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A review by nemesislore
Medusa by Rosie Hewlett
4.0
I’m a deep lover of feminist retellings of Greek Goddesses and women of the Greek myths, so this was right up my alley. If you feel similarly, then there’s no way you won’t enjoy it. The tone and voice of Medusa reminds me a lot of Circe by Madeline Miller.
This book was clearly written by a woman. And by that, I mean that Medusa and her sisters are much more concerned with feelings of power versus weakness than they are with beauty versus ugliness, even preferring ugliness because it frees them from the male gaze. It just feels so satisfying to have such well-rounded, realistic female characters. And of course, this retelling uses much of the original myths about Medusa and Perseus and expounds on them with imagined details that enhance the story in such interesting ways.
The only reason I’ve given this four stars instead of five is because narratively, I didn’t feel so deeply invested emotionally towards the end. I was fascinated by Medusa’s point of view, but not moved to tears or anything. Maybe because it was so short, I’m not sure. The book was still well worth the read, though—I’m not typically one to reread books, but I think I’ll be reading this one again in my life.
This book was clearly written by a woman. And by that, I mean that Medusa and her sisters are much more concerned with feelings of power versus weakness than they are with beauty versus ugliness, even preferring ugliness because it frees them from the male gaze. It just feels so satisfying to have such well-rounded, realistic female characters. And of course, this retelling uses much of the original myths about Medusa and Perseus and expounds on them with imagined details that enhance the story in such interesting ways.
The only reason I’ve given this four stars instead of five is because narratively, I didn’t feel so deeply invested emotionally towards the end. I was fascinated by Medusa’s point of view, but not moved to tears or anything. Maybe because it was so short, I’m not sure. The book was still well worth the read, though—I’m not typically one to reread books, but I think I’ll be reading this one again in my life.