I love the surge of female-centered retellings of these classic myths. This one will be for fans of books like Circe. I have a particular love for the tale of Perseus and his dealings with Medusa, so it was fascinating to think about how the women around him might reflect on his heroism and hubris.

Many thanks to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for sharing this book with me. All thoughts are my own.

An utterly fantastic, harrowing read for fans of Circe and The Silence of the Girls as it explores three women who shaped and were altered by Perseus’ violence and hubris

I did not have time to download and read this book before it was archived, so I'm unable to leave a review.

As a classicist, I am all for feminist retellings of myths. Give me them all. The Shadow of Perseus is a fairly straightforward retelling of the hero's iconic mythology. The twist here is that we get his myth from the perspective of the three women in his life. I found this a bit of a strange choice because there are so many women in mythology who can stand alone.

Overall, it is a well-written retelling. I don't think it stands out in such a saturated retelling market.

I Really enjoyed the concept of the book, giving voice to the women in Perseus's life. However, the book has no fantastical element and reads almost like pure historical fiction. The first half of the book was a lot more interesting, Danae's story before Perseus. Medusa was by far the best character. the ending was a bit slow and fell a bit flat. This book would be great for anyone who wants to read a more realistic spin on Greek Mythology.

Thank you Dutton and NetGalley for the eARC of The Shadow of Perseus! All opinions in this review are my own.

I absolutely loved The Shadow of Perseus! I really liked how Haywood took the familiar myth and told it through the eyes of the women that are most important to Perseus's story. The Author's Note at the end of the book details how Haywood chose to ground the novel in more historical and realistic aspects which I think made it all the stronger. The short chapters allowed me to fly through this book and I read it in three days! I am really excited to read Haywood's Daughters of Sparta now!

Thank you very much for the opportunity to read this book early! I really enjoyed it. I thought the writing was very well done, and the story kept me interested. I believe my students/patrons would also love this book and will be acquiring it for the library!

I loved Claire Heywood’s debut of Daughters of Sparta. So, I was excited for this novel! I hoped that it would be a fun twist on the infamous legend of Medusa. However, I was disappointed. I thought that this tale would be a fantasy tale like Circe which was full of gods and monsters. However, Mrs. Heywood took out all the fantasy and tried to make it realistic. This became a weird choice since Perseus killed Medusa and kept her head as a trophy.

I also did not like the reason why Perseus killed Medusa in this novel. It cheapened the legend. I think it would have been better to have portrayed Medusa as the monster she was. It would have made for a more delicious tale.

I also did not like Perseus. He was portrayed as the evil villain here. He had very little redeeming qualities. I did not find a complex character even though the story revolved around him. Thus, he was not someone I wanted to spend much of my time on.

Overall, this novel is about trauma, choices, and love. As for the other female characters, I did not find them particularly appealing. They were weak and indecisive. I also thought they were not complex. I really did not like the violence in the story and was very misogynistic. Thus, The Shadows of Perseus had an interesting idea. However, it would have been better if it was a more mythological tale and followed the myth faithfully like Circe. Like how Madeline Miller made Circe into a sympathetic villain, Mrs. Heywood could have done the same with Medusa. There was no reason for the roles being reversed in that Perseus was the villain and Medusa the victim. It just cheapens the myth and did nothing to enhance it. Still, Mrs. Heywood is an excellent writer. Her novel, Daughters of Sparta was a fantastic story that portrayed her characters as sympathetic. Unfortunately, Mrs. Heywood just couldn’t pull this off. Nevertheless, I recommend this for fans of Greek Mythology!

Thank you Netgalley and Dutton Publishing for the ARC. All thoughts are my own!

I do not know why it took me so long to get to this one. I really enjoyed this one. And am very interested in the other stories by this author. I enjoyed this one very much. I will say that I'm not super familiar with mythology so if there are inconsistencies from the actual stories I would not have been bothered by them. I highly recommend for those who like mythology and retellings!

This is a retelling of the story of Perseus told from three different women in his life. It spans large amounts of time. It starts with Perseus's mother Danae getting banished from her home as a princess for having a child that was prophecied to destroy her father. Then later on in the stories it tells of his adventures running into Medusa. Lastly, it tells of how Perseus interferes with Andromeda's sacrifice to the Gods.

Read if you enjoy:
Greek mythology retellings
Female POV
Multiple perspectives

I honestly cannot stress enough how much I love retellings and reimaginings…which might be the reason why I read so much fanfiction, but add in some mythology, and color me intrigued! The Shadow of Perseus was a captivating novel that tells the myth of Perseus from a female centered point of view. I honestly could not put this one down! The writing was great and the story was exactly the kind of thing I look for in a book!

