"There's something stubborn in me. I'm a half-finished map and I'm always trying to plot my points, and I won't have anyone do it for me."

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I am obsessed with all of these Greek myth retellings that are flooding the market right now. We are getting fair representations of ancient women who endured horrible treatment at the hands of powerful men. Kings and gods who punished innocent young women for made up slights or old vendettas are featured prominently in the old tellings of the myths. Now we get the women's story front and center. One of the most compelling characters of ancient myth is Medusa, just the name brings to mind a terrifying image. But do we truly know the poor girl beneath the horror?

We learn just how Medusa was exiled to this deserted island with her sisters and how she came to be cursed with her disfigurement by Athena. She tells her story to a boy who has washed up on shore and all she's hoping is someone to love her for who she truly is. But the boy, Persus has a heavy history of his own that leaves him in contention with Medusa's hopes. Like all myths, you know this one is headed towards a heartbreaking conclusion but you just can't look away. I do wish we got a little more about her sisters but I get why the focus was so heavy on the titular subject.

The story gets 3.5 stars but the illustrations throughout this one are phenomenal so I'm bumping it to 4 stars, I can't wait to buy a copy for my shelves!

Thanks to Netgalley for early access to this novel. All opinions above are my own.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury YA for my DRC of this book.

This is a feminist retelling of the Medusa myth and man was I excited to read it. Unfortunately, this "retelling" was just that; it was a literal retelling that added nothing new or subversive to the Medusa myth that we haven't already seen in other retellings. The feminist added on felt very forced and not at all well done, it came across very "I just learned what feminism is and am gonna add it TO EVERYTHING". There was no nuance in Burton's storytelling which is unfortunate because this book has completely turned me off from reading anything else by her.

At a technical level, this was infuriating to read because so much of it read like a first year creative writing student's first draft. Burton spends so much time TELLING us how to feel that I just felt myself not wanting to finish this. And as characters, none of them change from the beginning of the story to the end. Medusa and her sisters constantly spout feminist sayings but do nothing else and the "big" climax with Perseus was so boring and because Burton added nothing new to her retelling, you see it coming a mile away but it doesn't feel suspenseful or tense, it just feels MEH. Because again, nothing in the writing makes the event feel important enough to feel worried about even while Burton is constantly telling you that you need to be worried.

Everything about this was disappointing. The art I felt also added nothing to the reading experience. I didn't enjoy the style and honestly would have preferred a copy without the illustrations.

Medusa is listed as a YA book by its publisher, Bloomsbury. I believe that adult readers will also enjoy this retelling of the ancient Greek story.

Jessie Burton does a wonderful job of bringing Medusa to life in a way that will help readers to understand and have empathy for her complex character. Medusa’s voice shines through. She has a revelatory style and often speaks directly to the reader.

Many know to associate with Medusa with snakes. Here the snakes are very much alive and each has its own personality. The difficulties of Medusa’s unwanted transformation are beautifully presented.

Other mythological folks come into this story. There are Perseus, Zeus, Poseidon and others including Medusa’s sisters. Thus, a whole world is created.

In addition, this book is illustrated. Adults may enjoy this as how often do we get to read and also see depictions of a story? This is something that is not generally found in books directed to adults.

I highly recommend this title. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. All opinions are my own.

Thanks to the publisher for providing an eARC of Medusa in exchange for an honest review.

So I'm not super familiar with the story of Medusa so I can't really speak to how accurate of a retelling this was, but I feel like any liberties Jessie Burton took here were definitely for the better. Medusa is instantly a compelling, easy to root for character even if you know how her story will inevitably end and I loved all the feminist commentary infused into this story. It's a quick and gripping read despite its familiarity and predictability.

A beautiful re-telling of the Medusa myth from Medusa's point of view. (I think I love this version more.) The illustrations are also quite beautiful.
What if Perseus met Medusa (but never saw her) before he knew it was actually the "monstrous gorgon?" What if they spoke to each other and fell in love? This re-telling explores Medusa's thoughts and feelings and what led to her "monstrous" appearance.

*Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of this beautiful story."

Oh, I so wanted to like this one. As soon as I saw it being published earlier this year in the UK, I was excited to get my hands on it.

In truth, the illustrations were the only shining part for me. They were beautiful and haunting at the same time. The reality is that this attempt at an adaptation just added nothing to the tale of Medusa for me. I love the way feminists are reclaiming all of these tales, but this one was not special or particularly well-done to me. Medusa was very one-note and I spent the whole book being TOLD how to feel, but being SHOWED very little. I think I am a bit biased towards the Medusa retellings that justify her rage and her power. This Medusa was kinda like "Well, I guess I should be allowed to be angry about this... Oh well, moving on."

I love this book for providing Medusa's side of the story and so beautifully showing how horrible it is when someone tells your side of it. It's a great conversation starter for how stories are portrayed in media and how women are so often cast as the villains when they've done nothing wrong. The illustrations and narrative are beautiful and go so well together. It's like reading poetry paired with fine art; it's a wonderful experience. The dialogue portions of the text didn't fit in for me, the topics seemed anachronistic for certain points and it didn't have the musical quality of the rest of the book, so it brought me out of the story. With that said, this is a great book for any educator to have to round out a mythology section and provide an alternate viewpoint.

This book was very unique and not what I thought it would be like. I actually really enjoyed it but it is not one I would read again. The characters were interesting and the author took the story in a new and interesting direction.

