Medusa

 Book Title: Medusa

Author: Jessie Burton

Date Started: August 29th 2021

Date Completed: August 31st 2021

Genres: Historical, Fantasy

Quality Rating: Five Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five Stars

Review:

◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆

Jessie Burton has written some fantastic stories, and she's back with a very nice reimagining of the story of Medusa, retelling the myth and its contexts as well as rewriting its story for contemporary audiences. And the book is all the more moving for its utterly stunning illustrations by Olivia Lomenech Gill.

At first, I found the language to be a little too flowery, to the point of me not totally understanding what was being said, but this eases after the initial passages and Burton leaps into a story reminiscent of a fairy tale book, but spinning in the Greek tragedy and a whole host of exploration into misogyny, toxic masculinity and rape culture.

It's such a moving story, it's strange that Medusa's full tale isn't retold more. Though that is largely due to the fact that Medusa's story seems pretty definitive in the collective canon everyone grows up with; she is a monster Perseus is sent to kill. Simple as that. But Medusa is a name, not a creature species, and she was once a normal girl pursued by a god (which sums up maybe half of classical female characters). It's very rich source material and Burton gets really creative with it, repainting the picture to before Perseus was even a hero, and letting Medusa reclaim it herself.

The book is rather short, but the perfect length to tell this story. It is also perfectly suited to its artwork, and I can't help but feel it's the mature storybook retelling a timeless piece of folklore/mythology I would've loved to add to my collection as a child - and still do as an adult. I'm looking forward to buying myself the physical copy when it releases, and I hope the illustrations are available as prints too.

Muse of Nightmares

 Book Title: Muse of Nightmares

Author: Laini Taylor

Series: Strange the Dreamer #2

Date Started: August 8th 2021

Date Completed: August 28th 2021

Genres: Fantasy, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

I was unsatisfied with Strange the Dreamer a couple of years ago, with its stunningly told tale that suddenly stopped short at its cliffhanger (which only came across to me as unfinished) ending. I avoided reading this book for a while, scared I wouldn't fall in love with it like I had so many times with Laini Taylor's books in the past. Ultimately, I had similar problems with Muse of Nightmares, where the story being told changed about four-time, but I did also love reading it regardless.

The first half is pretty slow, taking off immediately after the last book and staying on that track of a while until it decides to twist and change the game. Once that happens, even though it threw me as a reader right out of the story for a moment, things start to speed up and Taylor finds her stride once again. The last 40% is amazing, while things finally falling into place, and I didn't want to put the book down.

Where Strange the Dreamer was about Lazlo and his story, Muse of Nightmares (as the title would suggest) is Sarai's. Perhaps the biggest shame for me was the fact that Lazlo and Sarai kind of mushed into soppy lovers and lost their own glares. Characters often so change when they become part of a couple, but it felt like these two weren't really present in the scenes the other person wasn't also in, which was absolutely not the case in the first book. I really like these two, and I liked the ide of them together, it just... didn't quite work as well as I was hoping.

While this review has a lot of my reservations about the book, I did still give it four stars. That's because Laini Taylor is such a clever, meticulous, confident writer. The thematic arcs and scene transitions, the imagery and symbols, the imagination, even the smallest details carried through half a book before becoming key to the story are all fragments of a storyteller in their prime. She's one of the best writers out there. The structure has been shaky for in this duology but seriously, I am repeatedly overwhelmed with wonder when reading her books.

Mexican Gothic

 Book Title: Mexican Gothic

Author: Silvia Moreno-Garcia

Date Started: July 28th 2021

Date Completed: August 7th 2021

Genres: Mystery, Horror, Historical

Quality Rating: Four Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Four Star

Final Rating: Four Stars

Review:

Mexican Gothic was a lot of fun. Overflowing with Del Toro vibes (Crimson Peak, Pan's Labyrinth, even a little The Devil's Backbone), it's tense and atmospheric, clearly a love letter to classical gothic tales. But Moreno-Garcia adds a brilliant twist of setting the story in 1950s Mexico and spinning the genre on its head for a more modern audience.

As its namesake suggests, this book is a perfect gothic tale at the start, though it becomes more horror towards the end. The tone, that we may have been pretty familiar with, turns slightly weird as it spins on the classic genre into slightly more modern sensibilities for its reveal and resolution. While this wasn't unsatisfying, I can't help but feel some tonal notes could've been adapted from the gothic horror and incorporated as well. For example, I wish we'd got a bit more ghosty action. Most of the plot is Noemí arguing with the family her cousin has been swept away to and whom she is trying to her rescue from. The ghost bits are fantastic, but few and far between in the end.

That being said, the story instead focuses on Noemí herself more than necessarily the mystery. And Noemí rises to the challenge; she's the perfect balance of fierce, glamorous and smart. The rest of the characters are sometimes fitted a little too conveniently around her to create tension for her temperament, but it's still enjoyable to watch a female character as fashionable and fascinating stand up to bullies.

I think where this book falls short is the fact we just don't get to sink our teeth into the mystery as much as I (and others, from what I've read) would've liked. It's a fascinating and compelling idea and the moments of surrealism and ghosty terror as great, but they're crowded in amongst arguments and wandering around and dialogue upon dialogue. All of it is soundly structured and realised, I just wanted more.