Athena's Child by Hannah Lynn: Review

 

Athena's Child

Hannah Lynn

Publishing date - 16th July 2020

Daughter. Sister. Priestess. Protector.

Son. Brother. Demi-God. Hero.

Monsters.

Gifted and burdened with beauty far beyond that of mere mortals, Medusa seeks sanctuary with the Goddess Athena. But when the lustful gaze of mighty Poseidon falls upon her, even the Temple of Athena cannot protect her.

Young Perseus embarks on a seemingly impossible quest. Equipped with only bravado and determination, his only chance of success lays in the hands of his immortal siblings.

Medusa and Perseus soon become pawns of spiteful and selfish gods. Faced with the repercussions of Athena's wrath Medusa has no choice but to flee and hide. But can she do so without becoming the monster they say she is.

History tells of conquering heroes. Tales distorted by time. Medusa’s truth has long been lost. Until now. Now it is time to hear her truth.

My mum bought this for me as a gift. I had never heard of it before it turned up at my doorstep. It is a very short book, probably classifies as a novella. Therefore, I read it in two days, technically three given I finished it at 1 in the morning.

I think it was a really interesting time to read this novel given the feminist conversations that are happening right now after the murder of Sarah Everard. The writing was very beautiful especially the opening and ending. But the plot feels like it could have been gone into more details. I feel like the novella would benefit from an extra 30 pages that helped us connect more emotionally.

This is an indie author therefore you can only get it on amazon. I really loved the feeling of the book and the size of the writing. This book was a great 4 star read if you liked Circe you are going to love this. It felt very similar in atmosphere to Miller's books. 

House of Hollow by Krystal Sutherland: Review

House of Hollow

Krystal Sutherland

Publishing date - 6th April 2021

Seventeen-year-old Iris Hollow has always been strange. Something happened to her and her two older sisters when they were children, something they can’t quite remember but that left each of them with an identical half-moon scar at the base of their throats. 

Iris has spent most of her teenage years trying to avoid the weirdness that sticks to her like tar. But when her eldest sister, Grey, goes missing under suspicious circumstances, Iris learns just how weird her life can get: horned men start shadowing her, a corpse falls out of her sister’s ceiling, and ugly, impossible memories start to twist their way to the forefront of her mind. 

As Iris retraces Grey’s last known footsteps and follows the increasingly bizarre trail of breadcrumbs she left behind, it becomes apparent that the only way to save her sister is to decipher the mystery of what happened to them as children. 

The closer Iris gets to the truth, the closer she comes to understanding that the answer is dark and dangerous – and that Grey has been keeping a terrible secret from her for years.

I picked this book up on a whim because it was on the Waterstones buy one get one half price table and it was signed by the author. This is very different from my usual reads and it has made me realise it is a genre I want to explore more.

We learn early on that two of the three sisters are LGBT, so it was lovely to see sapphic representation in a novel without any love interests. 

I found the plot spooky but not scary. The majority of the scary aspects of the novel happened in the last 50 pages. I'm not a horror fan and i found the scary aspects very manageable. Leading to me believing this is an appropriate horror book to give to young teens who like horror. As the gore was not too intense. This aim towards younger audiences also made it great for people who are worried about the horror genre.

I personally didn't find there to be any plot twists. I worked out all reveals a page or so before the characters did however, I think this was a choice by the author and I don't think the plot reveals where meant to be too shocking. As ultimately this book was an incredible exploration of grief specifically the grief that comes from familial loss. This obviously means that the books comes with trigger warnings for suicide, kidnapping, and death of a loved one. However nothing was gone into graphic detail but if you are very sensitive. This is not the book for you

What made the book so special was the incredible characters. I really felt for all of them even those who were unlikeable. Everyone was morally ambiguous therefore the characters get very realistic inside a very fantastical plot and they really grounded the novel.

I read this book in two days. It was an easy 5 star read. I would recommend it to everyone even those who, like me, don't read horror novels.