I usually don't gravitate towards historical fiction, but this one peaked my interest. it took me much longer than I care to admit to start reading it. the plot was decent, and the characters we were interesting. it just took me a while to get through.

Thank you NetGalley and Random House Publishing for this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

The plot was not what I was expecting for a greek mythology retailing but I really liked the creative and original take.

You get so many good things out of this read:
1. strong female characters
2. mythology mix with colonial America
3. characters to root for
4. and an original and creative take.

Loved this. Solid plot. Strong character development. Wonderfully atmospheric. Pretty compulsive read.

Rating: 3.5 stars

This novel blends Roman and Greek mythology with elements of American history, creating a story steeped in feminine rage and touches of sapphic romance. While the prose is undeniably beautiful, the detailed writing made the first half feel sluggish and difficult to push through. However, the final quarter picks up considerably, and I found myself more engaged as the story reached its conclusion.

That said, I didn’t fall as in love with this book as I had hoped. The inclusion of the Roanoke Colony storyline didn’t fully resonate with me—particularly the absence of indigenous perspectives. It disrupted the ancient mythology atmosphere and felt like an odd fit, though I can appreciate its originality.

The author’s talent is evident throughout, and while this book wasn’t entirely my cup of tea, I’m eager to see what she creates next.

Thank you to the author, publisher, and NetGalley for providing an e-ARC and the chance to share my honest thoughts.

I received a copy through NetGalley for review.

Okay, I don't really know where to start with this one. This was a strange idea for a combo plot.
Combining Roman Goddesses and her handmaidens with the tale of Proserpina and her kidnapping by Dis (Hades and Persephone in another cannon- Greek) and the colony of Roanoke and its disappearance.
When Proserpina is taken, Ceres her mother is furious and curses her three handmaidens, three sisters for her daughter's capture. Thelxiope, Radine, Pisinoe. Turning them into Harpies, and stranding them on an island for centuries. To give payment in the lives and blood of men until Ceres is satisfied with their punishment.
Confined to the Island of Scopuli, they are immortal, but not ageless. Without a steady stream of ships, men and lives to take, to gift in tribute to Ceres, they begin to age, to feel their bodies breakdown, they lose their strength. Game disappears and they have to turn to alternative things for sustenance.

It's clear the Ceres has forgotten them on their island, but Thelia never loses her love and constant searching for a way to get to Proserpina. As Queen of the Underworld she holds considerable power now, than she did as her mother's daughter alone, and goddess of spring.
Proserpina gives Thelia a chance to free her and her sisters, but it will take more blood.

Thelia is put on a boat full of jewels and treasures from their centuries of plundering and she wakes up in South Carolina, on the shores of the Roanoke colony. Taking her as a princess, Thelia must convince the men of the colony to follow her to Scopuli. Their blood to break their curse.
Life in Roanoke is just as bleak as life on the island, as we know they're beginning to run out of supplies and people are turning on one another out of pure greed and malice.

While the portions of the book I enjoyed were the ones of Thelia and her sisters living as Harpies, singing men to their deaths, and their centuries of trying to earn forgiveness from Ceres, it sort of literally lost the plot for me when combining the colony of Roanoke.

It does eventually loop around, with a contented ending after many horrors, but it's a lot to get through.

This book contains to extremely heavy themes: murder, canibalisim, violence of all kinds, ritual killing, rape, sexual abuse, physical abuse, blood sacrifice, mutilation, loss of pregnancy, grief, loss of love, kidnapping, colonialism, death of indigenous peoples. If any of this even vaguely described bothers you, do not read it.

This book of female rage is told through Greek Myth and American Colonialism (the mysterious disappearance of the Roanoke colony). I enjoyed the unique premise of this story. I also enjoyed how full of action, mystery, and romance it is.
However, I did not love the writing style or some of the content of this novel. In her notes, the author states that she didn't want to include an Indigenous person as a main character because it isn't her story. Despite this, there are several points in the novel where she tries to parallel the suffering of the white women in the colony to that of enslaved Indigenous peoples. While, yes, women are treated terribly by men, it is quite insensitive to try to link the suffering of a whole group of non-white people to that of white women. Even more so, having the Indigenous people be so low in importance that the white women's actions kill them is an even bigger slight.
While I condone and love stories of female rage, the way this story is told by erasing Indigenous voices and pain by centering white women in a colony does not sit well with me.

