If you like Greek mythology and enjoy retellings that focus on sharing the side of the women characters labeled as monsters, I’d recommend picking up Medusa!

Where Burton brings life to the characters with her words, Olivia Lomenech Gill's brushstrokes do just as perfect a job. I liked the overall message of reclaiming control, how beauty for women often defines them and leads to destruction, but I just had no emotional connection to the story at all.I remember thinking that was such a great opportunity for a story because it’s a journey that someone has gone on, but we don’t really know anything about it. And as most of the story is Medusa and Perseus talking over several days, not a huge amount actually happens. in " The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly " Publishing This Week" newsletter. I didn’t know that she was a young woman particularly revered for her beauty, and for me, that was a moment of interest.

None who read this can relate to owning sentient hair but many can relate to being punished by society, paying for the mistakes of powerful others, being subjected to the whims of those in authority, and being viewed as one of few accepted binaries. The publisher of this book provided free copies of the book to have their book reviewed by a professional reviewer. Fierce and tender and full of heart; the reclamation of self that Medusa is owed, the version of the myth that deserves to be told, passed girl to girl, painted across walls and screamed from rooftops. And discover that as alike as they are, they are set on a collision course that only one can survive.Even though I’m familiar with the details of the story, I was still at the edge of my seat waiting for the big reveal, which is impressive! As always, I prefer the original Greek myth, which didn’t have any involvement from Poseidon, but instead focused on Medusa’s innate power that came from being born the mortal Gorgon. I have a great deal of respect for what this set out to do, in terms of reinstating another the female figure of myth who has been (effectively) demonised for literally millennia now. It’s an incredible feat of intellect and imagination that takes down toxic masculinity and victim-blaming culture through an ingenious reframing, reclaiming of Medusa. Thank you to the author, Jessie Burton, the illustrator, Olivia Lomenech Gill, and the publisher, Bloomsbury YA, for this opportunity.

A book that is brilliantly conceived, vividly depicted, and expertly written and a book for everyone.Told through an assortment of narrators such as humans, gods and even inanimate objects, Haynes deftly reconfigures a variety of Greek myths into one long and multi-faceted story with Medusa acting like a center of gravity pulling the disparate tales into a contextual orbit. Some of the illustrations are so powerful as well, you could feel the emotions emanating off the page.