A fascinating suburban retelling of Beowulf with beautiful prose and a heartbreaking plot. Five stars and I can't wait for more!

I'm not sure I'd call this a retelling but this fact did not deter my enjoyment of this novel. It was perhaps the book I had been looking forward the most and usually that means that the book disappoints, but this one did not. It was not perfect, but it was still satisfying.

We have a saying in Spanish, "El que mucho abarca, poco aprieta." Dahvana Headley tackled a lot of themes in this novel and they were not all developed equally which is why I ended up giving the book a four-star rating. More than a "Beowulf in the suburbs" the idea of who the monsters are in our modern-age reminded me of "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street," the classic Twilight Zone episode.

A Suburban retelling of Beowulf that successfully manages to marry the contemporary with the ancient. Beyond a Stepford-like community lies something dark and forgotten inside a mountain. Two mothers inhabit these contrasting landscapes, as well as their sons. When the two boys meet, the delicate balance each woman has nurtured is irreparably torn apart.

This retelling displays a clever and original shift in power from masculine to feminine. The title itself holds an unexpected delight: “Mere” has more than one meaning. It’s lesser known definition is “pond” or “lake.” This double meaning is played with throughout the story, beyond the two central women.

This read was a fast but emotional experience for me. I suggest taking it in slowly as I did not, for it holds a mystical element worthy of a thoughtful pace.

This book is so lush and delicate in its use of language. It reads like poetry, which is appropriate for a retelling of Beowulf.

I really enjoyed this smart modern take on Beowulf. Headley unpacks a lot of subtext from the original poem — about mothers, about progress, about community building — and updates it for the present day. The story still retains some fantastical elements, but it's very much grounded in our current political reality. Not an easy read by any means — I found that I would put it down, think, and come back a few days later for another chapter.

This compelling yet sometimes stomach-turning retelling of Beowulf is full of little details and sometimes runs off-course as far as being a "remake". However, it is a worthwhile read and was definitely a page-turner.

This book was so good I immediately went out and bought a physical copy. Headley's writing is gorgeous, evocative and starkly poetic, and the words she uses build a visceral and compelling narrative worthy of a retelling of an Old English epic poem. There is enough references to the original in The Mere Wife that they feel almost like Easter eggs, but this is no simiple recounting of the same story. Instead the original epic is expanded upon and reclaimed in a way that invigorates it. A tiny detail - I loved how each section started with a particular word, like a call-back to the Old English narrative style.

Author Maria Headley dives into a modern-day retelling of Beowolf beginning with its title, The Mere Wife. This is no novel about a slight wife, a minor presence, a smudge of a life. No, the women in this tale are, for better or worse, ferocious in the pursuit of their goals. They are giants of determination, drawing all eyes to them, impossible to ignore. This is the most apparent meaning of the title, but I was delighted to learn that there was even more intent in Headley's wily mind. Mere is also an old term for a lake and one of these women is wedded to the lake that forms a physical boundary between the novel's two very different worlds. It's when the lake is crossed that all hell breaks loose.
Headley uses the bones of Beowolf well. She replaces the king of Heorot with a queen-Willa Herot, married to Roger Herot, scion of Herot Hall, a planned community for the wealthy. She commands Herot society with her parties, her perfect 7-year-old son Dylan and her perfect weight of 114 pounds. But while she lives in material splendor there is a woman living in the caves of a nearby mountain. Dana Mills is a soldier, who, while serving in the Middle East, was videotaped being beheaded. Which she was not. She returns to the U.S., pregnant and retreats to Herot, the town where she grew up, only to find it gone and a luxury community in its place. She gives birth to her unusual son, Gren. A baby who already has teeth and grows monstrously fast. Seven years pass until Gren, out of loneliness and curiosity, leaves the mountain and finds another boy. At a home in a gated community, causing an uproar that leaves Roger Herot dead and Dylan in the cave with his new friend and Dana. And now Beowolf, Ben Woolf, police officer and soon-to-be hero, arrives on the scene. The match to the gasoline-soaked pyre of Dana, Willa, and Herot Hall.
Whew. That's a lot of plot, right? It's just the beginning. The Mere Wife is an origami novel where each turn of the page leads to another level. There are the literal levels within the mountain and within the society Willa wants to summit. But Headley goes much deeper, into the psyches of two women, both single-minded in their desires, but on opposite sides of the scale. Dana's is her love for her son, while Willa's is her adoration of herself. Just as Dana will take down anyone threatening Gren, Willa has no compunction about acting against those who stand in her way, including her son.
Dylan looks like an innocent child rather than like someone who'd purposefully ruin the life of his mother by living through the impossible. Loc 1777
The two are in direct conflict and it's the pivot point which makes the novel's plot seesaw and provides its biggest question: Who is the monster? The soldier who has killed, been 'killed', is living and acting like a savage or the woman hidden behind a façade of refinement and composure, for whom there is no action too extreme to reach her goals?
In case you're worried or put off, no previous reading or understanding of Beowolf is necessary. If you know it, it provides some background, but if not, no matter. What is one of the oldest known tales in English literature is transformed into a contemporary, reality show, battle of wills. The Mere Wife is a primal fable about motherhood, modern society, and the literalbulldozing of the past of the poor to make way for the future of the rich. Headley's prose doesn't woo or coddle. It demands attention and rewards it with the kind of reading that is difficult to put down-intense, visceral, and unforgettable.

