In the cursed kingdom of Ithaca, each spring brings the hanging of twelve maidens, a gift to the vengeful Poseidon. Instead, she wakes on a mysterious island and meets a girl with green eyes and the power to command the sea. anyway, that should solidly debunk the “last 3 or 4 years” claim—there’s plenty in classical Greek authors too—read Sandra Boehringer for fuck’s sake. Underwood expertly weaves a tale about the inevitability of fate--and the love that makes us rail against it anyway.

You can’t just take people who are actually mentioned in the Odyssey and then proceed to completely disregard that source material for “vibes” or whatever. The prophecy and curse, the seeking out the solution but I didn't like how they kept going around it over and over again without actually doing anything about it.Reading the wikipedia page for Theseus or Achilles or the History of Athens would reveal these facts. and yea, when I say unclear I do unfortunately mean these questions are never answered or they’re given multiple vague and contradictory answers). That’s what’s great about them—they have those layers of depth that can be unpacked when you read them again. This book feels like it was written as a medieval fantasy and then a few bits were shuffled around to make it “Ancient Greece” right before seeking publication. Because commercialism, greed, ignorance, and arrogance have brought us this low, to this rock bottom low where it's perfectly acceptable for an author to not read the source of a myth they're retelling, and still proclaim their "love" for it.

I’m sorry but if you can’t be bothered to read the source material you plan to pay homage to (or blatantly rip-off) then I can’t be bothered to read your book. Again, this makes me think the author reads a lot of medieval fantasy (or watches too much GoT) and doesn’t know that all that stuff doesn’t actually translate into Ancient Greece.Why would Poseidon set up such a convoluted plot to have princes murdered when he could just demand the lives of the princes outright?

Given the sheer volume of contrived information, I don’t understand why this was not a second world fantasy. ISBN: 9780008518080 Author: Underwood, Sarah Publisher: Electric Monkey Publication Date: 29th February 2024 Imprint: Electric Monkey Cover: Paperback Dewey: 823. Sarah Underwood weaves an epic tapestry of lies, love, and tragedy, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Alexandra Bracken, and Renée Ahdieh. I was yelling at my Kindle over and over because that’s not how that works or that’s completely unrealistic.Particularly with the watered-down version we give to kids, it’s your classic fun adventure story of getting from A to B. Most of the chapters are quite short so the story frequently changes direction and doesn’t linger on one subject for too long. Perhaps this is because this is more of a mythology book than a fantasy novel - and from this mythological aspect, it was an interesting read.