i love Greek mythology retellings, especially told from the view of the women, so I was really excited to jump into this novel. Unfortunately, this one just kind of fell flat for me. I enjoyed the story from the mythos standpoint but found myself just not connecting with any of the characters. I think my major grievance with this retelling is the absents of everything that makes Greek mythology what it is. i think that this would be a great book for anyone that would like to read a more realistic retelling of the old stories.

A lot of care went into this book and it shows. Heywood took time to justify each choice that was made with locations, dress and appearance. All wonderful. A fantastic addition to the many femme retellings out right now. Adding this to the list of suggestions for those interested in Greek retellings. All of that being said,
I hate Perseus. An awful little creep. Except you Percy Jackson, you're on thin ice.

The Shadow of Perseus is a refreshing retelling of the story of the Gorgon slayer told from the perspectives of three influential women in his life: his mother, Danae; the Gorgon, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda. This retelling flipped the hero’s journey on its head (pun intended), revealing how dark the narrative gets when you let the women who suffered at the “hero”’s hands tell it. I hadn’t read much Greek mythology before this, besides the Odyssey and Percy Jackson in middle school (lol), and this book has inspired me to explore the genre further. Thank you to NetGalley and to Dutton for providing me with an ARC of The Shadow of Perseus in exchange for an honest review!

I had mixed feelings on this myth retelling. It takes a "historical fiction" approach, removing all the fantastic elements – which, while an interesting choice, I think removed some of the most interesting resonances and parallels for this set of myths. There were some options to restore those parallels which Heywood chose not to take – for reasons I understood, but I thought it removed some of the impact and effect of the stories. (The most notable change was to the story of Danaë, and the identity of Perseus' father – I won't be specific, to avoid spoilers.)

That said, it was well-written and researched, and I really liked the multiple POVs; it kept me engaged and interested, and the plot moves along nicely. All in all, not a bad book, but not my cup of tea personally.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Wasn’t for me. Hard to get into. Was slow paced for me. The storyline was interesting but I couldn’t get into it

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. The Plot was amazing and I can't wait for others to read it too.

One Sentence Summary: This is the story of the three key women in Perseus’s life: his mother Danae, the Gorgon Medusa, and his wife Andromeda.

Overall
The Shadow of Perseus follows the life of Perseus from the time before he was even born to when he fulfills the Pythia’s prophecy. Told by his mother Danae, the Gorgon Medusa, and his kidnapped bride Andromeda, this is Perseus’s story and how he came to not be the hero the myths paint him to be. His mother Danae’s story was interesting and I enjoyed her backstory, but her coddling kept Perseus from growing into a proper man who could understand the world. And that led him to the brutal beheading of Medusa and the kidnapping of Andromeda. And yet these two women weren’t innocent as their own ways of treating Perseus didn’t do anything from staving off his anger. I hate that I feel like a part of me blames these women, but Perseus doesn’t get a say of his own. Still, I enjoyed that this was very readable and found ordinary explanations for the interventions of the gods.

Extended Thoughts
The Shadow of Perseus is the sort of story I ought to love. It takes Greek mythology and gives it an historical spin, stripping out the gods’ intervention and finding wholly Earthly explanations. While I do love reading about the gods, I also love alternate explanations for what the ancient civilizations deemed as acts of the gods. And I did enjoy this; very much so. But I also find myself torn about this one, especially when it came to the depiction of Perseus. Oh, I understand this is the story of Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda, but they made Perseus’s depiction seem like a serious side effect of who they were and how they treated him.

Since The Shadow of Perseus is divided between the three women, though, for reasonable reasons Medusa’s is quite truncated compared to the other two women, I figure the best way to discuss this book is by breaking it up likewise. After all, this is the story of Perseus from the eyes of the three key women in his life. I did find this oddly fascinating as this is about those women, but their treatment of Perseus from the time he was but a babe in his mother had a profound impact on him. It was interesting to find a message, perhaps a side effect of the story being told or perhaps purposeful, that women have a great deal of impact on men, which is quite powerful but also potentially destructive.

