Claire Heywood is always a must read for me and The Shadow of Perseus definitely lives up to the rest of her work. Perseus has the perfect story to be told from this perspective. I loved reading about each women, especially written by Heywood. The Shadow of Perseus is not one to be missed!

I read Claire's Debut Novel 'Daughters of Sparta' and loved it. She is a master of retelling myths and stories, keeping it true to the tale we know, while also re-evaluating it and making it her own and "more". This novel is no different. I loved the changes she made to make this classic myth more relatable while staying with the basics of what we know happens. She also masterfully gives voices to characters often overlooked. How she wrote Medusa, and Andromeda have forever changed the way I view them. And other myths as well, as well as their place in history. Heywood has yet again opened door for myths and history to be looked at with a critical lens. I will sing the praises of this novel for many years to come and I now eagerly wait for the day when she releases another because I can now say with confidence that Claire Heywood is my favorite author when it comes to this genre. I Love her. keep writing for unheard voices. I will keep reading.

3.5 stars rounded up.

Initially, I was disappointed at the way Heywood chose to leave out the fantasy elements of this novel, choosing to make it one about human decision rather than divine interventions. I see the merits in that, to a degree, but I also felt like parts of the story that added depth and even power for the women in it (thinking particularly Medusa) were stripped from it. By the end, though, I think the story came around and it felt like a satisfying retelling.

The writing is beautiful, but it felt disconnected. Medusa's section felt too short and a bit underdeveloped, while Andromeda and Danae kept me hoping there would be added layers. I ended up skimming the majority of this because I just wasn't able to connect to the story the way I hoped to. So, this lands somewhere in the middle as far as retellings go. A good addition to what's being published these days, but not my favorite.

This book was so good and so worth the read I loved the writing and the story so much. I can't wait to get my own copy for my bookshelf

This story concentrates on the women that were part of Perseus' life. While Perseus may be the hero of the story, the women who shaped his story are the real protagonists here.

I was immediately interested when I saw Claire Heywood’s newest work, a female centered reinterpretation of the tale of Perseus. Told from the perspectives of Danae (mother), Medusa (prize), and Andromeda (wife), you get a unique view of the man as a villain rather than a hero.

Heywood is an immediate read for me, her prose and storytelling when it comes to Greek mythology are top notch and The Shadow of Perseus did not disappoint!

Thank you to NetGalley for this stunning greek retelling ARC.

The Shadow of Perseus is a well written and researched book about the legend of Perseus told from the perspective of the women in his life. Perseus' mother Danae, Medusa and his wife Andromeda tell the story.

The Greek gods do not make an overt appearance in the book. Everything Perseus does is a reaction to his environment - he tries to prove himself and fulfill his destiny. His choices lead to unexpected results.

This book is a refreshing and more realistic retelling of the mythology and is worth a read.

I think by now we all know I love a good retold myth, and that Medusa is one of my favorite figures in any mythological cycle. I would've been interested in a Perseus novel based purely on those two criteria. I was not wrong: The Shadow of Perseus is excellent.

Instead of focusing on the hero journey of the Perseus myths, Claire Heywood focused on the women who shaped his life, and the impact he had on them. The book is divided into four parts, beginning with Danae, Perseus's mother, and how he came to be. She is a young princess who longs to marry someone from far away and escape her home, Argos, to get away from her increasingly paranoid and abusive father. Instead, his paranoia becomes madness when the Pythian Oracle prophesizes that he will be killed by Danae's son, his grandson. Since Danae doesn't have children yet, his response is to lock her in a near-windowless cellar in the castle until her childbearing years are over. Of course, in Greek myth no one outsmarts the Oracle, and trying to usually makes things worse. Danae befriends and comes to love a brave young man, which leads to her inevitable pregnancy and her father going off the rails. In a fit of madness, he imprisons her in a boat, nailing a cover over it so she can't escape, and sets her and his impending grandchild out to sea to die. Instead, Danae is rescued by fishermen who kindly take her in, and so begins Perseus's life.

The next two sections, Medusa and Andromeda, cover Perseus's actions after his first romantic rejection, and how he takes his wife. In both cases, reading this book is like reading the effect of incel manifestos on women, from the woman's point of view. The stories aren't Perseus's, they are Medusa's and Andromeda's, and Perseus is no hero: he is a horrid villain who manages to gaslight the captain and crew on his ship with wild stories of what happened, hiding the ugly truth of his actions. Heywood's versions offer a much more likely retelling of the Perseus and Medusa conflict and Perseus "rescuing" Andromeda from the Kraken.

