A review by bookedbymadeline
Athena's Child by Hannah Lynn

adventurous dark fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I guess this is already published by the author herself back in 2020 but now it’s being republished by Sourcebooks Landmark; which is how I got an eARC with a publishing date of September 26 🎉

I’m curious what the differences are between the self published and now traditionally published versions especially because the TRAD book is 192 pages while Lynn’s self published work is 252 😳

Anyways, on to my review of Athena’s Child-Immediately pulled in! That prologue, chills 😍 I was so excited to finally read a Medusa retelling and that we are finally getting a story where Medusa is not a monster born but a “monster” who was made, victimized by the actions of others.

We get POVs from Medusa and Perseus. The first half is mainly Medusa, focusing on her early life and how she became a Gorgon. Then in the second half we get Perseus’ back story and his “heroic” journey. I wish we would’ve gotten more from Medusa though, this novel certainly is quick, to the point, and interesting but it doesn’t add anything new to the Medusa story which I found disappointing.

I enjoyed the first half much more than the second half because I didn’t care about Perseus and wanted to get back to Medusa. The writing style is okay, it’s simple and makes for a quick read but does more telling than showing. I do wonder if the novel is better in the self published version as it’s about 50ish pages more than this version.

Some time jumps could be jarring at times with no warning, the book is split into two parts but the time jump occurs 2-3 chapters into part 2. Seemed like it could’ve been organized a bit smoother. I thought this would be 4.5-5 stars easily but towards the end I just got disappointed in how the story ended up.

Overall not a bad read and one I’d still recommend for Greek mythology lovers, for a quick and easy read! I’m interested to check out the other 2 books in Lynn’s series and hope I’ll enjoy them more.
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