An update on Greek mythology's tale of Persephone, Demeter, and Hades, though the plot still works for those not familiar with the myth. In Lyon's version, Persephone becomes camp counselor Cory, a floundering NYC teen who didn't get into any of the colleges she applied to and doesn't know what she'll do after graduation. Goddess of grain Demeter becomes agricultural executive Emer, and Hades becomes Rolo, an affable middle-aged dad who grew deliriously wealthy manufacturing a potent new painkiller. When his kid's camp session ends, Rolo persuades Cory to come work for him on his private island ... and then refuses to let her leave, or even call her mom, but softens the blow with regular doses of his company's flagship pharmaceutical. I was curious to see how Lyon might creatively translate the ancient myth for our modern times, but ultimately found this tale of a Sackler-like man exploiting a naive teenage girl pretty bleak.

thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for providing an e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

full review to come.

I loved this book - amazing contemporary retelling of the Persephone and Demeter myth. I think this will be a really book to add to an Olympics book display!

This modern-retelling of the myth of Persephone and Demeter packs in more than just an exploration of a mother-daughter relationship. The grey area between adulthood and childhood, the ethics of business, the struggle of motherhood, addiction, gender power imbalance, sexuality, and spirituality all play key roles in this story.

Cory is 18 years old, working as a camp counselor, and aimlessly wandering through life. When the wealthy father of one of her campers asks her to nanny for him, she rashly signs an NDA and is whisked off to live on his private island. She fails to tell her plans to her mother, Emer, who quickly becomes worried for her daughter's safety. Emer sets off on a mission to find her daughter, all the while Cory is trying to find herself.

I didn't know the myth of Persephone and Demeter before reading this book (I just knew about the Persephone/Hades part, thanks dark romance), so I looked it up afterwards. It was really cool how well Lyons paid tribute to and wove the myth into this modern coming-of-age story. I thought she did a great job developing all of the characters while keeping the plot moving and the sense of urgency strong.

There were some literary choices that I didn't quite understand, such as the lack of any quotation marks during the dialogue and the stream-of-consciousness pacing. I also didn't get why Emer's POV was first person and Cory's POV was third person. Was there some symbolism regarding how Cory was lost and hadn't found herself? I don't know. I enjoyed Emer's POV more, and it probably had to do with the fact that her voice felt stronger.

I enjoyed this one more than I expected to! Thanks so much to @netgalley and @scribnerbooks for the #gifted eARC!

I'm so disappointed in this book.

Cory's character is ridiculous. The whole thing with her just going merrily along with this man she doesn't know, who won't even let her return to the camp to get her belongings? C'mon.

I hate books that don't use quotation marks for dialogue. I don't want to struggle to figure out if the person is speaking aloud, thinking, or if it's narration.

Then I got to the mother's POV, and I didn't like her at all, either.

I wasn't connecting to the writing or anything about this story.

DNF at page 50

I'm not sure how to feel about this. I liked it, I didn't love it. There were some bits of character development that verged on the humorous, but they ended up making me dislike basically everyone, haha. Now! That being said, that is not enough to make me dislike a book or regret a reading experience. I think this is a fresh take, super fun, and niche. I might not be the intended audience, but I can see younger women in their 20s eating this up (or, alternatively, a TV series would be so messy and weird and fun).

A modern-day bildungsroman of Grecian mythological proportions. The slow-building dread of this plot is second-to-none. It's an accident waiting to happen that you can't look away from. And why would you want to? Rachel Lyons' prose positively sparkles. The story is streamlined, tense, swift-moving.

I loved that Cory's narrative was juxtaposed with her mother Emer's. Cory is a traumatized, reckless, defiant girl. Emer is bewildered by her daughter, disenchanted by her career, and swiftly unravelling. Anyone who has ever been a mother or a daughter will recognize themselves somewhere throughout the course of this book. Their fraught relationship twisted my heart.

