Writing bookworm
Female
London, United Kingdom
20. March

Joined: Jan 17, 2018

Obsessive bibliophile and reader, writer of fantasy based on mythology.

Badge collection
  • Junior Editor

    Junior Editor

    Earned at Jan 18, 2018, 11:02:14 PM
    Active
  • Book Reviewer

    Book Reviewer

    Earned at Jan 17, 2018, 10:11:56 PM
  • Smashbomb Reviewer

    Smashbomb Reviewer

    Earned at Jan 17, 2018, 9:23:31 PM
Items Added (2)

Post Type

Hidden Post

Archived Post

Her Kind: Stories of Women from Greek Mythology
Her Kind: Stories of Women from Greek Mythology
Jane Cahill | 1995 | Business & Finance, Education, Gender Studies
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
  
40x40

Amy (7 KP) earned a new badge

Jan 18, 2018  
Badge

Amy has earned the Junior Editor Badge.

Learn more about badges

     
40x40

Amy (7 KP) earned a new badge

Jan 17, 2018  
Badge

Amy has earned the Book Reviewer Badge.

Learn more about badges

     
40x40

Amy (7 KP) rated Goddess of Troy in Books

Jan 17, 2018 (Updated Jan 17, 2018)  
GO
Goddess of Troy
P.C. Cast | 2008 | Erotica, Fiction & Poetry, Young Adult (YA)
1
1.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Nice premise. Interesting characters profiles. Some lovely vivid description. (0 more)
Everything Else. (0 more)
Terrible. Total destruction.
Contains spoilers, click to show
The premise is one that P.C. Cast recycles throughout her work which is of taking modern women and dropping them into the worlds of myth and magic.
A brilliant idea, occasionally well done in her other novels...not unfortunately for this one.
The problem begins with the plot the goddesses send the women back to end the war...okay, but why not do it themselves? The flimsy excuses just don't hold up. The plot is weakly manipulated and transparently executed to make the neccessity of the modern women going back possible.
Problem 2-is the blatant racism of making the indipendant modern black woman into a white slave girl.
Problem 3- problematic sex scenes which read as thinly disguised rape scenes. A male character is hypnotises and the main female character has sex with him....this is made okay by him giving her consent afterwards. Which is not how consent works. This book being intended for young women just becoming sexual is at best concerning and at most incredibly damaging whilst promoting male rape under the guise of female empowerment.
The dialogue when more old fashioned from the warriors is charming and engaging...from the modern women we are forced to deal with censored cringy curse words, way too much teenage level gossip, and not a smidge of maturity in sight...from grown ass women.
For thirty plus successful women the character profiles should have engaged and fascinated, unfortunately those profiles were ignored during in-story application and replaced with twittering, childish teens who giggle over the word penis and lose their minds over the most vacuous and senseless things.
The plot centres around a boring, romance, and changes the original relationship of Achilles and Patroclus from its canonical implied romance to one of cousins...this at best is a misguided deviation from the canonical Iliad relationship they had.
It could easily be read as a blatant attack and hideous misuse of the original content, that could given the sheer overwhelming heteronormaty we are forced to endure be at its worst an erasure of rare LGBT representation from historical content.
The relationships are forced, and their happy endings so saccharine it hurts to read.
The siege of Troy is horrifically rewritten to make the main female lead the deciding factor that ensured victory and removed nearly all canonical battle events.
Throughout the novel not much happens, and by time something does you just want the novel over with.
It doesn't read as mythology inspired, the myths and characters are used as cheap prop and staging whilst removing the deep themes, and messages that ensured their endurance throughout time.
The vocabulary is below pre-teen level, the grammar is sub-par, and the pacing and plotting absolutely abysmal.
How this book ever made it to print in this state is a large and curious mystery for me.
I cannot urge you to skip this book enough, Margaret George's 'Helen of Troy' is a far more valuable use of your time if you are in want of mythology inspired fantasy...and does so without annihilating the entire original stories.
(1)   
40x40

Amy (7 KP) earned a new badge

Jan 17, 2018  
Badge

Amy has earned the Smashbomb Reviewer Badge.

Learn more about badges