The final section, Danae, follows Perseus and Andromeda back to his roots and both bloody and surprising conclusions to the Oracle's prophecy. It's worth noting here that there are no trigger warnings on this book, but actual Greek society wasn't kind to women. All three women in this tale are subject to the idea that the male in your life owns you, which is supposed to be protection but ultimately is just control. Perseus embodies this notion, even telling his mother she's not allowed to marry again without his permission. In taking their own fates in their hands, all three women suffer, which is awful to read but accurate to the time. Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda's stories full of physical and psychological abuse, rape, and trauma, and Heywood doesn't shy away from any of it. Perseus, far from being the hero of this story, is a petulant boy trying to be a man using force and violence to get his way, resulting in horrendously violent temper tantrums that leave a wake of blood behind him. But The Shadow of Perseus is about how the women in his life learn to survive him (or not).

Heywood is a fantastic, lyrical writer who paints a well rounded picture of the ancient world. She doesn't rely on any divine or magical interference for these myths, but tells them with a realism that makes them feel like what really happened. She depicts each woman in their native location, and I loved that she gave each of them a much more accurate characterization based on their different cities. Danae in Argos was the most stereotypical "Ancient Greek" of the women, but Medusa lived in Libya with the Gorgons and worshipped snakes and Andromeda was a tattooed nomad from an oasis in the desert. Each woman had distinct culture and reasons for how they came to to be where they first met Perseus. Far from the usual retelling of Greek mythology, The Shadow of Perseus provides a varied and exciting world of different people and cultures accessible by boat, versus the homogeny that has become stereotype.

I loved this book. I'd love to sit down with Claire Heywood and chat about the ancient world sometime, because she absolutely takes you there in this story. I loved that Perseus is the main conflict these women fact, not the main hero in their story. They are not damsels in distress whom he rescues: he IS he distress, and they must find a way to mitigate him in order to survive. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a bit more realism in their mythology, and I can't wait to read everything published by this author.

Oh, I loved this book. I love a feminist retelling of Greek mythology, and this has been one of my absolute favorites!

The three protagonists of the book were easy to fall in love with and empathize with. (Catch me naming my next child Andromeda - kidding, but also maybe not kidding.) I was somewhat familiar with the legend of Perseus before reading this, and I thought the retelling was SO well-done.

What I loved most about this book is that it was realistic and well-researched. Instead of defaulting to magic and gods and monsters, the book is written so that each event could have actually happened, and you can see how those events over time would develop into the stories we know today. It was such a fun and new way of approaching the story, and I enjoyed every minute of it! The historical details added authenticity and richness to the story without slowing it down.

Overall, this was one of my favorite books of the year, and I would highly recommend it, especially if you love Greek mythology. I'm looking forward to reading Claire Heywood's first book, and will be keeping my eye out for future releases!

Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for providing an advanced digital copy of this book. I read and reviewed the book voluntarily.

I’ve been pondering this book and I think I’d have to land on love (5 stars) rather than simply like (4 stars). When things are written from a woman’s perspective, I’ll admit that I run the gamut from excited to worried. I want to read stories about women by women but sometimes they 1) make all men out to be jerks and 2) force women to be mannish to survive. I was delighted, as I read “The Shadow of Perseus,” to see women taking ownership of their femininity and using that unique strength to weather the storms they face. Claire Heywood has written a lovely tribute to the women behind the man/myth/legend known as Perseus; and in their trials. we women see how we too can turn the tide in our own stories.

The Shadow of Perseus, by Claire Haywood, is a retelling of a myth that was not well known to me before this book. The story focuses on the women of the story, as opposed to the typical mythological tales focused on the men. I really enjoyed this book, and highly recommend it to others!

A gripping story about the tale of Perseus, told from the perspective of the women figures in his life. Growing up with the story of Perseus, I thought I knew all there was to know, but spinning the perspective shows a new version of the boy I thought was a greek mythology hero. I love a greek mythology retelling and I loved giving a voice to the women who impacted Perseus’ life, granting them their own chance to tell the tale we all thought we knew. I was disappointed that all the women were seen just as victims and not provided with their known qualities. I wish Medusa was still able to turn anyone who look at her to stone. It made her unique. While there were aspects of the novel that fell flat, I am overall impressed with the defined sections dedicated to each woman allowing them to feel like an individual. The descriptions and realism turned this from myth to reality.

