ithaca is penelope’s story as told by hera. a compelling, character-driven novel, it centers on the forgotten women of ithaca and greece—from hera’s beloved queens to the maids in odysseus’s palace—nearly two decades after odysseus himself sailed to troy.

though she is as capricious as her fellow gods, i found hera’s commentary insightful and at times amusing. her fierce love for “her” queens and her interactions with her fellow goddesses lent additional layers to a relatively faithful retelling of penelope’s story.

ithaca is perfect for fans of circe—a thoughtful, feminist novel that gives a voice to penelope and the other women left behind—though i do think claire north’s sci-fi background was apparent in her writing; on a few occasions, her phrasing felt anachronistic.

Thank you NetGalley for giving me a copy of this book.

I feel BAD. I should not have forced myself to continue reading this. I could see how someone could potentially like this book. I am not that someone. From the synopsis, this book is everything that I love in a mythology retelling. However, this just didn't work for me.

Honestly, I feel like the majority of my dislike for this book comes from the way that it is told. I truly thought that having the book told from the perspective of Hera was going to be fresh and original, and it was I suppose. But it also made this book less about Penelope to me. For being a book ABOUT Penelope, I didn't feel as though we spent nearly enough time with this character, her thoughts, feelings and the side characters that mattered to her. Instead, we were bounced around from person to person as however it was befitting for Hera as the narrator. And frankly, it was annoying. I didn't read this book for Hera to complain about how she was cast down, in hiding, or her feelings of abandonment and betrayal. Nor did I pick it up so I could be told a story about Penelope with only the details that Hera thought important enough to dwell and focus on, and instead that is exactly what we were given here.

I don't know. I was super excited for this series but I am honestly kind of at a loss right now. I don't think I'll be continuing the series and I am a overall more than a bit disappointed.

Part one of the Odyssey from Penelope’s POV. It didn’t grab my attention as other Greek retellings have and I DNF

-The premise/idea is intriguing
-I felt bored most of the time and could not wait to put this down
-I just thought this was okay

3.5 stars

I enjoyed it. This book gave Penelope and her maids a voice and story (a real story outside of Odysseus & the story of her suitors). It was fascinating to see how delicately the women had to act to defend their lands and prevent any man from staking claims on their island in the 20 (!) years they ruled without their men. This perspective strengthened the tale of the bond Penelope had with her maids and will make it all the more heartbreaking when Odysseus returns.

One thing I didn’t love was the voice. I am not sure if it’s North’s voice or “Hera’s” narration or just the strange layering of modern speech/phrases/styling with the ancient but it was a bit off-putting.

At first I didn’t like the layering of Elektra’s story with Penelope’s but it tied together nicely at the end. All in all, I love Greek retellings from the female perspective and giving voice to the women whom history erased. These women were so powerful, independent and smart - they survived for so long on their own, only for their names and stories to be erased.

I look forward to reading North’s next book about Odysseus’ return. I am glad she's giving some personality and strength to Penelope rather than tossing her aside. I am very happy that this book didn’t end with Odysseus' return, allowing Penelope, the queen, to have the full spotlight.

Thank you to Redhook for the gifted copy.

A free eARC was provided by the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for a honest review on my part.

I loved the look of this book from cover (it could make such a magnificent pin! Hint, hint!) to concept (something like the The Penelopiad? But told from Hera's voice on the doings of Ithaca before Odysseus returns home from the Odyssey and the Iliad! Penelope, prompted by raids, and surrounded by useless and possibly traitorous suitors - summoning up the women of Ithaca and making them into warriors with the help of Amazon! Like Lemnian women which a Argonaut like Laertes would know -I was surprised that Hypsipyle was never brought up.)

Ah, this was a joy.

It seems that this will be a trilogy and each told by the fair voice of each goddesses who began the Trojan war by desiring the golden apple supposedly inscribed "For the Fairest". Hera, Aphrodite and Athena.

Hera favors queens and of the three queens she's concerned with chiefly in this family are Helen, Clytemnestra and Penelope. Hera spares no details in the wrongs committed by men and gods against her, her queens and women - betrayed in body and heart. The details are not spared or skimmed over. As justification goes, it works for the "waking" the Furies...

This is very much a victimized and vilified aspect of Hera wreaking vengeance.

I did not much like the depiction of Anticlea (Odysseus mother) or Eurycleia (Odysseus nurse) they weren't a help to Penelope, or her maids. I found it of interest that the Amazon Priene’s has Hera recalling Scythian deities Tabiti, Papaios, Thagimasidas, Api and Oitosyros, although Amazons in Greek myth were daughters of Ares and devoted to Artemis and a wolfish Apollo. Artemis and Hera share a moment recalling a sort of matriarch religious melding in a distant prehistory.