Our villain is a deeply, deliciously unsettling character who made my skin crawl from his first appearance through his last. Rolo Picazo is lecherous, controlling, manipulative, and exudes an oily, avuncular charm that makes me shudder just thinking about it. My revulsion is, in part, because he is so realistically written. Such men exist. They are not even uncommon. Hades, indeed.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS BELOW:

Knowing this story was loosely based upon the Greek legend of the goddess Persephone, I wondered what would stand in for the fateful pomegranate seed.

Granadone. A drug. How utterly brilliant and so absurdly obvious I was annoyed I didn't guess it earlier. Rolo's evasive response to Cory's query about its addictive qualities made my stomach sink.

The queen of the underworld must return.

This book had a lot of potential, but felt lackluster in comparison to the mythology it is based upon. It started off so promising and pulled me in (similar to the antagonist), but failed to deliver fully on its seductive promise.

I will stress that this one was a reimagining and not a retelling, so it definitely doesn’t require interest in mythology. It was more of a coming-of-age/ bad decisions novel on one end and mama bear on the other side. The plot moved slowly but it worked well overall. I think I’m generationally in the middle of both the characters which made it a bit harder to relate to. That didn’t stop me from audibly saying “red flag” as the 18 yo was being manipulated though.

Thank you so much to Scribner books for the ARC!

After seeing this all over my TikTok fyp, I was super excited to start reading. However, this book was not for me. I didn’t love the writing style and I also felt like FMC was too inconsistent in her characterization.

I am fascinated by Persephone and this book deepened that fascination. Lyon holds true but also adds so much to this story. This is a fever dream of a retelling and I didn't want to wake up.

This wasn’t 100% my cup of tea, but I could see a lot of people loving it. The line-level prose is evocative and beautiful, a little purple yet not overly so. All the references to the Greek myth were a joy to discover, very clever and well-done. I really enjoyed both of the POV characters as well. Cory and Emer are lifelike and realistic, and their relationship felt very true to life. As a dual character study and Greek retelling I think this is excellent, but the plot left me a bit wanting. Cory’s chapters got fairly repetitive at a certain point and weren’t very engaging, and Emer's chapters were propelled solely by coincidences and deus ex machina. I take some issue with the ending as well. I understand that to be a faithful retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth, that Cory has to return to the island again and again. But to have Rolo rape her and then the next day on the boat out to have her thinking “hmm yeah I think I’ll go back” was very bizarre and nonsensical. I had thought that the contract she signed without reading in the beginning would compel her to return once a year, but that wasn’t the case. Overall though, there’s a lot to love here and I think this is a solid retelling.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me an ARC of this book for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Wow. This book absolutely blew me away. As far as Hades/Persephone retellings go, I had only read Lore Olympus (a favorite) before this, which is a romantic and more positive retelling of the ancient myth. While I definitely don't think there's anything wrong with more positive retellings, what I adored about this one was that it did not shy away from the darker aspects of the Hades/Persephone myth and showed how problematic that kind of power dynamic is.

The relationship between Cory and Rolo is NOT romanticized, which is refreshing due to the increasing popularity of age gap "romances." Despite this, the relationship between Cory and Rolo is not needlessly graphic, relying more on Cory's discomfort and Rolo's sickening attention to her to show his predatory intentions.

Cory is also not shown as a helpless, despite certainly being a victim. She is wild, reckless, and curious about the world. She is a quintessential teen in some ways, wanting to rebel against her mother, find her place in the world, and seek new highs. I think her quintessential teen-ness adds to this story rather than takes away from it, as other readers have suggested. It makes the story feel all the more real.

And then we get to Emer's perspective. Her protectiveness of Cory and sheer willpower to save her daughter, whatever it takes, was both admirable and like watching a train crash off the rails. I adored her fierceness and the way that her calm, collected persona fell away as she got more desperate to reach her daughter. I also found the writing in her sections SO beautiful.

