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ClareR (5726 KP) rated Medusa: The Girl Behind The Myth in Books

Sep 28, 2021  
Medusa: The Girl Behind The Myth
Medusa: The Girl Behind The Myth
Jessie Burton, Olivia Lomenech Gill (illustrator) | 2021 | Children, Fiction & Poetry, Science Fiction/Fantasy, Young Adult (YA)
10
10.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
Now THIS is the side of the story I have always wanted to hear about! Medusa’s OWN story from her OWN mouth. In mythology, she is always portrayed as ugly, dangerous and unpredictable - lethal. In this story, we see a young girl, afraid and alone, forced to live away from others in case she hurts them - or they harm her. Her only companions, a dog and her sisters, the Gorgons, who fly out to hunt during the day, returning to their sister at night with food.

One day, a boy lands his boat on the island - it’s Perseus.

We see the side of Medusa that the original myth writers would never have imagined: a young girl who is taken advantage of, vulnerable, used by men for their own pleasure, and then blamed for something that she has no control over.

In the original stories, she gets her just desserts. Medusa is ugly and not to be trusted. It gives an insight into how men regarded women at this time. Be subservient. Be a virgin. Don’t get raped, and if you do, it’s your own fault - you brought it on yourself (I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about this). Women don’t come out of myth and legend terribly well.

I absolutely loved this. Medusa isn’t a meek, mild victim, but neither is she evil. She knows, or has some idea anyway, her glance can cause a lot of damage - so she hides herself away.

And in this story, not a single head is lost.

The illustrations are gorgeous as well.

I wonder if Jessie Burton will write more Greek myths in this way? Because I’m all in!
Many thanks to Bloomsbury Children’s Books for my copy of this gorgeous book through NetGalley.
  
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Mark @ Carstairs Considers (2206 KP) rated T is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone, #20) in Books

Sep 29, 2021  
T is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone, #20)
T is for Trespass (Kinsey Millhone, #20)
Sue Grafton | 2007 | Mystery
8
8.6 (5 Ratings)
Book Rating
Can Kinsey Save Her Neighbor?
It starts innocently enough when Kinsey and her landlord, William Pitts, discover their elderly neighbor, Gus Vronsky, lying on the floor in his house one morning after falling and injuring himself. Gus only has one relative left, a great-niece who lives on the other side of the country, so she is intent on hiring someone to help Gus recover. The great-niece asks Kinsey to do a background check on Solana Rojas, the woman that she has hired, and nothing jumps out at Kinsey. Still, something seems off about Solana. Will Kinsey figure out what it is in time?

Because we get some chapters from Solana’s point of view, we know early on that she is bad news. It gets a little frustrating waiting for Kinsey to catch up, but the end result is worth it. As we got into the final quarter, I had a very hard time putting the book down thanks to several thrilling scenes. We get to see plenty of William, which is fantastic since he is my second favorite character in the series, second only to Kinsey, who continues to entertain. Solana is evil, and she makes a great villain for Kinsey to track down. There are a couple of sub-plots that I enjoyed, although they could have been a little stronger. There’s also a plot hole late in the book – something we know but Kinsey couldn’t possibly know about. This isn’t one of my typical cozies, but as long as you know that going in, you’ll be fine. Still, overall, this is another great entry in a beloved series. Even at twenty books in, it is easy to see why it is has so many fans.
  
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ClareR (5726 KP) rated The Hemlock Cure in Books

Apr 6, 2023  
The Hemlock Cure
The Hemlock Cure
Joanne Burn | 2022 | Fiction & Poetry
8
8.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
The Hemlock Cure was a fascinating insight into the lives of ordinary people during the Black Death (Bubonic Plague) epidemic of 1665-1666. The plague is very much in the background of this story for most of it, though.

The real evil isn’t a disease, it’s being shut in with people who clearly do not have good intentions.

The village of Eyam is well known for the decision to shut itself off from the outside world when its inhabitants started to become ill and die. They understood that the only way to halt the spread of the disease was to isolate themselves - a selfless act.

This novel looks at some of the families and their relationships inside and outside of their family units. The local apothecary and his daughter Mae, are one such family. Mae is desperate to be her fathers apprentice, but this isn’t a time in history where it’s safe for a woman to be working with herbs. So Mae studies with the midwife and a local wise woman (who are both also skating on thin ice, truth be told).

The plague wasn’t a constant in London it appears, and we travel there with one of the main characters. The contrast between the country village and London was quite something to read. I could almost smell the difference off the page!!

I enjoyed the pacing of this book: in Eyam the time crawls, whilst in London everything is all hustle and bustle.

The slow reveal of the terrible secrets in Mae’s family are not so much shocking as terrifying. Wulfric, Mae’s father, is not a well man. It seems to be a race against time for Mae.

I would most definitely recommend this book to historical fiction fans - and if you like a mystery, you may well like this as well.