Member Review

I’d been searching NetGalley for Stone Blind so was really chuffed to get a direct offer of a proof from the Pan Macmillan team. I loved a Thousand Ships and Children of Jocasta so was really keen to find out how Medusa’s story would be told. I think I particularly relish Natalie Haynes’s books just that bit more than, say, Pat Barker’s because in addition to plonking us in an immersive world they’re clever *and* funny.
Usually portrayed as an out and out hero, here Perseus doesn’t get much good press. Unfair? Perhaps, but there are centuries of bias the other way to be redressed – despite Medusa’s head doing the killing, all the credit has been given to Perseus. And if there’s a king or a god who takes himself too seriously, he can expect to be needled for it. The one good man is the kind and simple Dictys.
I loved the hair snakes as a bickering chorus. The stichomythic dialogue – particularly the scene where Hermes and Athene discuss how Perseus might kill a Gorgon (they’re not exactly encouraging) – is ripe for adaptation. Oh, and somebody please commission an Athene and Zeus sitcom.
My only criticism is that it was over far too quickly. Can the Medea book be more of an Anna Kareninesque length please Natalie?