The ending of this novel was *chef's kiss* PERFECT. It beautifully paid homage to the ancient myth (as did so many other moments in the story), while keeping the novel fully embedded in its dreary, modern setting. It brought the themes of addiction, medical ethics, medical racism, motherhood back to the readers' mind as something to ponder over later.

If I had one complaint about this book, it would be the one that other readers have pointed out: the way the dialogue was formatted. The lack of quotation marks did make me have to re-read certain scenes to see who was speaking, and I did grow frustrated with this throughout the book. However, there are too many good things for me to say to let this frustration lower my rating.

As stated previously, though the book is not needlessly graphic, readers should be aware of the following trigger warnings: sexual assault, grooming, drug addiction, alcoholism, and self-harm.

Publication Date: 5 March 2024

Look I get that I have to suspend my disbelief to read books, but I could not deal with this.

I absolutely do not understand why Cory went with the Hades character. Maybe I'm too old to empathize with an 18 year old being SO BORED that she would willingly put herself in danger (her own thinking as she got in the car with the strange man). I absolutely could not deal with her any more when she started an internal monologue about how corn syrup was poisoning us all or whatever she was on about while eating waffles and drinking a milkshake.

Let's be honest though, this book's biggest flaw was probably that they said the Hades character was ugly. And rude to his kids. He kind of immediately starts making fun of his 6 year old and I don't know why Cory didn't immediately hate him for that.

I listened to the audiobook, but read some other reviews and found out there's some weird punctuation with the dialogue, so that's something to consider if you are reading this and still want to give it a try.

*DNF @10%*

This book didn’t work for me.

The MMC has inconsistent behavior so I can’t imagine how difficult it was for the very young FMC to adapt or fully understand the situation.

The dual POV was also confusing and I’m not sure how much it added to this already confusing story.

The massive focus on food ingredients in the beginning was disappointing and came across as fat-shaming

This story was a trippy fever dream in the best way. I am a big fan of Lyon’s writing style which is completely immersive and mesmerizing. I could feel every sensation she described; the warmth of the sun, the the breeze from the sea, the relief of a hot shower. She also did a fantastic job of conveying this feeling of disorientation and confusion by the FMC. I was hesitant to pick up a Greek retelling as I have no knowledge and limited interest. HOWEVER, if that hadn’t been in the synopsis, I never would have known it was a retelling. There were so many layers to this story and I caught myself questioning whether the MMC was inherently good or evil up until the end. I’m not sure what the moral of this story is but I interpreted it as sort of an allegory of good vs evil or a cautionary tale of the dangers of excess and ignorance. 3.75 stars.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

My Selling Pitch:
Do you want to read a modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that’s not a romance and is more about mommy issues and addiction even though it has nothing poignant or new to say about those issues?

Pre-reading:
Still on my lit fic kick. And by lit fic kick, I mean frantically reading down my Netgalley backlist so that they will send me all the new horror books. This cover might go on my favorites of the year list. So fuckin pretty.

Thick of it:
Lol, they’re gonna savage this book for not using quotation marks.

What asshole spells Spencer with an extra S?

Perseids

Detente

Macher

She has pink hair? Very Lore Olympus lol

I. Love. Femme. Horror. (This was not femme horror.)

Slit does it for me too.

A sleazy book.

It reminds me of that Seaplane book. (Literally only for the first chapter.)

This book is horny. (It's not.)

We’re at the combination Pizza Hut and Taco Bell 🎶

Klatch

OK, some random dad giving you a piggyback is a massive red flag, but also, continue. You told me he was powerful, and my Capricorn perked up.

I want some hot rich dad to feed me a bacon-covered cinnamon roll. Are you joking.

Lit fic loves piss sin

Detritus sin

Does his name have to be Rolo though? I can only think of the candy.

Lit fic does eggs again. This is getting eerie now.

jamais vu.

It is my dream to read the slush pile. It’s hard to feel sympathy for girlypop.

Title drop.

I don’t know if this is supposed to be romantic, but they just sound like insufferably high stoners.

This is more of a mommy-daughter story, and I want it to be horny, so I’m getting a little disappointed.