Danae is Perseus’s mother. A princess, she’s characterized, especially early on, as appropriately spoiled. She’s also a bit naive and self-centered. It was lovely to get her backstory and see her with her father’s brother, as well as get the rivalry between them as they jointly rule the kingdom. I found her story to be fascinating, and then, when the Pythia’s prophecy is given, it was quite sad, though I liked how there was a very ordinary explanation for how Perseus came to be. There are quite a lot of ordinary, plausible explanations given regarding Danae’s life past this point, and I found myself not even missing the intervention of the gods. It worked really well and I found myself fascinated by it all. The best was that I didn’t even feel like I needed to be knowledgeable in ancient history and geography to understand any part of this book.

The part of Danae’s story that didn’t quite work for me was when the story skips forward to when Perseus is basically a young teen. He’s still attached to his mother’s hip, much to the consternation of the family they’ve taken shelter with since a pregnant Danae washed up on shore. Danae has raised him with the Pythia’s words in mind and has sought a non-violent existence for her son. It was quite sad to watch her have to deal with the loss of the family she’s come to regard as her own after living the life of a princess and then have to see just how much she failed her son. But some part of me couldn’t help but put some of the blame for how he turned out on her. She sheltered him as a mother might, but she ignored all the other ways she could have helped shape him. Though the men and boys he grew up with didn’t help matters at all, either. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Perseus at this point, and could see how he was likely going to spiral as he encountered Medusa and then Andromeda.

Medusa was utterly fascinating. The Gorgons are women with snakes for hair, and I was dying to see how this would play out in the book. It fit well, though I could still do without snakes. I loved the background for the Gorgon community, and I loved that it existed in this world, because it really went into the things women had to deal with both then and still now. Medusa herself felt a bit in conflict. She’s found this community where men can’t hurt her and knows first hand just how badly they can cut, but still finds herself fascinated and even attracted to Perseus. On one hand, I could understand it. But, on the other, she just felt too nice to him, which would, of course, give him certain ideas. If I’m tracing Perseus from his childhood, we have a mother who coddled and never really let him grow to be a man, so now he’s spoiled and has no idea how to appropriately express himself. Now we have a potential love interest who has basically laughed in his face, so I could understand his rage. It’s entirely not fair to Medusa, and I can absolutely be sympathetic to her, and Danae, because of this world they live in, but it also feels like, since Perseus was basically raised to be an innocent child all his life and has likely been at the butt end of all the jokes aboard the ship he’s been forced onto, well, he’s going to have some anger issues. Absolutely nothing Medusa could have known about, but I do recall he mentioned his time with the other men to her. An error on both ends led to a terrible conclusion, though there’s something quite wrong with Perseus as he moves forward.

Andromeda is a lovely woman living in what would be Africa, I believe. She’s beautiful and smart, so of course she’s going to find herself engaged to an equally lovely man. Unfortunately, her mother constantly boasts about her daughter, drawing the anger of the local gods and bringing a devastating storm. Andromeda, being as lovely and brave as she is, volunteers to take the punishment, so travels with her family and betrothed to the sea where she voluntarily chains herself to be exposed to the elements. And this is where we see Perseus again. After slaying the monster Medusa, he’s quite something else. At times, I thought him delusional, and, at others, just a coward making up stories so he looks good to the men he sails with. He’s an angry young man at this point. He seems to expect everyone and everything to fall in line for him, especially since he carries a monster’s head. And, as the story goes, he “rescues” Andromeda, marries her, and carries her off. But that’s far from the end of Andromeda’s story. She’s so brave and smart, I adored everything about her. And yet, as they reconnect with Danae and Perseus moves off with them in tow to complete the prophecy, I felt Andromeda’s honeyed words to him only made his head mushroom so he became a monster. I did love seeing Andromeda and the more timid Danae. They have a lovely partnership after a period of wariness, but I do feel Andromeda was the strongest character in the book.