This book is a slow burn but the last third of the book redeems the entire thing. Loved the mix of Greek mythology and Roanoke. Lots of commentary about men and women. I enjoyed it but some might not. Overall, a good read.

I received an arc from netgalley and the publisher.

I received an ARC from the publisher in exchange for an honest review

Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives is a first person dual-timeline Sapphic historical fantasy reimagining of the story of Persephone and Hades and the disappearance of the colony of Roanoke. Thelia is one of the attendants of Proserpina and her lover. When Dis, the god of the Underworld, abducts Proserpina in broad daylight, Thelia and her sisters are punished by Proserpina's mother, Ceres, and turned into sirens. Centuries later, Thelia has a chance to free herself and her sisters by taking a sacrifice from Roanoke and she runs into a young woman who looks exactly like Proserpina.

Shannon Ives uses the Roman names instead of the Greek ones that were more common in the recent Greco-Roman mythology trend. I think most of the names were fairly easy to figure out if a reader is family with the original Greek but not the Roman names as long as they have a strong understanding of the story of Hades and Persephone and the broader mythos. Because we see everything from Thelia’s POV and Proserpina is not depicted as interested in her new husband, this version is more for readers who resonate with the interpretation that Persephone was kidnapped and her eating of the seeds had little to do with love rather than the interpretation that she and Hades had a loving, happy marriage.

The major running themes are feminine rage, the harm caused by the patriarchy and white supremacy, the historical lack of power many women had, and how all of those things can blind someone into believing all men are evil and all women are good. Throughout Thelia’s character arc, she struggles to hold other women accountable for their reprehensible actions and views even infant boys as potential monsters. Given the things that she witnessed, it makes sense that she would find all men to be be vile and put women on a pedestal, but it is ultimately unhelpful for women to hold that view because some men are good and some women are just as vile and commit just as much harm and gender essentialism just continues to uphold the patriarchy, just in a new flavor. It takes a while for Thelia to get there, but it is gratifying to see her achieve that understanding eventually. There is also some mentions of the inhumane treatment of Indigenous people at the hands of those who colonized the Americas, though there are no named Indigenous characters who are part of the cast.

Cora and Thelia's love is a very slow build that is hampered by the Queerphobia of the time. Cora looks shockingly like Proserpina to the point that she might be an incarnation or it could have been the luck of the draw. Either interpretation feels fair to me. Thelia is familiar with needing to work around the prejudices of others as Ceres was against her relationship with Proserpina, but that doesn't make it any less heartbreaking that she can't state her feelings freely without fear of judgement or harm.

Content warning for depictions of miscarriage, sexual assault, anti-Indigenous racism, enslavement, and Queerphobia

That you Netgalley for the eARC.

I originally requested this book because I was looking for more sapphic books out there and I saw this one and thought, ‘Hey why not? I love mythology.’

I really wish that Netgalley would start putting any trigger warnings on the info page so that we can see them before we have to request a book.

It is also maybe partially my fault because with Mythology there is bound to be SA. But with this cover, I wasn’t and the summary didn’t hit at that.

I was unable to get through the book with that being a trigger (SA) for me. If it was off-page that is one thing but this book had both on-page and off-page. Super glad that the author included that in the beginning part of her book so that I was not blindsided.

With that being said. I was unable to read it due to the trigger but that is a personal thing and this book may be for many others.

I didn't like the opening to this book.
I don't know my mythology well enough, so I was kind of lost, and I thought I would hate this book. But I'm not a quitter, so I kept reading and I'm so, so glad I did!

This book was thought provoking. The sirens hate men because of what they tried to do to them, and therefor cause their ships to crash to the shore and sacrifice them to their goddess, in the hopes of being forgiven for a past "crime."

When Thelia is given a chance to leave her island of exile, she has one chance to save her fellow sirens - her sister - by convincing the men of Roanoke to come with her to her homeland where she promises them riches. But it's not that easy, because at Roanoke is a woman who is the spitting image of Thelia's lost love.