Priene and Kenamon, a Egyptian, perhaps being strangers, were the most likable to me and certainly helped Penelope and Telemachus shape a better future for Ithaca. The priestess of Artemis, Anaitis, is promising too. I dare not grow too attached to any of Penelope's maids knowing the fate of twelve (but not their names) in the Odyssey at the hands of Telemachus, they also only seem to have brief appearances and are perhaps purposefully not intrusive. It's perhaps easier to like Medon, who although a herald of Odysseus house is clearly loyal to Penelope.

I hope for more soon as Telemachus flings himself from the fires of Ithaca into the flames between Orestes and Elektra, Helen and Menelaus sure to be as delicious to Aphrodite as a frying pan of popcorn (sorry, truly I can't resist the pressure to tease that out).

Claire North's "Ithaca" seeks to imagine what may have happened on Ithaca during Odysseus' decade of attempting to return home. This book may be challenging if you haven't read (or aren't familiar with) The Iliad or The Odyssey. For the most part, characters are presented without background explanation, which required me to check online sources for a Greek myth refresher. This novel, as previous critics have noticed, is told by Hera, who has the benefit of "seeing everything" and tossing in some fairly keen humour.

Why is a book about Penelope being told from Hera’s POV? Zeus is an asshat, but I'm over the scorned woman nonsense. Pick yourself up. You can leave. No one is making you stay.

I should've trusted your reviews. This is no Madeline Miller, even though I didn't really enjoy those the second time around.

Just like I said YA is no longer for me, are Greek mythology retellings no longer for me? This pains me greatly.

I want to say poor Penelope, but she doesn't really do a whole lot to get herself out of this situation. The cousin plotline is boring. The son plotline is boring. A lot of it is just boring.

I'm always on board for a Greek mythology retelling. Now this could be just me hyping up what this was going to be instead of letting it be, but this was a letdown. I was not invested in the character of Penelope or any of the non-God characters... This due to the story being from Hera's POV. This choice led to some confusion; it wasn't the clearest at times. It was an interesting idea, just maybe the wrong choice of narrator.

Claire North's 'Ithaca' revolves around the time that Odysseus is lost at sea and his wife, Penelope, is pushing away suitors who all believe she should remarry because her husband has to be dead at this point. Hera narrates this story for us and notes that even if she is a declining goddess, she will still protect Penelope as she is a dutiful wife to the best of her limited (by Zeus and other gods) capacity. In this tale, we are also recounted Elektra and Clytemnestra's stories. Hera details how the gods are all involved in these people's lives and how every action as small or large as it may seem has an effect on the fate of each of these characters. Overall, it was an interesting perspective and mostly captivating.

Ithaca is a powerful reimagining slash retelling of Penelope, teh wife of the famous Odyseus. Although several Penelope mythology retelling had been made, Claire North was able to pull us in her retelling, and Ithaca definitely left its mark to me as one of the best Greek mythology retelling.

Thank you Netgalley & publisher for this e arc of Ithaca (The Songs of Penelope, #1) by Claire North.

Synopsis: " This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Beyond Ithaca's shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses—that will change the course of the world......" “I am the goddess of queens, wives and women; my tasks may be thankless, but I perform them nonetheless.”

Note: I only read part, but my copy is about to expire as so I will review the part I have read, and come back and update.
2 things I liked:
1. Genre-mythology
2. Themes- themes of feminism, survival and loyalty
2 things I liked less:
1. Detailed descriptions- I normally prefer short descriptions
2. Pace

I was glad to read the first part of this one and plan to finish it. I have the waterstone copy as well.

Thank you to Netgalley and Redhook Books for the ARC. This book was nothing I was expecting but was so much more than I could have imagined. Having Hera as the narrator was such a fantastic choice and one I would never have considered. It was powerful and heartbreaking and yet I still felt empowered. This is one of the best myth retellings I have read!

I love reading modern retellings of Greek myth, especially from the perspective of women. I was super interested in this story in particular since Odysseus is so prevalent throughout Homer's work. I quite enjoyed this. The writing was nice and extremely fluid. The only downfall, personally, was the length.

3.5 stars

I really like the story of Penelope, I just found this a little long winded and lacking focus. There were so many characters and it became a lot to keep track of.

I thought the writing was beautiful and the story compelling, but it was a bit disjointed.

Ithaca by Claire North is a modern mythology retelling of the stories of Penelope, Elektra, and Clytemnestra that is very interesting. It is narrated by Hera and her character is quite sarcastic and witty with her Goddess sized opinions. She could be quite harsh and sometimes juvenile in her observations, but I think that may be just from her being a goddess and so far removed from the lives of the other characters. The storytelling was very much in line with the mythology that the series emerged from and for sometimes tragic in their conclusions. This is the first book in a series of three so some of the stories went unfinished. Overall, I enjoyed this book but felt it did lack some of the creativity of other mythological retellings such as Lore and This Poison Heart.

The question that's the foundation of this book, what did Penelope do on Ithaca all those years her husband was away, is both good and interesting. Unhappily though, this book is flawed in many ways, largely because the author just did not have a clear path for her story.

