What a fantastic book, it had me gripped from the very first page. Natalie really brings the past to life in a most interesting way. Her narrative takes you from being a reader to a participant without you noticing until you emerge from the end of the book. This book blows away the preconceptions the reader may have had about Medusa, her sisters and the other gods. I have read a couple of Natalie's books but this is far and away my favourite.

Prepare to whisked to ancient Greece from the second you open the book. Its one heck of a ride.

Stone Blind sits amongst a plethora of recent novels dealing with Greek myths with a spotlight on the often misunderstood female protagonists. Stone Blind details the life of Medusa as she grows with her Gorgon sisters into a young woman who is then abused by Poseidon and ultimately beheaded by Perseus. Haynes illuminates the petty power struggles of the Gods and their blatant disregard towards the mortals that they oversee.
Nicely written, Stone Blind is a good read for anyone interested in this oeuvre.

The recent surge in authors rewriting the Greek myths has provided another such novel in Natalie Hayes’ Stone Blind. She rewrites the story of Perseus and Medusa to question whether the former is really the hero he is usually portrayed as. While this is interesting and funny, it felt like Hayes lacked material - she broadens her lens to include events like the birth of Athena. Short chapters mean we frequently change narrator and this removes any emotional charge. Retelling such a well known story also means any suspense is lost as we know Medusa’s fate before starting the novel. I really enjoyed Hayes’ previous novel about the Trojan Wars, but perhaps it’s time for publishers to look beyond the Greek myths. I appreciate the attempts to recentre women but, as Hayes’ narrators explain themselves, this is a world where gods punish women for being raped by other gods - and it’s very hard to turn this into a feminist narrative. I’d give this book three and a half stars.

Honestly, I was so disappointed with this book. The description is rather misleading and instead of getting Medusa’s story, I got pretty much every other Greek god, goddess, and side character’s story with a handful of chapters about Medusa instead, most of which were told from a different POV other than her own.
I have read other Medusa retellings that have actually delivered a story I was looking for; that being the actual story of Medusa.
This book was far more Athene’s or Perseus’ story.
Perseus was the most infuriating character in this story; he spends half the time crying over pathetic problems and the rest killing anyone who mildly offends him.
Bonus points of rage must go to the chapters where Poseidon spends what seemed like 10 pages complaining how he must look like a beached seal and the 20 odd pages from an olive grove’s POV, that I’m pretty sure still had more plot coverage than Medusa.
It was a bore to get through this book and I only persevered because I am not someone who can bring myself to DNF.

I don't think Natalie Haynes should have subtitled this book as Medusa's story as readers will be disappointed as it is a much more expansive tale than just Medusa's backstory, encompassing numerous gods and beings. The story is told not only by Medusa but by multiple narrators in a "POV" style. A device that I think has been vastly over used by authors for the past decade. I also though a lot of the story telling was a bit heavy handed and the pacing was uneven. The narrative felt curiously dull and flat for me. It was okay but didn't spark for me in the same way as Circe by Madeline Miller did a few years ago.

“Why would anyone love a monster?” asked Perseus.
“Who are you to decide who is worthy of love?

Firstly, I will start by saying my absolute favourite myth is that of Medusa, so I was EXSTATIC to see Natalie Haynes was writing her own take on it!

'Stone Blind' is the tale of Medusa, starting from when she is born of Ceto and Phorcys and left on a beach as a task to her immortal sisters, the Gorgons, Sthenno and Euryale to her growing as a curious mortal with so much love to give, to the twisted involvement of gods in her life and her overall fate.

My favourite part of the entire story was the relationship between Medusa and her sisters, Haynes gives such life to both Sthenno and Euryale and you can really appreciate the love that grows between them all. The book itself, although about Medusa - isn't REALLY about Medusa, it's also about the gods and Perseus and really everyone who has an ounce of impact on Medusas fate and this is all told through multiple character perspectives such a Andromeda, Athene, Perseus etc.

Personally I didn't mind the multiple POVs throughout the book as it helps you further understand how and WHY things play out the way they do, but I would have loved for so so SO much more of Medusa as I felt that she was almost a minor character in her own story?

The writing throughout was beautiful and immersive and you really learned so much about the famous Greek mythological tales without it being a dry read which can often sometimes be the case, instead it was fun and enjoyable from the get go.

Overall, I very much enjoyed the book and Haynes depiction of Medusa's tale and she is a wonderful voice in the Greek mythology retellings and I can't wait to see what she goes with next!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for the E-ARC in exchange for an honest review...did I go ahead and pre order it anyway? yes. yes I did.

Over the last few years, I’ve really got into Greek mythology, and along with it, many of the popular ‘retelling’ of various myths and stories from the genre.

