Reviews

Strife's Apple by Shoshana Rain

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laurennicroberts's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

lilliths_random_reads's review

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medium-paced

2.75

emmelnie's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Strife’s Apple is different from what you usually find in myth retellings, which tend to focus on Hades and Persephone or Cupid and Psyche. Rain’s protagonists are Apollo and Eris. While Apollo is often portrayed, Eris is someone rarely considered because she’s a demigoddess rather than an Olympian.

And Eris is a truly a demigoddess here: the personification of discord, creating disharmony and rupture in the world simply because it’s her nature to do so. Seeing this character evolve through a relationship with Apollo is just mind blowing. Apollo is the Olympian we know from the stories (with his faults as well as good points), but his ability to see the future shows him that he has to do something with Eris to save the gods.

You see, the gods are dying. They’re losing their immortality and becoming human; in some cases, their human personae overtakes their memories of being gods. And Apollo is desperate, so desperate that he’s willing to work with Eris, who’s been caged in Tartarus for hundreds of years as punishment for the problems she caused.

Rain takes this improbable coupling-–the god of sun and light with the goddess of strife and suffering—and makes it work. That’s because both Eris and Apollo evolve, realizing that one disadvantage of immortality is stasis.

I honestly had no idea what was going to happen in this story. It moved in unexpected and interesting ways. Frankly, it offered me a thrill that I often don’t find within the comforting expectations of romance.

If you love retellings of the myths in romance, if you want an intriguing and challenging setup, and if you want a mystery that has to be solved to avoid the death of the gods—well, do I have a book for you. Simply put, Strife’s Apple is marvelous.