Detritus sin again.

Omg, another detritus sin.

Hey, another Easter book lol. Look at me being timely.

The first chapter was so promising, and now I’m just fucking bored.

I too love a spreadsheet.

Like it’s a faithful retelling, but that makes it boring.

That’s funny. I’m eating tomato soup while I read this.

tripartite

$20,000 is not enough money to rent an apartment in New York.

It’s really hard to take her self-confidence struggles seriously when literally everyone around her is telling her that she’s a hottie and could model.

Can’t wait for C. J. Leede’s new book’s heroine to find god inside of her. Wink.

Does this book have a religious agenda because fuck that. (Lowkey kinda)

I’M BORED

I wish that this book would pick a lane. Is he a father figure or is he a romantic figure? And I understand why it’s not because she’s fucked up with daddy issues, but it makes me really uncomfortable to read. I’m a romantic, and I like the idea that Hades and Persephone were really in love because I don’t want every myth to just be rape. I want women to have nice things sometimes.

I don’t like reading rape. I’m tired, man.

Post-reading:
It was well written, but boring and not what I wanted.

The first chapter was so promising. It was such a tease. I wanted romance. I wanted sleaze. I wanted the intersection of grotesque and erotic. And you get that for one chapter.

And then it’s just mommy anxiety and depressed ennui but not in a glamorous or romantic way. It’s just boring. I wanted bite.

It was hard to connect with the characters. Cory’s a poor little rich girl who has every opportunity available to her and just squanders them all. I feel nothing for that.

It’s a faithful retelling. It just doesn’t have anything nuanced to say about rape or addiction or mother-daughter relationships or love stories, so what’s the point?

Who should read this:
Hades and Persephone retelling fans

Do I want to reread this:
No

Similar books:
* Lore Olympus by Rachel Smythe-modern Persephone and Hades retelling
* Neon Gods by Katee Roberts-Persephone and Hades retelling, erotica
* My Year of Rest and Relaxation by Ottessa Moshfegh-angry, sad girl book, romanticizes addiction and depression
* Sam by Allegra Goodman-angry, sad girl book, parental neglect, toxic relationships, coming of age
* The Seaplane on Final Approach by Rebecca Rukeyser-all the sleaze and horny of the first chapter, coming of age
* The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller-Achilles and Patroclus retelling but make it a Wattpad romance

This is a book that will stick with me for a while. I have a love/hate relationship with contemporary reimaginings of mythology, but this landed solidly in the LOVE category. I loved so much about this story that I don't know what to say about it exactly. Hades and Persephone retellings always want to romanticize what is the kidnapping, rape, and forced marriage of a child. This is the first one I've read which makes it realistic and still wrong.
It was beautifully written, the internal thoughts of the FMC were real and interesting and also flawed and naive, they just brought her to life for me. I loved that the MMC wasn't glamorized in any way, he was represented as grotesque several times.
This book was just perfect.

Fruit of the Dead is a contemporary retelling of Persephone and Demeter. The story focuses on 18-year-old camp counselor Cory Ansel as she is offered a life she can’t refuse. The chapters switch off between Cory’s perspective and her mother’s. I was very intrigued by the concept but ultimately I think the writing style and pace weren’t for me. The characters also felt very one dimensional.

This book just wasn't for me, and it's a shame because I loved Rachel Lyon's debut novel, "Self-Portrait with Boy". This book is a modernized interpretation of a famous Greek mythology. I didn't like the protagonist, Cory. I think it was because of her age (18) and her lack of self-awareness. She wasn't a sympathetic or interesting character. I didn't care for her mother either. My main irk with this book is the lack of quotation marks when it comes to the dialogue. It's very annoying and confusing as a reader. I don't like when authors do this, and I'm pretty sure the author didn't do this with her first book. I think this book will work for some, but not for everyone. I can see this book being very decisive and polarizing for some. A huge letdown.

Thank you, Netgalley and Scribner for the digital ARC.