In Stone Blind, Natalie Haynes has recreated the story of Medusa.

We all know Medusa right? Crazy lady with snakes for hair, turns people to stone for looking at her wrong..
But what if that isn’t the real Medusa?
Why is she such a monster?

Natalie Haynes takes us down that path..we find out about Medusa’s history, how she became that monster, why she was hunted by Perseus, and how their stories weave into the wider world, and very intricate web of Greek Mythology.

The ‘real’ story is heartbreaking, full of betrayal and sorrow.
I want to read it again!

Thank you to NetGalley for providing this copy in exchange for an honest review.

Absolutely loved this!

Medusa is my girl and Natalie Haynes did a brilliant job.
Such a fantastic read for any Medusa or Greek mythology fans

This is an entertaining retelling of the Medusa myth, reframing the story we all think we know (heroic Perseus slays monstrous Gorgon) into something very different.

Medusa's story is, of course, a full-on tragedy but Haynes keeps the tone light with humorous interludes showing the childishness of the gods.

I particularly enjoyed the chapters outlining Medusa's relationship with her sisters (I wanted to know a bit more about what happened to them after the climax), and the petty infighting on Olympus, which was reminiscent of modern day global, local, or even office(!), politics.

As others have pointed out, the book is about much more than Medusa. On occasions, this is a strength, as the stories of Athene and others are such fun. But at other times I felt like the focus could have been narrowed a little and more time spent with Medusa.

The continued breaking of the 4th wall to remind us what an asshole Perseus is was a bit tiring. We already know this from his actions and from multiple characters pointing out his cowardice, stupidity and hubris.

This book has fleshed out my knowledge of Greek myths, which I love, and also offered both drama and humour. However, I never felt close enough to any of the protagonists to really feel a huge amount of emotion.

At this point feminist retellings of the Greek myths are their own genre, but it’s a surprisingly difficult one to get right. At its best (Pat Barker’s The Women of Troy is one favourite), it can be terrifically powerful to combine the narrative force of the classics with the psychological depth of more modern character-building, and the contextualisation of social critique. When less successful, it can feel like fan fiction.

Unfortunately Haynes’ books always feel like the latter to me (a fact I evidently forgot when I picked up this book). Stone Blind was promising, a sympathetic retelling of Medusa’s tragic life - a mortal abandoned to be cared for by her immortal gorgon sisters, raped by Poseidon, then beheaded by a son of Zeus. Haynes uses the story to interrogate who the ‘monsters’ here really are, and the indignity of a girl’s senseless death at the hands of a man undeservingly preordained to greatness. The book shows up Olympus for their irrationality, capriciousness, and callousness - the way it’s described, it could be Boris Johnson’s cabinet with Zeus as an egotistical powerful fool (Johnson himself), Athena as his spiteful implementer (Patel), Hermes as one of the bored deputies (Raab?), and Poseidon as his arch frenemy (Sunak).

Yet none of this feels that new or that convincing, and the book has a tendency towards being heavy handed. I found A Thousand Ships similarly enticing in theory, but disappointing in execution - the writing falling short of the story.

'So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.’

My thanks to Pan Macmillan Mantle for an eARC via NetGalley of ‘Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story’ by Natalie Haynes.

I have been anticipating this novel since it was first announced as I was excited to see how Natalie Haynes would portray Medusa, who suffers a cruel fate due to the capricious nature of the Greek gods.

Medusa and her sisters, Sthenno and Euryale, are Gorgans, daughters of sea gods Ceto and Phorcys. Of the three, only Medusa is mortal, aware that she is the only one who gets older and experiences change. Unfortunately she attracts the attentions of Poseidon, who violates her in the sacred temple of Athene.

The goddess takes her revenge on the innocent Medusa, changing her life forever. Her hair is replaced by snakes and her gaze can turn any living thing to stone. The gentle girl is horrified by her new power and condemns herself to live in shadow and solitude.

Meanwhile, years previously Zeus up to his usual antics had fathered Perseus. Later when Perseus is grown, his mother, Danaë, is being forced into an unwanted marriage. In order to prevent this Perseus must undertake a quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .elsewhere the Princess Andromeda has her own problems when her vain mother boasts of her daughter’s beauty and seriously upsets a goddess.

Haynes has said more than once how Ray Harryhausen’s ‘Clash of the Titans’ inspired her. It was an important film for me as well and so I was pleased with her imaginative retelling.

Haynes weaves various other Greek myths into the story. Athene plays an important role throughout, including being ordered by Zeus to join up with Hermes to assist Perseus in his quest. While the central story of Medusa is undoubtedly tragic, Haynes manages to provide comic moments throughout.