This story was beautiful and dark and deadly and gorey at times. Even weeks later, I still think about this story from time to time.

Female rage, Greco-Roman mythology, the lost colony of Roanoke, all mashed up together - I was intrigued by the book's description, but unfortunately the reading experience fell flat for me. Thelia was banished with her sisters to live as Sirens on Scopuli when they failed to protect Proserpina, the goddess of spring and Thelia's lover, from her assault and kidnapping. The story alternates between Thelia's history and her present, where she is posing as a princess in the colony of Roanoke, while falling for a woman who looks like her lost lover. I could try to explain more of the convoluted plot, but honestly it just makes me feel exhausted thinking about it. It was all I could do to drag myself through the pages the first time. This really didn't work for me, which always makes me feel bad with a debut especially. The best sections of the book were the flashbacks to Scopuli. Props for an innovative idea, but the colonist setting, and the colonists themselves, just did not work in this case. To totally leave out the indigenous population made no sense to me. If the author didn't feel like it was her place to write an indigenous character (!), then either get a co-author, or pick a different setting. Don't set your story in a colony and then gloss over all the evils of colonialism to solely focus on the evils of powerful men against white women. Thank you to NetGalley and Random House Publishing Group - Ballantine | Dell for a digital review copy.

This was an interesting book. The premise drew me in but, unfortunately, the execution didn’t quite work for me.
I’ll start with the good. The premise was unique and interesting, which lead to a unique plot. I liked in the authors note how Shannon Ives explained more how she came up with the premise. I liked the main character, Thelia, and rooted for her to find happiness.
A few things stood out as not as good to me. First, to have a book set during colonial times but barely even mention Native Americans was strange to me. Native Americans were mentioned in passing but that was it. It makes me wonder why Ives chose colonial America and not some other time period/location for this story. All of the man hating in the book seemed a bit excessive. Not just from Thelia’s POV as it’s clear she’s prejudiced at the beginning and seems to learn that “monsters are made not born” by the end. But that every single man in the story apart from one was a horrible person seemed excessive. And even then Will was no saint either. Lastly, the romance plot didn’t make sense to me. I get why Thelia was initially attracted to Cora but it didn’t make sense that they would fall in love, especially since Thelia took a lot away from Cora. Thelia is motivated the whole plot by her first love but in the end it feels like she just moves on?
I will say that the plot was interesting enough that I kept reading to see what would happen at the end. It’s clear that Ives is a talented author, so I look forward to seeing what she writes next.

ARC by NetGalley and the publisher.

Those Fatal Flowers tells the tale of Thelia and her curse of living as a siren, a half winged bird and woman creature. Not only is she left in this manor but banished as well to the island of Scupoli away from her goddess whom she loves deeply. Her only way of redemption is to atone for her past transgressions that leads her on a dangerous quest for freedom in a new strange land called Roanoke.

What initially intrigued me about this alternating timeline tale was the mix of Greco-Roman mythology and the ever elusive missing colony of Roanoke. I mean how could I not as a lover of mythology and history it just felt that these two worlds combining was a unique spin that brought both these interests together. However, once I started to really get farther into the book I was felt myself losing interest and questioning certain aspects. For example the language and manor of speech that the the colonist of Roanoke displayed felt far too modern for the era in which the book takes place. Now I can understand that this is obviously a loose interpretation of this time in history but this aspect just ended up taking me out of being fully engaged in the story. And while there is sapphic romance in this and representation of this, there surprisingly was a lack of Native American characters. Considering this took place in the Americans I found this as a missed opportunity by the author to shine light on awful prejudices, particularly since much of the book focuses on women being oppressed… why not also do so for Native Americans as well. It just felt weird as once again as a long time lover of learning from our pasts to have a book prominently feature Roanoke yet leave this aspect out especially considering one of the actual historical beliefs of what happened to the missing colony is that they left with the local Native American tribes. Overall while there were some interesting plot points and I do love a good female rage narrative there were just too many creative liberties that just ended up not personally working for me.

Those Fatal Flowers comes out January 21st, 2025.

