if you're not familiar with the myth of eros and psyche, this book is a fairly direct retelling of the original.

psyche, one of three sisters is so beautiful that she's constantly compared to aphrodite. aphrodite isn't a fan of the comparisons and sends her daughter eros to curse psyche for a love for someone awful and ugly, but eros falls in love with psyche herself and takes her for a bride. the clincher? psyche cannot lay eyes upon eros and eros visits her constantly at night under the cloak of darkness to keep the secret.

one of the common criticisms that you'll see about this book is that madeline miller has the mythological retellings in a stranglehold and this book doesn't fare well comparatively. i think that's not exactly true - i've recently read my first madeline miller (song of achilles) and i found this to be a pretty similar style read in terms of tone and how the story is being told. this one i definitely actually preferred because of eros' genderswap and all the discussions within the book surrounding gender. it was fun and compelling and i wanted to know what was going to happen next, though i was familiar enough with the original myth.

i do think this book suffers from a few things. i'm not sure if the focus was meant to be on the romance, but i wanted more detail through certain things that happened in the myth - when aphrodite sets tasks for psyche feel like they could have been really fun scenes to explore, but they ended up being 1 or 2 throwaway sentences and we never got to see any of those things happen. SO much of this book was so sex-focused and romance-focused and i went in thinking it was a literary fiction novel. i'm not anti-sex, but there was a random paragraph about psyche being so turned on she rubbed an apple against herself and ate it after. it was uh. like, maybe there's an audience for this, but this wasn't what i really was expecting or wanting from this book.

4.5 stars

Thanks to Atria Books for the ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

The Palace of Eros is a Greek retelling of the story of Psyche and Eros.

We follow Psyche, the youngest of three daughters, who is not beautiful or fair like her sisters, or society’s standards. Instead, she favours the darker looks of her mother, who comes from a different part of the world, where a deep connection to the land rings in her heart, like her mother’s lost song.

But when she is seen by a man visiting her home to court her older sisters, he instantly recognizes her as a beauty beyond measure, and soon every man in the land must see her.

(This part was honestly the most cutting and brutal portrayals of the male gaze I have ever read.)

This eventually ruins Psyche’s family, and they have no choice but to give her away as a sacrifice to the gods. But unknown to all, a play has been made, and instead of being sacrificed, Psyche is taken to a hidden palace. Her keeper only visits her in the dark, with the condition that Psyche must never see them. But otherwise, she can live free.

This book has the kind of stream of consciousness prose that made me sink into it. Like Song of Achilles, it didn’t matter that I’m only loosely familiar with some Greek myths. I could see how it was a deeply feminist take, at times pointed and singular, but it also gave a lot of space for Psyche to explore her own thoughts and beliefs about her herself and her own right to divinity. Her growth through the story is the best part.

It also was the first book I’ve read that explores s*x with no shame. And there is a LOT of it in the book. Eros is the god of desire (which I don’t know before reading) and what I liked was how Psyche and Eros navigated learning about each other in the dark, how Psyche became desire herself, and how she created space for Eros to live freely with their genders.

I will say that the third act is very quick, and resolved a bit too perfectly when you consider the machinations the Greek gods, but I think Pysche earns her ending and it worked for me.

"The Palace of Eros" by Caro De Robertis is a queer retelling Eros and Psyche's love story. Much in line with original mythology, this retelling involves a nonbinary Eros falling in love with the beautiful, headstrong Psyche. I really enjoyed watching Psyche grow into a formidable young woman and Eros battle against the ways of the gods.

With the level of spice and intimacy this is not a book I would recommend to my high school students, but I'd highly recommend it to any adult readers who enjoy mythology retellings and queer love stories. Thank you NetGalley and Atria Books for ARC.

{3.5 stars}

This is a gender bending retelling of the well known Pysche and Eros myth. I think so many details would be spoilers but safe to say, it is a fresh new twist on the traditional story. I loved the creativity of the twist. But the telling was a little too much in the character's heads for me at times. Also mega-sexy times. I guess I should have expected that from a story about Eros but it was about a third of the pages focused on lust, just a hair over my tolerance level.

caro de robertis plays with gender roles and expectations with their latest novel, the palace of eros. while greek mythology retellings always pique my interest and psyche and eros are a couple that we haven't explored much of in contemporary work, this wasn't the strongest story i've read by de robertis. excited to see what they come out with next!

Thank you, NetGalley and Atria Books for this eARC in exchange for my honest review.

