A new Natalie Haynes book?! About Medusa?! Sign me up! Haynes tends to take an interesting approach to her retellings by expertly switching the narrative through many different perspectives. This drives home the discrepancies and variety within different versions of the same myth. Medusa is a character claimed by many. The martyr, the feminist, the whore, the monster: all characterizations Medusa has been assigned for millennia. Through this book Haynes carefully weaves the story we know with expert characterization and modern wit. I especially liked how she brought in elements of other myths that aren’t as obvious to the story of Medusa, like the birth of Athena and her assault via Hephaestus. Yet, how Haynes crafts this narrative, it works because we can see how this effects Athena post the rape of Medusa. I also appreciated that Haynes didn’t try to make Athena a feminist queen like a lot of modern retellings try to do. While I understand the drive behind that mindset, it’s factually incorrect with the surviving mythology we have of her. (She was decidedly a boy’s-girl.) I can keep going with things I loved about this book: the characterization of sisters relationships, complicated parent child dynamics, the handling of trauma, talking snakes, etc. But I won’t. I will pick up anything Natalie Haynes writes, I bet even her shopping lists have humor to them.

I'm sorry. I just found this book rather dull. I love mythology retellings, and when I saw the coverI was hoping for a story about Medusa, and very little, may a third? of the book was actually focused on Medusa. It jumped all over the place, a little Medusa, a little Athena (quite whiny really), then over to Danae and her son. The lack of focus on any particular character for long, made it difficult to become invested in any of them. They did all tie together, but the constant shifting of focus was off putting.
I did enjoy the struggle of Medusa's sisters in deciding what to do with her (should we eat her?) and trying to raise her. But off in another direction the story went...

I was very excited about reading this book. There have been some very good mythology retellings in the last few years that have reignited my love of the time period and genre. I liked to learn more about Medusa and the other gods. They are such petty beings and this book perfectly shows their pettiness. I had previously read Haynes' book, Pandora's Jar, and enjoyed learning about the women of mythology and their portrayals through history.

Perfect for fans of Jennifer Saint.

JUSTICE FOR MEDUSA
Poor girl
Did nothing wrong

wow
Gods are terrible
This book did a great job of retelling the story of Medusa and included all the horrible monsters that turned her into a monster.

I loved how the story included all the important characters associated with this classic mythology tale. All the characters that we know as heroes but are the creators of all horrible things that happen. This is the ONLY version of this story that exists for me from here on out
The writing was patient and poignant, beautiful but devastating.

Thank you SO MUCH netgalley for a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review, it was a pleasure!

This is poignant, hilarious, heartbreaking. The scathing narration surrounding Perseus is masterfully done. I wanted 100 more pages. I’ll read anything Haynes writes.

Natalie Haynes takes the classic story of Medusa, injects humor and sarcasm and makes it very approachable. Her wit is on full display which made this story a pleasure to read. She turns villains into innocents and heroes into villains. There are a lot of characters to track but there is a very helpful list of characters in the beginning which I referred to often. I will read whatever she writes.

Thank you to Netgalley and Haprper for an Advanced Reader's Copy!

If you want something in the vein of Circe, which I’m sure this will be touted as endlessly during these next few months before and after release, with that same gorgeous writing Miller employs, look no further. I implore you to pick this up, it made me feel all the things Circe. Stone Blind is a vibrant work, and I’ll know be putting Haynes’ other work at the top of my TBR pile.

The threads Natalie Haynes weaves in this story to form the full tale of Medusa are poignant, heartbreaking, and overall lovely. The sequence of events is seamless here. Some chapters spoke directly to the reader and it was an effective way of drawing us deeper into the different perspectives’ within this novel. There are so many stories that come together to form Medusa’s and help us to understand her fate, and it worked so well here.

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me a copy in exchange for an honest review.

I loved Natalie Haynes book A Thousand Ships, and I was so excited to get to read a copy of this one early!! She has the ability to take ancient history and really breath life into these stories by focusing on the women in them who have primarily been overlooked.
So often a myth is told as the story of one person or one major event, but I loved the way Haynes tied together several story lines and showed how these different stories intersect.
I absolutely love this book, and I cannot wait to recommend it to readers! Retellings of ancient stories have grown in popularity, and I think this book is excellent for readers who enjoyed Circe!

Absolutely brilliant. This story felt like a tapestry being delicately woven strand by strand to show not just one myth but many. It was tragic, masterful, and indescribable.

What if the hero of myth is really the monster? Natalie Haynes brings her sarcasm and humor to Stone Blind to present the perspective of the monstrified Medusa, her beloved Gorgon sisters, and the cast of characters with whom her story intersects. Reduced to the terrifying object of a hero’s quest, Medusa is never acknowledged for her compassion or given the benefit of humanity.. Until now.

As one of the Greek myths I was more unfamiliar with, this was a great and entertaining read! The setting was vivid, and the language used throughout the book made me feel like I was reading a modernized epic poem. One of my favorites this year!

This book was incredibly impactful. A gorgon head/Medusa head has become a symbol of SA survivors and this story added even more depth to that meaning. This was an incredible story.

I was intrigued by the description, so I had to get this one! I really liked the entire book start to finish. The writing was really good and the tale of Medusa was super interesting. Patrons will definitely like it, so we will be purchasing for the branch.

Natalie Haynes did not disappoint! I loved this book. I really had very little knowledge about the story of Medusa and I found this book totally fascinating. Well done.