Thank you again NetGalley and Random House Publishing-Ballantine for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I received a digital advance copy of Those Fatal Flowers by Shannon Ives via NetGalley. Those Fatal Flowers is scheduled for release on January 21, 2025.

Those Fatal Flowers combines Greco-Roman mythology with the vanished Roanoke colony. It centers around Thelia, one of Proserpina’s (Persephone in Greek mythology) handmaidens. In Ives’ vision of the story, Thelia is in love with Proserpina. This love ended centuries ago with Proserpina pulled into the underworld and Thelia banished with her two sisters to the island of Scopuli. They are fated to spend their lives as sirens, luring men to their deaths with their songs as half-bird creatures. Thelia is granted an opportunity by Proserpina and sets off to Roanoke (masked as a normal woman) to bring back a boatload of men as sacrifice to lift the curse.

This story is told from Thelia’s point of view, with alternating timelines. We see her in Scopuli leading up to Thelia setting out to save her sisters, and in Roanoke as she works to lure sacrifices back to their island lair. As we spend the most time with Thelia, she is the character we get to know best. I found the characters in Roanoke to be better developed than the mythological characters, as Ives relied on readers having some familiarity with the myths she was drawing from.

In addition to the two timelines, we get two different settings. Scopuli is a remote island, which contrasted well with the struggling settlement of Roanoke. Scopuli seemed warm and lush, full of resources (though those resources are hidden from the women) compared to the cold and barren Roanoke that threatens to kill off its inhabitants.

I did struggle a bit with the plot of this novel due to the structure Ives chose. We essentially have three different times at play: the initial event that led to Proserpina being taken away (shown only in the prologue, but referred to throughout), the events on Scopuli leading up to Thelia’s travel, and the events in Roanoke. I had a difficult time connecting these timelines, particularly early in the novel. Again, I think this was due to Ives assuming reader familiarity with the myths. For me, a more thorough showing of the Proserpina’s disappearance and the banishing of the sisters would have helped to piece the whole story together.

Overall, Those Fatal Flowers is an interesting resetting of Greek/Roman myths in an early American setting. While I would have appreciated a bit more focus on the mythological elements, it was an enjoyable read.

I wish I liked this book as much as I thought I was going to! I'm a sucker for mythology, and the concepts were bangin', but the execution ended up falling flat for me. I wish there was more to the story!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance reader's copy of the book. This ended up being a fast read for me. The writing and world building was so good that I was sucked in and had to finish as soon as possible to know what happened next and find out the ending. I enjoyed the fact that this used primarily Roman myth aspects over Greek. I also enjoyed the alternative fate of the Lost Colony of Roanoke. Bravo to the author for writing such a captivating book especially since it's the author's debut.

3.5/5 stars

I agree with many others that this was hard to get into, which made it hard to continue and finish. However I can’t ignore how unique this plot was. I think it needed a bit more editing to focus a lot more. There is definitely something there and i genuinely appreciate this idea!!

I wanted to love this, because I love almost every book I read inspired by Greek and Roman mythology, but I just couldn't. The concept was very cool - I liked the idea. The execution fell flat for me, and there was a lot of out of place discourse about indigenous suffering that the author had no right to implant when she herself stated a disclaimer that she didn't include an indigneous MC because it "isn't her story to tell".

Thank you to Shannon Ives, Random House Publishing - Ballantine, and NetGalley for giving me an eARC of Those Fatal Flowers in exchange for my honest review.

Those Fatal Flowers is a historical fiction meets Greek mythology in a way I loved. I would be lying if I did not admit that I was nervous going into this book. I am a fantasy and romance reader, so Greek mythology and historical fiction is a bit outside of my comfort zone. But Ives does such a good job bringing the reader into the story. I felt Thelia's rage, her heartbreak, her desperation to save her sisters. I was right there alongside her feeling what she was feeling. One topic that I really appreciated was how she brought light to sexism and how prevalent it was in the past. Let me tell you, my blood was boiling and I had to put the book down at times, which I believe is what Ives wanted the reader to feel when they read those sections. This book will not be for everyone. If you are a historical fiction lover I do think that there will be portions of this that will upset you. Parts are left out or not included, such as prominent Croatoan characters. I understand that Ives felt like it was not her story to tell, but if that is the case, the setting needs to be one where those characters would not be mentioned, and you really should not bring in the Native women who were kidnapped by the French. It feels wrong to pick and choose which sections of that history you want to include, and that it is only being included because of the sexism themes that Ives is trying to get across. Comparisons were attempted to be drawn in moments where it might have been better to just leave it be. However, if you are a lover of Greek mythology, I think that this book is something that you will really enjoy. This is such a unique take on mythology blending it in with modern history that I think those readers will truly enjoy this book. Overall, I think that for a debut novel this book was great, Ives is a talented writer, and it is clear that she will go far.