I really liked the uniqueness in Eros and Psyche’s love story. I can appreciate the story itself and I have a soft spot for Greek mythology. It seemed like the author was trying to be poetic and emphasis how deep their love for one another is, physically and emotionally, but the break in sentences became frustrating after the second night Eros visited Psyche. I loved the characters and all of the elements the author included but the writing itself was hard for me to adjust to.

I really wanted to like this book. I DNFd about 20% in after trying to read it a total of 6 times in a week. I simply couldn’t get into the book. The premise was interesting enough and I adore mythology retellings but this time it wasn’t enough. Maybe I’ll try again in the future.

When I heard that Caro De Robertis had written a queer, feminist retelling of a Greek myth, I knew I needed to read it. This is a sapphic retelling with Eros being nonbinary and/or genderfluid, which adds another layer to the story in terms of the pair of them needing to keep their love a secret - literally in the dark.

De Robertis's writing is lush and syrupy-slow: don't open this expecting a fast, plot-driven novel. It meanders and lingers and revels in intimacy. I loved how they played with and subverted gender and gender roles in society - that was a real standout for me. Their relationship did feel very "insta-love", which I recognize is part of the original myth, but I think I needed a little bit more to really sell me on the romance.

Overall, I really enjoyed this and will continue to read whatever Caro De Robertis writes (Cantoras remains one of my all time favorite books). I'd recommend this to those looking for queer mythological retellings!

As someone who is an absolute sucker for Greek myth retellings, I was sold on this book before reading the description. I'm a big fan of the atmosphere the writing style created and the book's nonbinary rep as well (something that should be more popular than it currently is in my opinion). Caro De Robertis is an author that I would love to read more from and I'm excited to see what the author writes next!

When the goddess of desire is tasked with cursing the beautiful Psyche, her life becomes overturned when she falls in love with the young woman instead.

This was such an interesting retelling! By changing Eros’s gender to (mostly) female presenting, the author takes the already forbidden romance of Eros and Psyche and uses it to explore the perceived “monstrousness” of both female sexual desire as well as queerness.

And I was fascinated by Eros exploration of her gender expression. Of course the manifestation of desire should be able to change her form to however she wants. I was surprised that I hadn’t seen this particular interpretation before. The way, also, that Eros used her own changeability to begin to question the gods’ order of the world was so fascinating.

It was a very odd choice for Psyche’s point of view chapters to be in first person, and Eros’s to be in third. It took some getting used to, and I found myself much more interested in how the goddess processed her world, so I would have loved a more in depth exploration of her thoughts.

And the writing seemed to veer into some really flowery, purple imagery. It lost me a couple times, and I had to reread several sections. But the way that Psyche’s rage against her place, the desire of the two women, Eros’s heartbreak of betrayal, were all very powerful.

This was an all around pretty satisfying retelling of one of my favorite myths, and I can’t wait to see what this author works on next!

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for this arc!

I really enjoyed this book, and I loved the love story between Eros and Psyche. As a genderfluid person, the descriptions of Eros were wonderful and affirming to read.

Psyche has captured the attention of men all over town with rumors of her beauty; said to be more beautiful than Aphrodite herself, the men flock to get a glimpse of this young girl. Fearing the wrath of the Goddess, her father listens to an oracle and chains her to a rock waiting for her to be ravaged by a monstrous husband.

Eros, the nonbinary deity of desire, is sent by Aphrodite to destroy the young woman, but instead finds themselves hopelessly in love. Eros hides Psyche from the watchful eyes of Aphrodite and Zeus, where the two experience unbridled passion and adoration. The cost of being hidden begins to take its toll, and Psyche isn't sure who to trust and acts on her insecurities with great cost to her love.

I absolutely adore mythical retellings, and I was so excited about this story and its nonbinary representation. The pacing and plotline of the story were fantastically executed, however, I struggled a little bit with the prose. I found some of the sentences too short, and too cliché. It is one of those instances were less was more, De Robertis had some beautiful sentences, but took the poetry a little bit too far and it took me away from the story. I have read another book on the same myths, and for that reason liked it a bit better. However, a great debut, De Robertis is on my radar and I'll be reading more!

I love Greek mythology and enjoy retelling so I was really excited about this story . Unfortunately the writing style just wasn’t for me .

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for complimentary copy in exchange for an honest review

If you love greek mythology and the gays (though depending who you ask the two are intertwined than this is the book for you! It is very much a straightforward retelling of the story of Psyche and Eros, though i like experience reading it in the format of a novel and from a queer lens. I think it adds to the story we know to include these elements so we can engage with something familiar in new ways. What IS considered monstrous? What do we consider being free? The novel plays with these ideas in such new exciting ways that really do feel more engaging and interesting when thought of outside the straight cis-gender binary.

