, there are some things that I really do like, but what stands out most to me looking back is how often Medusa’s friends continually keep her in the dark about huge events that are happening or make important decisions for her because they believe that she is too fragile to handle them on her own. They don’t tell her that they’re going to petition her case with the gods or that Poseidon is petitioning his own case, they don’t allow her a say in being exiled after Poseidon finds her and attacks her again, and Hermes decides that she’s moving in with him at the end of the book without her input. Medusa is frequently infantilized by those around her in this way instead of being allowed to decide what is best for herself as a survivor, and it comes across as deeply patronizing and icky in a book that’s supposed to be about her empowerment.

Similarly, one of the big turning points in Medusa’s character arc is when the book’s wise old woman character tells her how she’s been wasting her time feeling sorry for herself and being weak and selfish because she was forced to live in isolation with no say in that happening after being assaulted by Poseidon again. “Bootstraps” lectures for mental health are a pet peeve of mine, I’ll admit (if only it was that simple!!), and this in combination with the lack of agency left me frustrated.

This is also probably my least favorite depiction of Hades and Persphone I’ve ever seen, not for Serious Lore Reasons, but just because it’s so dated and, like, Rom Com Sexist. Hades is constantly portrayed as amusedly tolerating the scatterbrained whims of his silly little frivolous wife in a way that is, again, super patronizing. At one point, he actually refers to her as a little yapping dog! Similarly, Hades talks about how annoying Aphrodite is when she doesn’t get her way and how she refuses to get a real job of her own, instead spending all of her time shopping with his hard-earned money. Okay??

I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this as a Greek retelling for those interested in seeing the mythology adapted or modernized in particularly interesting ways; we really never get an idea of what the pantheon are doing all the time despite them walking around with business iPads and talking about “taking a day off of work.” My personal taste would be for at least a bit more description of how the gods exist in the modern world where they are no longer worshiped or believed in, but the focus here is mostly on the romance with a very light scattering of Greek mythology that I can best describe as feeling modernized in a very basic McMansion-y way. Possibly the funniest random addition is that the gods’ DNA constantly reconstitutes itself so all their incest is actually okay lol.

All that being said, my favorite part of this book is Medusa herself. She is an incredibly sweet head to be in, and it is wonderful to see her find a life off of her isolated island, make friends, be treated well and get stronger. I mentioned hurt/comfort at the start of this review, and I think it pretty much hits all the beats you could want for that trope in a super indulgent way, and I’m not complaining. I really like the part of the book where Medusa goes to a sexual assault therapy group and describes her story in general terms that made it clear just how resonant the original myth still is in the present day. There are some other touches that I liked, such as her wanting to have sex right after the sexual assault that happens in the book, a response that is perfectly normal but often heavily judged as abnormal or shameful. Hermes as a love interest is pretty much defined by the fact that he’s incredibly handsome, has beautiful eyes that shift between blue and green, and is endlessly kind and loving and supportive to Medusa. He’s kinda boring in that regard, but in a nice way, and anyone who likes friends-to-lovers romances would probably enjoy how their relationship unfolds.