Her portrayal of Perseus was savage as rather than a fearless hero, he is spoilt and hopeless, bumbling his way through the quest. Athene and Hermes are always close by providing snarky comments. They are clearly not keen on having to babysit Zeus’ by-blow.

The narrative switches often between various viewpoints; including a chapter in which Medusa’s snakes speak as a chorus; while in others a chatty crow and a grove of olive trees contribute to the story. It is a brilliant, entertaining tale.

I simply loved ‘Stone Blind’. Natalie Haynes’ storytelling skills are outstanding and she writes so beautifully. I felt that her portrayal of Medusa and her sister Gorgans was just amazing, bringing a fresh perspective to these timeless myths.

Highly recommended.

Having read and enjoyed Hayne's Pandoras Jar, I was beyond excited to receive this as an ARC. I have a passion for classical mythology, and it pains me the way that Medusa is commonly portrayed.

But Haynes' has worked her magic and produced a captivating, emotional and refreshing re-telling of the Medusa myth - more authentic than many of the more recent interpretations of the past 100 years. Even the way that Haynes' has captured the individual personalities of the Olympian Gods, matches exactly how I would expect them to be and brings them to life in an unexpected but fabulous way.

Perfect for fans of Circe, I would recommend this to just about everyone. For me, it's pretty close to perfection.

Stone Blind is the story of Medusa with other. Greek myths interwoven and mostly told from females point of view.
The Gorgons acquire a baby sister - Medusa from their sea creature parents. They bring their sister up as if she is their own - although she is much prettier, seems to have no powers and doesn't look much like a monster at all..

It is quite well known that some of the Greek gods including Zeus and Poseidon in many previous stories force themselves upon females and in this book we read some quite horrific things with Medusa and others where they are then punished for the things that the male gods have done to them- Athene is also quite brutal in this story, she kills people and skins giants in wars. She is vengeful and cruel and always blaming women for what men do.

We also hear from Danea, who is locked up at her fathers demands as an oracle has told him his daughters son would kills him and I was interested to find out how this myth unfolded. Would this be true?

Cassiope and her daughter Andromeda are obsessed with beauty and status but when her parents try to make their daughter marry her old ugly uncle can she escape their plan?

I enjoyed reading this book. I found it so interesting to read from different female perspectives. It was funny in lots of parts and I loved some of the conversations that were had between the characters making me laugh out loud on occasions . However at the same time I also found the book to be quite sad in parts as it seems women were the ones always getting hurt. At last they have more of a voice with this re-telling.

I will be recommending to others and looking out for more from this author!

Tried to read this book but sadly not for me , however I am sure others will enjoy it, thought I would give this book a try as it’s not my usual genre

Abandoned on a distant shore by her demi-god parents, Medusa is raised by her sisters, the Gorgons. Medusa is a normal girl until she becomes a source of desire for the god Poseidon who rapes her in Athena's temple. Athena takes her revenge by turning Medusa into a monster with snakes for hair and a gaze that turns living things to stone. Meanwhile Zeus' illegitimate son Perseus wants to prevent his mother having to marry someone she doesn't want to, so he goes to find a Gorgon's head.
Again Haynes has written a wonderful book which turns the myth on its head. Medusa is a figure of pity and Perseus is a petulant boy in this telling. The prose skims throughout, light, knowing and incredibly clever.

Natalie Haynes has done it again! My favourite retelling of recent. I loved that even though not every story line was Medusa's it all led to the same place. I thought the chapters written by the trees and the crows were a really good addition. Just loved it!

Brilliant reworking of the Perseus and Medusa story with the focus on Medusa. Telling the story of her life with her sisters and her beheading by Perseus from Medusa’s point of view opens the story up to a totally different interpretation. Natalie Haynes brings some of her ‘stand up’ material and POV to tell an old story in a new and modern way.

i have already purchased this for our libraries

It’s always good to come across a Greek mythology retelling that has nothing to do with the Trojan War! There have been so many over the last few years (Natalie Haynes’ A Thousand Ships being one of the best I’ve read) and it makes a refreshing change to read about other characters and other myths.

Stone Blind is subtitled Medusa’s Story but is actually written from the perspectives of many different characters, all coming together to tell the tale of the Gorgon Medusa and Perseus’ quest to capture her head. In traditional accounts of this myth, Perseus is seen as the hero, bravely slaying the monstrous snake-haired Medusa whose eyes can turn living creatures to stone. This version looks at things from a different angle, questioning whether it’s really fair to refer to Medusa as a monster and painting Perseus as, if not exactly a villain, a thoughtless, dim-witted boy who ends up fulfilling his quest almost by accident.