Thank you to Netgalley and Atria books for giving me an eARC to review of The Palace of Eros!

It's really great to see the myth of Psyche and Eros given a new sapphic twist, exploring not just the themes of sexuality but gender as well.

Right off the bat, the prose caught my attention in this book. I've always considered myself someone who very much loves a comma, but Caro De Robertis takes that love to an entirely new level, with sentences taking up entire paragraphs and pages without ending. The writing itself was incredibly beautiful, thoughful, and thorough, though I often felt that the prose was slowing the story down, rather than adding to it. Ideas and phrases were often repeated over and over, finding multiple ways to say the same thing before moving on to the next idea.

I thought the structure of the chapters was interesting, though made it difficult as a reader. We would get one chapter from Psyche's POV, told in first person, that was very long (I was reading on my kindle and on average, each chapter would be labeled as ~30 minutes). Then, we would get a chapter of Eros's perspective, though sold in 3rd person, and it was much shorter (on average about 5-8 minutes). It made reading this book feel very long and slow, like you weren't making much progress, since you were only getting through a short amount of chapters after hours of reading.

In general, I think this book was very repetitive. Psyche weaving and painting and exploring during the day, then having hours of passionate sex with Eros at night. There weren't even that many conversations between Psyche and Eros to explore their character growth. We were just being told that this relationship was deepening without any actual evidence.

I think this is the type of book meant for someone who wants the experience of reading the word themselves to be beautiful, rather than being interested in moving the story along and what the words actually have to say. That's not the type of reading I like to do, so I struggled with this one, but I understand that there may be other readers out there who will love something like this.

The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis is a captivating sapphic retelling of the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche.
Caro De Robertis did a fantastic job of creating realistic characters that just leaped off the pages.
The world-building is just spectacular and the writing was phenomenal.

Thank You NetGalley and Atria Books for your generosity and gifting me a copy of this amazing eARC!

psyche has captured the eyes of every suitor in—and beyond—town. while these men are happy to look at her, none seem to want to marry her. this stresses out her father, who becomes desperate when the townspeople begin blaming their family for failed harvests, so he seeks out the oracle’s advice. the oracle, guided by the jealous aphrodite’s child eros, instructs psyche’s father to hand her over to a monstrous husband. instead of a monster, though, psyche is swept away to an idyllic palace, where her spouse, eros, visits her at night. psyche thinks it’s odd that her prophesied husband is neither man nor monster and that she’s not allowed to see her, but she soon falls in love with eros (who she calls pteron) and her life there. when she becomes filled with doubts, though, she breaks eros’s one rule by looking at her face, which brings about trouble in her home and on olympus…

as soon as i saw this, i knew it’d be at least 4-5 stars for me. i adore greek mythology retellings, and i haven’t seen many of eros and psyche. i was only vaguely familiar with the story of eros and psyche before reading this, but refreshing my memory with quick descriptions, this seems to have captured the essence of the story. i loved the decision to make this a sapphic love story. this representation is definitely lacking when it comes to greek mythology retellings. additionally, eros is nonbinary and i found her discussions of her gender interesting.

overall, this was a beautifully-written retelling, and i’d highly recommend it to greek mythology lovers. i can’t wait for whatever’s next from caro de robertis!

caro de robertis is a stunning writer and i'll stand by that. i loved this feminist retelling of eros/psyche and that it had a happy-ish ending.

⭐⭐⭐

Thank you to NetGalley and Atria Books for sending me an ARC in return for an honest review.

"The Palace of Eros" is a retelling of the Greek myth of Eros and Psyche. The story stays pretty true to the original myth, however it represents a queer relationship between Eros and Psyche, rather than a heterosexual one.

De Robertis has writing as beautiful as Psyche, but at times I felt like the prose was more of a hindrance to the story rather than helping move the narrative along. I didn’t feel like I got to know Psyche and Eros on an emotional level because it got drowned out by the writing. For this reason, I didn’t feel the need to root for their relationship to flourish and caused the book to drag on.

Still I appreciated the unique twist that De Robertis took on the myth. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys Greek myths and would like to see a queer retelling of one.

In The Palace of Eros, the myth of Psyche and Eros is given a captivating new spin. This retelling combines mythical grandeur with personal struggle, exploring how love and secrecy intertwine. The prose is vivid, immersing readers in a world where divine and mortal realms collide, making every choice a matter of destiny.