This is easily one of the most immersive books I’ve read this year. I loved this beautifully crafted take on the myth of Perseus- cleverly providing a new and unique perspective told from the viewpoint of the women in his life. I truly love stories/retellings like this. Ones that make you think about the surrounding factors, the whys and the what’s ifs, delving deep enough to root out another narrative. A narrative that was wonderfully written, empowering, and one I reveled in reading!

this story give a different side to a hero from myth and it made Perseus an ass and gave the women in his life a voice. over all it keep me listening to the audiobook but I wouldn't say I'll reread it anytime soon.

I love a good Greek Mythology retelling and this one is no exception. I loved making these three different women the stars and it was really interesting to read how they interweaved with Perseus.

3 stars!

I love a Greek mythology retelling, but unfortunately I didn't find anything specific about this book that really stood out to me in any way. I think the other issue is that the story of Perseus is one of the more popular Greek mythology pieces, and so I still felt like the women involved in his story were overshadowed.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

Thank you to Dutton and Netgalley for this eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I was so excited by the concept of this book because I grew up loving the Clash of the Titans movie as a teenager. I love Greek myths and Greek myth retellings are so fun, especially when they're feminist retellings. I unfortunately think I'm burnt out on Greek myth retellings.

While this was a powerful and heartbreaking yet empowering story about the three women affected by Perseus's hubris and malice, it overall fell a little short for me. I think if I were in a different head space I would have enjoyed this more, but alas it was a bit lackluster. If you generally enjoy Greek myth retellings do pick this up though, because it might work better for you.

I loved this book. After a few chapters I was deeply invested in each of the women. I love that Heywood chose not to include fantastical elements, instead creating a story that is realistic to the time period.

I love a mythological retelling - seriously, I think I've read *all* of them. I do really enjoy the twist on this one and the fact that it's in a more real-world setting.

Book Summary:

Most of us have grown up hearing the legends of old. Specifically, the legends of Greek gods, goddesses, and the humans that found themselves in their way. Recently, many authors have been working to provide new angles on these classics.

This is the story of Danae, Medusa, Andromeda, and Perseus. Who is the story's true villain, and whose story has been twisted by time and corrupted by the speakers? Read on, and you'll find out.

My Review:

So, I'll admit that I was a bit conflicted while reading The Shadow of Perseus, and to be clear, this conflict is entirely of my own making. On the one hand, I adore a good feminist retelling. On the other hand, I'm feeling pretty tired of Greek and Roman retellings. I know it'll come back around, but I realize I need a break—a long one.

So that mood of mine almost certainly colored my opinion of The Shadow of Perseus, so please keep this in mind! That said, it was a pretty solid novel. It does justice to the core material, turning events slightly so that the female characters have more agency. Gotta love that, right?

I should probably mention that while the story does justice to the core myth, it does have a few significant changes. For one thing, the magical scale is gone. Not altered, gone. So I imagine readers will be split about this. Some will love the more human take, while others will hate losing the supernatural element.

Highlights:
Greek Mythology
Retelling
Fantasy

Trigger Warnings:
Banishment
Sacrifice

I found this retelling very interesting because it seems to deviate quite a bit from the original myths in order to make a different point. Because of that, I can definitely see some people not really enjoying this book because of it, but I personally ended up really liking the spin it gave on the original myths, and the new framing the story had because of it.

While I was semi-familiar with the myths this retelling was based on, I wasn’t recently familiar with them, and I think that helped! I was more open to the liberties that Heywood took with the source material because I couldn’t clearly see what exactly was new and what wasn’t, beyond some of the obvious changes. Myths in general are also fluid, and I feel like keeping the spirit of them is often more important than keeping the exact events, and I felt like that was still kept here. It was also fascinating to sort of focus on one character (Perseus), but only ever see him through the lens of other characters. It gives such an interesting idea of a character, and I’d love to see more stories written like this, retelling or not!

I also quite enjoyed the writing style of this book, and it worked well with the audiobook narrator I listened to. It just read very smoothly to me, and it made it really easy to just keep moving throughout the book. Often, these sorts of retellings can feel very dense and bogged down by fancy prose, but this book had such an easy storytelling style that it made it easy to keep on listening. I never felt like I had to take a break or pause for a bit, as my brain had enough space to process the book while reading it, rather than it being too dense for that.

While I definitely don’t think this retelling will be for everyone, I do think fans of looser retellings will end up enjoying it!

This review will go live on my blog on July 21st.

Mostly a dark and depressing story about an overindulged teenage psychopath whose violence is endlessly covered for (if not fully accepted by) the women in his life, usually at their immediate peril. Perseus' violence was so extreme and his ego so fragile it genuinely felt like a greek myth rewritten with an incel school shooter at its heart.