First, she chooses to tell the story in the first person through the voice of Hera, queen of the gods. Hera's interest in Penelope isn't explained until late in the book, and Hera's aside comments about her life, the other gods, and her husband detract from the story.

Second, the overall tone of the book is far too modern for a book that relies on familiarity with the stories of the Greek heroes. I found myself trying to remember the plots of the Oresteia and other stories as I read. North doesn't provide us with this information. As a result, the reader is often left wondering what's going on.

If these were the only problems, the book wouldn't be so bad because they are flaws in style. But then we come t the fundamental problem, she has bit off too much, cramming a plot involving Clytemnestra, Elektra, and Orestes. This story is tangential to the question of Penelope and helps to dilute the book's focus.

Another plot, that of raiders coming to Ithaca, is less tangential but still distracting. This doesn't even touch characters who seem important but just disappear, pot lines that are never resolved, and a book that stops instead of ending.

The reader is far better off reading or rereading The Odyssey than trying to plow through this wordy and confusing book.

We all know about the ten years the Achaeans spent fighting at Troy and about the ten more years it took for Odysseus to find his way home again, all while his faithful queen Penelope, the ancient world's paragon of womanly virtue, patiently fended off uncouth suitors and kept the kingdom functioning the whole time. Claire North's book gives us an intimate look at what some of that time might have looked like from where Penelope was standing. Set seventeen years after all the men of Ithaca sailed to Troy, we find a compelling portrait of the lives of the women left behind and the young men raised in a world without fathers.

I enjoyed so much about this retelling. With an irreverent, jaded Hera as our omniscient narrator, the story gives us a bird's eye view into the lives of the women of Ithaca, particularly the life of Penelope, who we all knew was more clever and cunning than Odysseus all along. Claire North's smooth and elegant prose paints a vivid picture of the state of Ithaca during a time of unstable power vacuums and high stakes. Penelope, who was just a young woman and new mother at the time the Trojan War started, has had to learn how to be a queen. We see not just a wife trying to do her duty when it's not at all clear to anyone what that should be, but also a shrewd leader trying to maintain a very precarious peace as well as keep her people safe. The story is fairly evenly paced to begin with, but we get a side plot that injects some excitement when her cousin Clytemnestra's messy domestic drama brings trouble to Penelope's shores.

This is one of the better Greek mythology retellings out there. The writing is evocative and really gives you a good picture of what things are like at ground level in Ithaca. The character of Penelope is developed beautifully, and there are some really compelling minor characters in this story as well, although at times I felt a little frustrated by all the women always seemingly keeping each other at arm's length. It isn't until late in the book that we really see much solid female camaraderie. But overall, I would recommend this one for fans of The Odyssey and also fans of empowered women in fiction, and I'm glad to see that there's a sequel expected in 2023.

4.5 stars.
Acerbic goddess Hera narrates this complex reimagining of Penelope, Odysseus' wife, as Penelope waits, seemingly patiently, for her husband's return from Troy. Her halls are filled with men eager to take Odysseus's place; they think nothing g of women, except to rape and to get sons off of, and they see Penelope as a way to easily get control of Ithaca.

Penelope meanwhile keeps these dangerous men at bay each day, weaving a shroud by day and picking it apart at night. But that's not all she does. While outwardly veiled and passive when in public, she's a keen strategist, coolly analytical, and planning for how to protect herself and her son, Telemachus, from the dangers the unwelcome visitors pose to them. She recruits various women in secret to protect the island, while her maids keep a close ear and eye on what the visitors are doing. Penelope is also hiding her cousin Clytemnestra from Clytemnestra's and Agamemnon's son, after Clytemnestra murdered her husband for one offence too many.

Meanwhile, Telemachus is trying to figure out how to be a man, as he has no good examples nearby. He's growing up and growing away from Penelope, despite her best efforts, and has Athena closely watching over him.

Claire North's Ithaca is a hotbed of plotting and scheming, from the visitors, to Penelope's ruthless planning, to Hera and Athena watching and sometimes guiding the proceedings.

It's a great reinterpretation of one part of Homer's "Odyssey": well researched, tremendously well characterized, wickedly dark, bloody, frequently brutal in its assessment of power, and delightfully subversive. I thoroughly enjoyed this and cannot wait to see what Penelope does next.

Thank you to Netgalley and to Redhook Books for this ARC in exchange for my review.

Read if you like: mythology retellings.
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Told from the perspective of the Goddess Hera, we get to read about what has been happening in Ithica after the Trojan war and before Odysseus returns home. Penelope has been trying to run the nation and hold off a number of suitors.
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I loved that the narrator was Hera, which was an interesting perspective. Loved the action and the drama, and how smart Penelope was. I really liked her as the main character.
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CW: death, violence, war, murder, child death, domestic violence, infidelity, sexual assault, abandonment.