I always love reading more about Medusa because I LOVE her myth and Greek mythology in general, but this one fell flat. I didn’t jive with the writing style and also didn’t really enjoy Medusa and Perseus’ relationship. The ending was new but still didn’t hit the mark for me.

However, the illustrations are FANTASTIC. 100% the best part of this book.

"You should be careful who tells your story."

Medusa was a young teen wronged by the gods. First pursued by the lascivious Poseidon, then punished unfairly by the jealous Athena.

She and her sisters have lived for four years alone on a island when a boy, lost on a journey, finds himself on their shores. Medusa is intrigued by this boy, Perseus, and strikes up a friendship, sharing stories from the other side of an arch.

She tells what happened to her and he, the same, but when he learns who she really is he only sees her as the monster he's heard tale of and is ready to kill her to complete his mission and save his mother.

Overall it reads like many modern experiences of women being sexually assaulted and then blamed for it. Even being seen as the monster in the situation rather than the victim.

The illustrations in the book are absolutely gorgeous. They alone make me want to purchase a physical copy so I can look at the paintings over and over.

I loved this tale of Medusa so much! I'm not too familiar with her story and have mainly just seen the monstrous depictions of her in popular culture and media. But this book really painted a different picture of a woman who was not a villain but rather a victim of her circumstances, and I felt incredibly sympathetic to her plight. Burton's writing was at once beautiful and lyrical and I will definitely be checking out her other works. Overall I really enjoyed this book and the illustrations really enhanced the experience.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for allowing me to read this book!

I'm a pretty big Jessie Burton fan as I love her dark, atmospheric, Gothic-feeling prose. A graphic novel was actually perfect for her style. I am not a huge GN reader myself, but still enjoyed this.

Thank you NetGalley, Bloomsbury USA Children's Books, and Jessie Burton for an arc of this book in exchange for an honest review! I really enjoyed this book and sped through it in one day. I found the illustrations to be extremely gorgeous and I loved seeing Medusa's myth from a more feminist perspective. I've always been fascinated with Medusa and how she's seen as a villain despite her backstory and this book added a lot to that. I recommend this book to fans of Greek mythology for the fresh new look at the story plus some stunning artwork!

Medusa is my favourite greek myth and I’ve been craving a feminist retelling of it for SO LONG, but this was…a bit of a let down.

While the illustrations are gorgeous and there are some parts I liked — for example: it was a really quick read — it definitely disappointed me in most areas.

Perhaps my expectations were just really high, but I craved more. It all felt so surface-levelled, especially the characters.

It’s literally a retelling of the myth as in everything is kinda just…told to you? There’s not a lot of showing and, this is definitely due to my expectations, I was disappointed to find out it was just the myth as we know it but with feminism.

As a Medusa lover, I really wished there were some more twists from the myth but for people who don’t know a lot about this story, I can recommend it! It explains most things in a great way from a slightly feminist point of view!

OH MY GOODNESS!! I LOVED THIS!!!

So, Medusa, my love, my life, my protector of women, finally gets to be the protagonist, as she rightfully deserves in Jessie Burton's novel.

The writing is beautiful and poetic, but I did feel as if the dialogue sounded odd in some areas. There were points where Medusa and her sisters were talking that sounds straight out of the 21st century, but there were times when Medusa and Perseus were talking that sounded very formal/like old people.

My biggest critique is that this book is too short. I understand it follows the myth, but I would have liked to see more development, both interpersonal and intrapersonal.

I really have no other complaints? The illustrations are BEAUTIFUL, and they add a mystical and fairytale quality to it.

Thank you to NetGalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

I love it! A great way to learn about a different side of the Medusa story where Perseus isn’t the hero! And the illustrations are great too!

Medusa by Jessie Burton review

All of the stories i grew up reading about or which featured Medusa cast her as the villain, so I believed she was the monstrous gorgon who got a kick out of turning men into stone.

As I got more and more enthralled by Greek mythology and did research into the origin stories of these characters, I found that Medusa was a victim of a man who didn’t know how to take no for an answer, and subsequently a woman who preferred to shame and blame a victim.

Stories and retellings like this one are important, because the tell Medusa’s story like it deserves to be told. With lush beautiful writing, Jessie Burton has told a story that is hard to put down. I went into this blind, knowing only the title and seeing the cover but nothing of the blurb. It was fun to read it all as it played out.

I’m no stranger to the tale of Medusa and Perseus so I could see some parts of this book coming a mile away, but it was still so fun to read this. Jessie Burton turned so many elements of this age long tale on its head and made it such an enjoyable and easily recommendable book.

This is a tale that’s perfect for both younger and older YA readers because of its amazing feminist themes and undertones. Explorations of beauty and beauty standards, agency, societal expectations, and the quest for freedom make this book an amazing body of work.

I read this in one sitting and would definitely recommend it.

I had a really hard time with the writing style of this book. It felt stiff and did not flow well. I love the idea of a more feminist retelling of Medusa, but the writing wasn't there for me.

Whatever you think this book is, it’s even more. Read it! This is the Medusa retelling that her myth deserved, and the author did a fantastic job of making this tale of a character that I’ve always believed was misunderstood, hit the reader right in the heart!

This is what it says on the box: a feminist retelling of the myth of Medusa, with really beautiful illustrations. Here, Medusa's myth is told through the lens of rape culture and victim blaming, but it is also about reclaiming power. Really well done.