This is really a 4.5 star read for me, so round up. I really think that maybe I am being unfair to this particular book because I am comparing it to "A Thousand Ships," which was arguably one of the best books I read last year. This book had all of Haynes's trademark wit, and I definitely laughed out loud quite a few times. That being said, I just didn't LOVE it as much as I was hoping I would. I felt like it was a bit scattered, and I had a hard time keeping up with who was who. Additionally, I felt like there could have/should have been more characterization for Medusa, since she was the titular character. I wanted to feel something for her, but there was so little build up on her end, I felt like I hardly knew her - not that I didn't feel disgust at the things that happened to her, but I wanted there to be a more emotional connection. Overall, it was still a win. Natalie Haynes is amazing, and this did not change that opinion at all - It just wasn't my favorite of hers.

I love the way Natalie Haynes tells these stores. Much like with A Thousand Ships, the story of Medusa is told through the eyes of the whole cast of characters, with very short chapters making a quick and fast-paced read. We get a lot of personality from the characters with this format, the insight into what some of these characters-especially the Gods-are thinking makes the story easier to follow. The focus here is a retelling of the myth of Medusa, updated with a modern approach to the story. The bones of the myth remain the same, what Haynes does with giving more life to the characters is what expands the story. I thought the book was great, the pacing was good and how the story was told was well-done, though I did feel like poor Medusa did not feature enough. We rarely get chapters from her pov, despite being the main character and the one we as readers would most like to hear from.

5/5
Natalie Haynes transforms the Medusa story we’ve been fed into a layered history of the women at its center and the monster we’ve all been taught to fear. Stone Blind delivers exactly the kind of retelling I have been craving, inexplicably rich, lyrical, and wound up in tragedy. With every delicate line and merciless moment, Haynes dismantles the complex relationships and powerful forces at play within the Medusa myth, creating a wholly authentic view of the monster and existing as a woman within the sphere of the gods. The kind of story that will forever be imprinted upon me, long after I have managed to look away from its pages.

As a child, I originally knew of Medusa as most generally know of her - not much more than a horrifying snake-haired monster who can turn living things to stone with just one look. But when I finally was fully introduced to the tale of Perseus in a collection of Greek myths, I distinctly remember how odd everything felt when I first read how the hero killed Medusa in her sleep. For one thing it definitely felt quite anticlimactic, as I expected an epic battle. However, it also genuinely felt strangely unfair to Medusa herself, who had been doing little more than slumbering in her faraway cave with her gorgon sisters. Little did I realize the extent to just how unfair things truly were until years later when I sat down with Natalie Haynes “Pandora’s Jar: Women in the Greek Myths,” and finally learned of Medusa’s assault by Poseidon in a temple of Athena, and Athena’s following revenge in the form of a crown of snakes and cursed eyesight. To call my previous perception completely turned about would definitely understate things quite a bit. It was such a far cry from how I used to know her that it felt like I was meeting her for the first time.

And it’s the Medusa in this brand new light whom Haynes puts in center stage in her latest work, “Stone Blind.” Definitely not a monster, but instead a woman who has fallen victim to the impulses, whims and squabbles of others. She’s also far more than a surprising symbol of injustice. She’s fleshed out as a person who is far more complex, more sympathetic, and much more relevant than I even could have imagined her to be - all while leaving the basic myth quite intact.

However, that’s not the only perception upheaval that Haynes accomplishes “Stone Blind” provides new takes on several other familiar names from Greek myth that feel both completely true to their core characters and tales as they’ve existed over the ages, but also fresh and wonderfully subversive at the same time. Perseus is still very much the son of Zeus chosen to go on an epic adventure. However, he’s also a lad who finds himself hopelessly out of his depth, as one would realistically expect of any teenage boy. Medusa’s gorgon sisters still bear their tusks, their wings, and their inhuman strength, yet whose loving care and support of their younger sibling frankly make them some of the most lovable characters in the entire book. And the Greek gods of Olympus, already famously ridden with flaws, are somehow even more so. They behave less like adults and more like petty children - which felt odd at first, but over time felt increasingly fitting given their immortality, their near-unlimited power and resulting difficulty in finding anything of interest or long lasting enjoyment.

Honestly, it’s retelling at some of its very best. The classical story remains intact, yet its presentation makes the end result so drastically flipped, leading to not only plenty of surprise while reading but also lots of thoughtful reflection in the aftermath. Haynes has done excellent work giving a well-known but mistreated woman her long overdue fair due, and a new critical lens to take some equally overdue second looks at everyone surrounding her mythological orbit.

Stone Blind is marketed as a retelling of Medusa's story, and while it is that, it is also so much more. As the book goes about explaining how an innocent mortal became a "monster", it also examines the depiction of women, goddesses, and female monsters in Greek, highlighting how often brutal acts were committed against them only for them to be punished and the gods who committed the acts to receive no punishment. Haynes does a marvelous job balancing the characters and showing another side of the "monsters" of mythology.

I highly recommend this title to fans of Circe and the Song of Achilles.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a copy of Stone Blind in exchange for an honest review.

I am a sucker for any Greek retelling, especially when giving voice to the women so often overlooked. When I saw a story on Medusa by Natalie Haynes I was hooked. It was an interesting story told from the perspective of many different people and gods. While the story - told from beginning to end -is about Perseus beheading Medusa, it really isn't about Medusa. I wish we would have gotten more on her life with her Gorgon sisters, I really loved that trio, and less on Perseus. But overall, Haynes knocks it out of the park again.