Hera, is prone to rambling a bit it seems, and though I enjoyed her voice more than not, I do think it could have been trimmed in places. It goes on for a few pages and it is really cool to see some development of Hera where she is anything other than angry at mortals. I spent a bit of time with the Scythians, Egyptians and Dacians, because the Greek world cannot be seen in a domestic vacuum. But that, and politely tolerating the hundred suitors vying for her hand (because surely Odysseus is dead?

She’s a goddess “of a certain age,” getting plumper with time, who sees the gods and goddesses in Olympus though unflinching eyes.Yet Penelope doesn’t wish to remarry, she doesn’t yet believe Odysseus is dead, and even if she did, she won’t be forced into to marriage to a man she does not want. While the prose never reaches the epic quality that Madeline Miller does in The Song of Achilles and Circe, I enjoyed Hera's wit and found her an interesting narrator. My thanks to NetGalley and Redhook Books for allowing me to review this book, which will be published on September 6th, 2022. From the perspective of Hera, this novel is a wide reaching twist on the classic myth, giving spotlight to the women of Ithaca as they defy the expectations of men and gods alike, showcasing flaws, ambition, and solidarity.

Even at moments where Hera outlines what is happening outside of Ithaca, she tells of how other women are being treated. The plot expands to cover various maids that serve Penelope, though we perhaps don’t get to know any of them quite as much as we’d like (Priene is a standout for sure).Her son Telemachus is growing up, but her kingdom is considered up for grabs since everyone thinks Odysseus is dead. I spent a fair amount of time learning about the Hittites and their webs of alliances, since the loose web of diplomacy that bound the Greeks together at the time of Troy was also repeated to the east, and set a flavour for how relationships and politics worked. She naturally has a certain amount of sympathy for Penelope, as much as a greek god might spare for a mortal. Many thanks to Redhook Books and NetGalley for granting access to a digital review copy of this novel. Along the way we meet Priene, Elektra and Clytemnestra, who were fierce and powerful women in their own right.

You don't connect with the characters, there are too many of them that have their time in the sun for one second, some appearing just in a line, a couple of dialogue exchanges, a fleeting run by the place. Having read Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad recently and loving it, I had hoped to hear more about Penelope and her maids and the events in Ithaca during Odysseus’s absence from Penelope’s perspective. While there are quite a few such retellings were published in recent years, I liked it more than others, quite possibly because I enjoyed other novels by the author. For me, the technique worked, as it emphasizes Hera’s omniscience and allows author North to show a more complete story than would have been possible if written solely in Penelope’s point of view. The balance she was able to strike between respecting the material while also delivering snark and sarcasm in a way that brightened the story without ever making light of it, was astounding.

She’s proud, snarky, and often laugh out loud funny as she handles her stepdaughters, Artemis and Aphrodite, who have chosen sides in this conflict, and voices her opinions on her husband, Zeus’s love affairs and his tendency to disguise himself as swans and other creatures. In the classical mythos, she is often portrayed negatively, punishing ones whom her husband slept with. The plot was fascinating and I really appreciated the insight into what it means to be powerful as a woman - which in ancient Greece meant to be powerful in secret. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women – and their goddesses – that will change the course of the world.

The 103 third parties who use cookies on this service do so for their purposes of displaying and measuring personalized ads, generating audience insights, and developing and improving products.This is quite an interesting interpretation of not only the Odyssey but ancient Greek mythos in general, and I plan to continue reading it with the second volume planned for 2023. Interestingly, I'd read a lot more about Clytemnestra and Elektra in other recent retellings, and I now got watch their lives unfold from a different perspective. Nor would it be worth a hundred suitors camping out in Penelope’s palace to get control of, not to put too fine a point on it, this small rock. A familiarity with the Greek pantheon and many of the stories in Greek mythology is essential to understanding Hera’s quips and barbs and references—the source of much of the humor in the narrative.