We see Perseus from the eyes of the three women, though I felt like I was hand held through his story and who he was was just so very strongly suggested so it was impossible for me to formulate any other conclusion about his characterization. Women have a certain power in this book. How they treated Perseus helped turn him into who he was. Since we don’t get his perspective, it appears as though he’s little more than a puppet, pulled this way and that based on how the three women treat him. I didn’t see a lot of agency in him. He was just angry and spoiled and felt like the world owed him. And that’s where I feel torn about this book. As much as I loved reading about the three women, part of me couldn’t help but blame them for what they contributed to turn Perseus into a monster. Fortunately, they do find a way to redeem themselves in the end, but so much of this felt avoidable to me, and I hate that I have a hard time not placing any blame on their shoulders.

But I did like The Shadow of Perseus. I loved that there were ordinary explanations for everything that happened, not a little of it helped by Perseus’s imagination. I also loved that I didn’t need any kind of in-depth knowledge to be able to follow along. It was very readable and flowed nicely. I did wish for more meat on Medusa’s story, but, really, what else could be said? I loved Andromeda and enjoyed her and Danae together. I do wish Perseus had felt like he had a little more agency, but I suppose that would have changed the story. Overall, this was a fun read, though not without some things I wasn’t a fan of.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fun and refreshing retelling of Greek mythology. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

The Shadow of Perseus is a retelling of the Perseus myth from the perspective of three women in his life: Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda. Perseus is one of my favorite Greek heroes and I love a good feminist retelling so I was excited to read it!

I think coming in a fan of the Perseus myth started me off on the wrong foot because he is a complete jerk the entire book. He's horrible to everyone in his life and especially the POV women. It made me cringe thinking of how much I liked the myth as I was reading it. The interesting thing about this book is that there are no magical/divine parts of the book at all. All fantastical parts of the myth have a real world explanation. While I enjoy the fantasy elements of some myth retellings, this one made me think of the way that stories (particularly men's stories) have been fabricated throughout the centuries, It was a reminder that stories come from humans and can twist depending on the tellers and the time period. This was an interesting perspective that I enjoyed reading.

I thought that some of the writing was beautiful and I generally liked Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda. There are some really brutal parts of the book that were unpleasant to read. The rest is mostly okay, if just generally sad. If you are looking for an uplifting mythological retelling, this is not it.

Overall, I liked this book for the writing and the doors it opened regarding the way that we tell and retell stories. 3.75 stars from me rounded up to 4. Thank you to Penguin Group- Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!

The Shadow of Perseus ~ Claire Heywood

“…an imaginative and female-centered reinterpretation of the myth of the great hero Perseus, told through the voices of three women who are sidelined in the traditional version—his mother, Danae; his trophy, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda—but whose viewpoints reveal a man who is not, in fact, a hero at all.”

A really great spin on the classic tale where the women are compelling and heroic all at the same time.

Greek mythology is really having a moment again, and this is another book marketed as a "feminist retelling" that is actually a pretty straightforward rehashing of the original source material that just happens to be from a female perspective. There is nothing particularly feminist about it. The writing is fine, but when I read a retelling I'm usually looking for a deeper dimension or fresh perspective and I found this story a little too sedate for my liking.

I have a lot of respect for Heywood's idea of bringing the myth of Perseus to a more down-to-Earth level where the legends of his actions are more the result of tall tales than of actual magical interactions with gods and monsters. The issue arose when the more realistic sides of the story resulted in three women being treated horribly and abused.
As a testament to Heywood's good writing, all three women that interact with Perseus over the course of the story are incredibly likable and easy to connect with. So Danae's unfair banishment and solitude, Medusa's horrible ending after helping the injured Perseus, and Andromeda's 'rescue' by way of kidnapping and abuse feel way too real and hit a little too hard. These three women find themselves destroyed by having Perseus in their lives and it's as different as could possibly be from the myths everyone is familiar with. It's a series of escalating incidents of abuse carried out by a spoiled, entitled brat that destroys lives left and right.
It was an interesting read and I don't regret reading it, but I don't think I could recommend it unless someone was looking for a lot of drama and pain told by way of great writing.

Big thanks to NetGalley and Dutton for giving me a chance to read this thought-provoking book.

I went into this expecting a re-telling of the myth of Perseus. The story is marketed as that, but told from the perspective of the three female characters that play a big part in the myth; Danae (his mother), Medusa and Andromeda (his wife). You think you know what to expect from a book like this, but it was nothing like it seemed to be.