Man, this was one of the most unique and ambitious books I've read this year, and for it to be a debut, too! Hats off to Shannon Ives for thinking of such a unique blend: what if one of the sirens from Greco-Roman legend found their way to the lost colony of Roanoke? And what if she happened to be a former handmaiden of Proserpina, pining for her lost love? And what if she found--in this colony--a woman who's a dead-ringer for said lost love, and began an ill-fated round of sapphic pining?

Told in dual timelines--one that takes place in Roanoke when siren Thelia washes ashore, and the other that takes place during her banishment centuries before--Those Fatal Flowers was excellently crafted. I loved the way the mystery of Thelia's journey to Roanoke unfolded, and I particularly loved the "Before" scenes on the island of Scopoli with her sisters. Feminine rage abounds throughout this book, both in the Before sections and in the Now sections, and I loved that so, so much. I also loved the love story with Puritan woman, Cora, strange as it was. Because Thelia's main attraction to Cora is the fact that she looks EXACTLY like Proserpina, it could've given way to insta-love easily. But Ives builds the tension beautifully, with longing glances and sly hand-brushes, and I actually found myself buying their attraction. Their love story was easily the backbone of Those Fatal Flowers, and it's wonderfully done. I also liked the supporting characters in the Now setting, from Cora's Bible study group, to the devious man she's engaged to (he's particularly easy to hate because he's not cartoonishly villainous at all -- he's an everyday breed of terrible, and that makes him all the worse).

I know other reviewers have noted the strangeness of choosing a colonial setting while deliberately leaving out Native characters. I think either way you dice it, it'd be messy: include prominent Croatoan characters and do them absolutely dirty (and get bashed for it), or omit them because it's not your story to tell (and get bashed for it). I do think Ives nodded to the difficult history decently well (there are mentions of the violence inflicted on the nearby tribes by the colonists, as well as a mention of French settlers kidnapping Native women to "civilize" them, and Thelia is reasonably disgusted by both incidences), but a good compromise could've been a bit less black-and-white "bad men do bad things" thinking and more of "oh my god, this whole colony--men and women--is perpetuating this awful system."

Nuanced observations in general seem to be something Thelia struggles with as a character throughout, though, and it's a bit annoying. I didn't mind Thelia's hatred of men, since it's fairly justified by everything she's been through, but in the end (spoiler), all she really learns is that...one man is good. One woman is bad. That's it. For a feminist retelling, the feminism here felt fairly surface level, especially because I can tell Ives is capable of diving deeper. The scenes with Cora's brother, Will, where both he and Thelia are secretly pining for others yet finding solace in each other, were such GOOD explorations of queer characters moving throughout a homophobic society in the best way they possibly could. It was heartbreaking; it was beautifully done.

All that being said, I did actually enjoy this book. I'm hard on my myth retellings for a reason: I find so few authors actually do them well, and yet SO MANY of them flood the market. This one was, despite its flaws, good. The blend between Puritan times and ancient Greco-Roman lore was strange enough that it actually worked, and Ives' writing was fluid and flexible enough to feel timeless and yet accessible, without even slipping into that purple prose I DESPISE in a myth retelling. While not perfect, it's far from forgettable and far from mundane. I don't think it'll work for everyone--hell, half of the time, it didn't work for me, and I'm giving it 3.5 stars rounded up--but those who like it will love it.

Many thanks to NetGalley, Dell, and Shannon Ives for gifting me this e-ARC in exchange for my honest review!