The men of myth whose stories are well-known have others in their lives, namely women, whose stories are often not told despite their having a significant impact, but Claire Heywood’s The Shadow of Perseus depicts three women in Perseus’s life and the role they had in shaping it.

Prophesied to have a son that would bring about the fall of her father, Danae is locked away in a cell to prevent it from becoming true, but despite that measure she becomes pregnant by a kind soul who keeps her company; when her father finds out, he casts her out of Argos to sea, leaving her fate to Poseidon. Rescued from the sea Danae winds up in a remote fishing village where she raises her son, Perseus. As Perseus grows, he’s seen as too soft by the men of the village resulting from Danae’s constant mothering and he’s sent off on a merchant ship when he’s eighteen to offer him a chance to see the world and become a man. On this journey, Perseus meets Medusa, who’s leading a group of women gathered from many tribes who reside in peace together known as the Gorgons, not realizing that the fearsome creature he set off to hunt is not at all what he’d been told, but when Medusa refuses Perseus, his actions bring about her demise in a grisly manner. The next time the ship Perseus travels on reaches shore, he spots Andromeda, naked and enduring the weather as a sacrifice to the gods to spare her desert tribe from a relentless sandstorm, which was blamed on Andromeda for her behavior during a recent marriage ritual; “rescuing” Andromeda, Perseus takes her for his wife, despite her being promised to another, not having been in any danger, and a language barrier between them, setting her life on an entirely different path. Reunited with Danae and avenging her being taken by a man against his permission, Perseus, Andromeda, and Danae set sail for Argos so a determined Perseus can fulfill his destiny; with the carefully voiced guidance of Danae and Andromeda, the women help set Perseus on a new path from the violent one he’d been intent on pursuing.

In this retelling of Perseus’s story, the narrative offers a view into what, or more aptly who, built these men of Greek myth, demystifying them and their deeds from what might be considered as godly to simply human. Though a story with a basis in mythic gods, there was no divine intervention to events, leaving only human actions to drive the story, which was a successful tactic to help readers easily connect with and become invested in these women and the experiences they endured as it tended toward the realistic rather than the fantastic. Splitting the narrative between the three perspectives of the women in Perseus’s life, his mother Danae, a brief, chance meeting with Medusa, who he slayed, and the wife he took, Andromeda, a picture of Perseus’s evolution from a kind child to a relentless and violently temperamental young man, to a man pulled back from the brink of destructive tendencies emerges in broad strokes, colored by the things these women see yet dare not voice for fear of his reaction; with men within these myths tending to make the ordinary more grandiose than it is, often in a manner that emphasizes the use of toxic masculine behavior, a shadow is cast over that which underlies an origin of their might, the women who raised, nurtured, or aided them often in silence and from the sidelines, toward the glory being claimed.

Overall, I'd give it a 4 out of 5 stars.

*I received a copy of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

The POVs are interesting, and it feels like an original take on the story of Perseus. Unfortunately, I don't see it going over well for our usual patrons. I don't think it's "traditional" enough. I'm not well versed in the stories, but it definitely switched up a lot of elements.

Thank you to NetGalley and Penguin Group for the ARC.

I'm a HUGE fan of Greek and Roman mythology, so I was excited to get an ARC. I suppose I assumed it would be ... a faithful retelling? I would go so far as to say, with women at the center, I thought it would be a feminist retelling. But, no. :-(

I mean there's a reason we still read Homer and Ovid and Virgil. The fantastical elements offer us something the realism of historical fiction simply can't. The ancient poets ignite imagination; they breed metaphor; they enchant us with a glimpse of the power within us. When you strip the legends of their fantasy, you kill the joy.

I'm not talking about magic. I'm talking about ritual, religion, agency. That's why we still read myths. They show us something ineffable and truthful about ourselves, something beyond psychological assessment. Myths help us believe in something bigger than humanity.

But Heywood's story is steeped in realism. She's aimed for historical accuracy -- her notes at the end suggest her research. And she's made her tale sterile in the process. None of the women's stories are gripping. The women themselves are flat, with nothing but victimhood to bind them. There's no cohesive narrative, no aim, no goal. This isn't a story about the women. This is a story about the women Perseus abuses.