My daughter took a high school class last year in which they read British literature classics, then a "re-mix" more modern retelling. At the end of the term, they wrote their own retelling. Having struggled through Beowulf myself in high school, I groaned for my daughter until . . . The teach of this course gave the parents a mini-lecture from Beowulf and I was thrilled and jealous to see both how knowledgeable and enthusiastic she is about her subject, but also how interesting this epic poem truly is. The students read John Gardner's Grendel as their remix, but I will be sure to pass along to this teacher The Mere Wife as a more updated possibility. I thoroughly enjoyed this modern and feminist retelling. This novel is smart and nuanced. The retelling is clever and detailed and I love what Headley has to say about privilege. Making Grendel's mother a veteran adds so much to the story She interweaves so many modern "other categories here: mental illness, race, socio-economic, homosexuality and fear of other cultures (especially those cultures we send our military to combat), Pure genius.

Loved this lyrical and engaging, contemporary twist on Beowulf. I highly recommend it and will be looking into other titles by Headley. (Must also mention that the cover design is amazing! Kudos to the artist!)

The latest in the trend of modern retelling of classics, this reimagines Beowulf in modern suburbia with two women- one a "housewife" and one a traumatized veteran- at the core. I read the original more years ago than I care to count and the fact that I only dimly remember it might or might not have colored my view of this novel, which I choose to view, for want of a better word, as a standalone. It's intriguing to be sure. Dylan and Green, the children, are the catalysts but Dana and Willa are the hearts. I didn't really love this but I found it a good read. Thanks to net galley for the ARC. This has a fair amount of well deserved buzz.

Definitely not my favorite book. It seems like just a bunch of jumbled thoughts scribbled on paper. It was very hard to follow.

I wasn't quite sure what to expect, as I have never read Beowulf. I was absorbed by the narrative, but it could be tricky at times.

This is a gorgeous and brilliantly-executed novel. I'm usually a bit wary of "a modern-retelling of X/Y," but I'd heard enough effusive praise for this that I decided to give it a shot. I'm so glad I did. More than just shuffling characters from one time period into another, the author uses a familiar story to frame a world we're more familiar with, but giving it a new shape. The characters are archtypes while also being their own unique people. Dana Mills is a phenomenal character, and reading her story told in this manner gave me a new appreciation for Grendel's mother in Beowulf.

There will be blood. This vivid retelling of Beowulf is the story of two women and their sons, who grow to love each other. Willa lives in a gilded mansion while Dana lives in a cave in the mountain outside. The boys, Dylan and Gren long to be together. Out of fear and cruelty the book is strewn with tragedy and death. The Mere Wife feels harsh and elemental and true.

What an engaging read and such beautiful prose.

I am not particularly familiar with the literary classic Beowulf, although I did look up a synopsis to get a general idea.

This story takes us into modern days. The protagonists Dana and her son Gren make their home in a cave, while Willa and her son Dylan inhabit the modern gated community Herot Hall. Other characters are Roger, husband to Willa, father of Dylan.



The story kept me engaged from the very beginning to the very end. As the story progresses, prejudice, hate, delusion takes hold of the characters. Reality becomes blurred, through preconceived ideas which lead to violence, murder.



Who are the villains? Dana a former Marine? Willa the young housewife of Herot Hall? Any one of the many characters?



I highly recommend THE MERE WIFE.

It matters not that you are or not familiar with the classic literary work Beowulf,

This novel will take you on a wild ride...



Thank you to NetGalley and FSG

I wasn't able to finish this. The writing style grated on my nerves; it just didn't work for me. I ended up setting it aside.