I considered his question, my mother’s nails digging deeper with every passing second that I remained wordless. I know you’re scared,’ she says, anger cooling with the opportunity for a lecture. ‘I know if you had your way you’d go off exploring the world, planting flowers, probably wearing a vastly inappropriate outfit and no shoes. But you can’t. The world is too dangerous.’ I seem to be in the minority with this review but I didn’t really enjoy this book and I at times, found it quite dull. I adore a Hades and Persephone retelling and I have read my fair share of them in my time but this just felt a bit flat. I think the premise was there but the execution just didn’t work for me.

They gather round, tell me the worst things I’ve ever heard in my life and then give me tips for staying safe. ‘Don’t wear a gown if you have to travel,’ from Aphrodite, ‘disguise yourself as a man if you can and at the very least travel as part of a group.’ Or Athena patting my head, telling me the places to hit a man to break free of him if, god forbid, one ever made it onto the island and took me away. Hestia wasn’t much older than me and would harp on about how it was always safest to stay at home – though admittedly, as goddess of the hearth, I assumed she’d say as much – but if I ever found myself stranded I should march straight to the nearest palace or estate and request Xenia, a bond of hospitality of her own creation that would make them unable to hurt me without consequence. They could still hurt me, of course, but there would be consequences for it. Before Xenia men could do whatever they liked if you were foolish enough to be unprepared for their advances.According to everyone I know, it’s natural to be nervous before you are married, but no one has told me whether it’s natural to be terrified, filled with such abject horror at the thought that you can’t breathe properly. I swallow and my hands are trembling but I manage to keep my expression neutral. I want to scream that she’s wrong but I honestly don’t know if she is and I think if I try to say anything I might end up crying. Sometimes the discussion on political aspects of real life thinly veiled in the narrative are thrust forward a bit too much and interrupt the flow of the story. (Although still a million times more deftly than Babel by R F Kuang manages it.) I’m not certain what I expected from this Hades and Persephone retelling, but this was quite different from the many others I’ve read in the past. It was definitely more of a rom-com, complete with a very light tone and a lot of Gen-Z language. The snappy and witty banter, however, was a lot of fun and made it an easy read, regardless of the book’s length. I think the books main issue was it’s length. It had no business being as long as it was and it was bogged down with a lot of filler. I felt like every scene was dragged out between chapters and it would have worked better if it was dual perspective for this.

Marriage is protection, Kore. A ring on your finger binds you to one man and that’s all the gods respect.’ The mythological aspects were so much fun and I loved the direction Bea took the story and the way she explored and unravelled so much of the awfulness of the original stories and individuals, whilst still holding onto their essence and inspiration. And I did it anyway! Anyone else would be grateful, Kore. Every single god thinks they’re entitled to taking whatever they want, and that includes you. The only thing they respect is each other. Do you not see that marriage is the only way to protect yourself? I’m sure I don’t need to tell you the fates of other girls who thought they could survive alone.’ Oh Mother, they corrupted me long ago. And a good thing too, or I’d be heading off to my wedding night with no idea of what goes where.

Multibuys

Please, Father’s the one who made me the goddess of flowers, he can hardly be surprised by a bit of mud, can he?’ Next was the problem many authors find the most difficult to explain when retelling Greek mythology…the rather incestuous family tree. The author’s chosen explanation was that Kronos’ only child was Zeus. The other Kronids — Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades and Poseidon — were the stolen children of other titans, which then creates so many more questions. Why did Kronos eat his own siblings’ children? What then happened to his siblings…or were they not siblings either? Where do the Olympians stand, or what is their relationship with these titans’ other children? Are Hecate, Helios and Selene, for example, siblings of the Olympians now? Also, where does Chiron fall in this? He was also a son of Kronos. Persephone wasn't taken to hell: she jumped. There was no way she was going to be married off to some smug god more in love with himself than her. Mother jumps, glancing around like an Olympian could be lurking around the corner, like she hasn’t spent the last decade weaving intricate magic to bar the uninvited from our island. ‘Don’t say things like that, Kore!’ she scolds. ‘No one will believe that a woman who talks of attraction is virginal. Do you want people to believe you’re a whore?’ I also don’t think there was much chemistry between Hades and Kore. Hades basically warmed up to Kore at around 35% of the book and after that he was just boring. The God of Death and the King of the Underworld is meant to have some kind of bite to him and this guy was the equivalent to a fluffy rabbit. I wanted more from him and from Kore. There was little banter, tension or even believability.