There's nothing new about using female characters to expound on the life of a male one. Isn't this what we're trying to get away from? Aren't we looking at the women from these myths to give them voice, life, agency?

Give Danae a means to use Myron for her escape; give Andromeda the wits to refuse to be a sacrifice -- again and again; adorn Medusa with her crown of serpents, for the gods' sakes! Give her the power to turn men to stone! Don't rob her of that, please. She's made ordinary in this tale -- all the woman are -- and a victim like every other female character. These women don't make choices; choices are a luxury they aren't afforded.

Well, no big deal. There's plenty of myth to go around, and writers can do whatever they'd like with it. Be sure to let your reader know what they're getting into, though. A true feminist retelling won't only give the female character a voice with which to narrate a tale. She'll have the power and the will to kick ass and take names, too.

3.5 stars. I love a Greek mythology retelling and have read quite a few that I adored. This one is solidly in the middle for me.

I went into it with the expectation that the story would be female centric and would tell the story of Perseus from their points of view. That is what happened in this book, so that expectation was met.

I did not expect the female characters to be quite so one dimensional. It felt like each of their defining characteristics was that they were all abused by Perseus. And Perseus was completely loathsome, but I’m sure he was meant to be. He was the perfect representation of a whiny, overly aggressive (to make up for being a childish loser) young adult male that are portrayed in all the teenage soap operas. The whole story was driven not by the strength of the women around him or their stories, but all the rage and fake swagger that drove Perseus to continually harm and demean the women in his life. None of them rose above Perseus and his abuse despite being in Perseus’s shadow like I was expecting based on 1) the title and 2) the structure of the story. They just weathered it.

All of this is not to say that I didn’t enjoy the book. I did still enjoy it and I don’t regret the time spent reading it. I just wish there was something more to the women of the story than their misfortune of being in Perseus’s orbit, which is the main reason this retelling didn’t rank higher for me. Especially Medusa. In taking the magic out of this retelling and grounding it more in reality (which I actually found to be interesting and a nice twist compared to other retellings), Medusa ended up being a very lackluster character.

But I did really like the structure of the book and how Claire Heywood gave each section of the book to each main female character. I particularly liked that the book began and ended with Danae (Perseus’s mother) to bring the story full circle. But again, Medusa’s story was too short.

Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Well-written, but so hard to read. The Perseus of Heywood’s reimagining is no hero. He’s a spoiled, emotionally fragile, immature, narcissistic man-child, who turns violent whenever he feels disrespected. He’s abhorrent and his actions towards all three of the female protagonists (his mother, Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda) are disgusting and the ending was unsatisfying. I wanted justice. Instead, I need a shower. That said, this is a fascinating study in how a story differs depending on the perspective of the storyteller. The men who told the original myth, were just that, men. Clearly, they are going to be biased towards Perseus and building up his legend. But what about the other side to his actions? The women who are so often glossed over, named but not studied? Heywood gives them agency and a voice, and that is what I loved about this book, even while I shuddered with rage and revulsion. TW for domestic violence, and rape.

The Shadow of Perseus is a thoughtful exploration of the story we think we know through the eyes of those not traditionally given a voice in mythology. The women framing Perseus' story are often portrayed as passive props of the narrative; this book reminds us that women can actively shape their destinies even when the world tries to take their power and influence away, and offers a much more interesting, nuanced, and real perspective on the choices that determine what your story is.

Violence: High
Language: Mild
Sex: Mild
Drugs: None

This was an incredibly well thought out, female forward retelling of Greek myth. I love that the author placed much of this story in real settings, and her writing of Andromeda in particular encouraged me to go back and reread the myth with a new perspective. I wish there had been more of Medusa, but really thats my only qualm. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this early copy in exchange for an honest review. I will be picking up the authors other work for sure!

Claire Heywood has a bachelors degree in classical civilization, and a masters in ancient visual and material culture - and it is apparent in “the shadow of Perseus”. We are given descriptive elements of locations and historical context that I’m impressed with! This is not, by any means, a quick read- and it is to be enjoyed slowly, thoughtfully, and with new eyes. I adored this book as I adored her previous, Daughters of Sparta. 5/5 stars from me!


*thanks to NetGalley for allowing an arc in exchange for my review, all thoughts and opinions are my own!