While part of the story is told from Medusa’s point of view, we also hear the voices of many other gods, mortals and mythical beings including the other two Gorgons, their sisters the Graiai, who share one eye and one tooth between them, the Ethiopian princess Andromeda, who is chained to a rock as a sacrifice, and even the olive trees of Athens. Some have a lot to say, others appear only for a few pages, but each one has an important contribution to make. This is the same style Natalie Haynes used in A Thousand Ships, but I found it more effective here. Whereas in the previous book the various characters’ narratives felt as though they were appearing in a random order, almost like a collection of separate short stories, here they are ordered in a way that makes chronological sense, with each new voice helping to move the story forward.

Medusa, as she is portrayed here, is a very sympathetic character. The only mortal Gorgon of the three and therefore the most vulnerable, she is raised by her two older sisters, Sthenno and Euryale. Medusa’s monstrous features only appear after she is raped by Poseidon in Athena’s temple and the angry goddess punishes her by transforming her hair into a seething mass of snakes and cursing her with the ability to turn everything around her to stone. Condemned to a life of blindness, afraid to uncover her eyes in case her gaze should fall upon one of her beloved sisters, Medusa’s story is very sad – and we know that it is only going to get worse because, far away, Polydectes, King of Seriphos, has challenged Perseus to bring him the severed head of a Gorgon. Fortunately, Haynes doesn’t dwell on the Gorgon-slaying episode, moving straight on with other parts of the myth.

Despite the tragic elements of the plot, the story is told with plenty of humour, particularly in the scenes dealing with the petty squabbling of Zeus, Hera, Athena, Hermes and the other Olympian gods. Haynes does an excellent job of capturing their fickle, petulant natures and the childish rivalries between them. In fact, I can’t really say anything negative about this book, other than that the title is slightly misleading as this is so much more than just Medusa’s story. I’m looking forward to future books by Natalie Haynes and must also go back and read her earlier novel, The Children of Jocasta.

This is a very readable Greek myth retelling that I raced through. Full of tempestuous gods, flawed mortals and monsters who have a caring side it is a fun novel to read.

Haynes uses multiple voices as narrators, and largely each is distinct and interesting. I think this device became a little overused and gimmicky in places though and may have benefited by being reduced a little.

I also felt let down somewhat by the main threads this novel drew out. I wanted to hear more from Medusa. I wanted to see more grit in her character, strength to balance out the misogyny she was subjected to, and more depth to the pain and suffering of her and her sisters. Instead, I felt that the prose just tripped through the events of the myth, with occasional wry comments in the direction of Perseus and his "heroic" acts.

Enjoyable, but I was expecting so much more.

This honest review is given with thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this book.

I thought Stone Blind was excellent. I am not a classicist, but I have read quite lot about Greek myths and this seemed to me a fine, readable and thoughtful retelling of the Medusa myth.

We all know the story, I suspect. Medusa was, of course a monster. She was a Gorgon with snakes for hair whose glance turned any living creature to stone, whom the hero Perseus decapitated with divine aid from Athene and whose head he then used as a terrible weapon to save Andromeda etc. Natalie Haynes is interested in far more than that, and especially in Medusa’s origins and the question “Who decides what is a monster?”

Medusa was originally very beautiful, so much so that Poseidon desired her and, in the way of male gods, overpowered and raped her in a temple to Athene. This made Athene angry, so whom did she punish? The victim, because the perpetrator was too powerful to touch, and Haynes paints Medusa as an ordinary, loving woman who has been made into a monster by people and forces over whom she has no control. It’s a point with strong contemporary resonance which Haynes makes dextrously and wittily, while never diminishing its power. She also considers Perseus’s actions and finds him, rather than heroic, to be vain, reckless, incompetent and “a murderous little thug” who “thinks anyone who is not like him is a monster”. Again, it’s thought provoking and has real contemporary relevance.

This is anything but a stodgily politically correct polemic, though. Haynes writes with wit and zing, using various narrative voices, the most powerful of which is Gorgoneion, Medusa’s severed head which became a symbol of protection in ancient Greece. Haynes brings these ancient, mythical characters to life wonderfully; she spares no-one, male or female, their faults, but has a sympathetic understanding of many of them – especially the Gorgon sisters, whose characters are very far from monstrous.

Although it is very different in tone, for me Stone Blind is up there with Pat Barker’s The Silence Of The Girls as a modern re-telling of the tales of ancient Greece – which is very high praise indeed. I thought it was an excellent read which has left me with much to think about, and I can recommend it very warmly.

(My thanks to Pan Macmillan for an ARC via NetGalley.)