Every single mythical part of the story has been taken out. There is no involvement of the gods, which makes for a rather confusing story at first. Instead of being impregnated by Zeus, Danae has a boy who she meets every night while she is imprisoned. This caught me off guard as I went in expecting a re-telling. It is hard to retell a myth without including the gods, especially when essential parts of the plot are tied to that. I tried to adjust my expectations of the book after this but it never really got better.

I love a good myth retelling and this story absolutely delivered. This was my first novel by Claire Heywood and I am looking forward to reading more of what she comes out with in the future.

This story is Greek mythology, but without the mythology. Unfortunately, I found that I really like the mythology.

This book is told from the POVs of 3 women in Perseus's life. But all of these women were just abused and degraded, and helpless to do anything for themselves. This was probably to drive home to the reader how misogynistic ancient Greek civilization was, but it made for a victim-filled novel full of powerless women.

The story is very linear and predictable, and just felt sad and unfair. I kept waiting for the women to make some kind of empowering actions, but nothing happened. I mean the best future they could envision was "managing" the hot temper of Perseus. Just, yuck.

Although the author worked hard to make this a story of historical fiction, "re-telling" the epic of Perseus did not translate well.

A female-centered reinterpretation of the myth of the great hero Perseus, told through the voices of three women who are sidelined in the traditional version--his mother, Danae; his trophy, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda--but whose viewpoints reveal a man who is not, in fact, a hero at all.

RTC

I just love Greek mythology and this book felt like such a great representation of that. I loved how the story of Perseus was told not by him, but from the perspective of 3 women who were an important part of his life. It really helped to explain where he came from and provide a unique position of who he was and what he became. I loved the story so much that it made the ending feel a bit abrupt, as I did not want it to end. Thank you to Netgalley and Dutton for the ARC.

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood. Pub Date: February 21, 2023. Rating: 4 stars. I really enjoy reading greek mythology themed books and this book was no exception. Claire Heywood takes the reader on the journey of Perseus, a child born to be outlawed his entire life and ultimately leads to an adulthood full of strife, grief, self preservation and death. The book starts out with the beginning of his life into his adulthood years where he is married, finds his mother again after years of not having her around and ultimately his desire to rule and conquer what he believes he is owed. I did not know much about Perseus and found his story to be engaging. If you like greek mythology, I highly recommend reading this novel. Thanks to NetGalley and Penguin Group Dutton for this e-arc in exchange for my honest review. #netgalley #theshadowofperseus

I'm probably with the minority here but this was not for me! I was looking forward to this as the premise of telling the story of Perseus through the women in his life is so intriguing but the execution left me a bit disappointed.

The Shadow of Perseus doesn't seem to include an ounce of magic in it as I was expecting since the Greek myth of Perseus was full of magical creatures and adventures so that was the first and biggest letdown. Secondly, I didn't expect this kind of portrayal for Perseus as from reading the myths, he appeared to be charismatic while in this retelling he seemed aggressive and unapproachable that didn't really gave the depth of his character I was anticipating. I was expecting the author to portray him as a more charming character who was good at hiding the monster underneath, but oh well!

There were also a few other more subtle things that rubbed me the wrong way. A minor thing that bothered me was that Perseus addressed him mother as "Ma" where in Modern Greek we don't have a term of endearment that only contains two letters.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!

I enjoy most re-tellings of fairy tales and mythology. This one felt a bit different as the author changed the story a great deal. The mystical properties were pulled from the story. The monsters weren't actually in the story but had been Perseus' embellishments. Perseus, himself, seemed almost psychotic at times so he was anything but a hero. Instead, you see how he impacts the lives of his mother, wife and Medusa (the victim not a monster).

As a true and long-time lover of all things related to Greek mythology, it wasn't my favorite re-telling. However, I can see what the author was trying to do by empowering the women. Of course, it took the entire story for the women to find their strength and finally stand up to Perseus. By the time they did, many people had died unnecessarily because of his vanity and pride.

Overall, it was an entertaining book. Thank you to NetGalley for this ARC. I voluntarily chose to read and review it and the opinions contained within are my own.