This started so strong - people are complicated. I appreciated something dark lurked in Perseus, not to mention being terrorized by the village kids as a child. I felt like the author took it too easy on him. And I wanted more of the women - especially Medusa.
Dinae forced into a room by her terrified father. The sound of her lyre bringing a kind and lovely young man. She finds solace, friendship and love in her dark room. Medusa, a Gorgon, killed by a man. And of course Andromeda - stolen and raped.

3/5

This retelling follows the story of Perseus, told through the eyes of 3 key women in his life (Danae, Medusa and Andromeda). I was not actually familiar with his story (beyond the version in Percy Jackson), so I was really intrigued by this book. It however, fell a bit flat for me.

The first part, as told by Danae, I actually really enjoyed. Coincidently, this was the only part that Perseus did not actually exist in. I found his character to be borderline insufferable. I am yet to look up the 'true' version of his story, so perhaps this was intentional and and actual reflection of what the original myth describes? The following 3 parts left me less and less interested, unfortunately.

I did, however, enjoy the writing, and as a lover of greek mythology I would pick up other books by this author.

“The Shadow of Perseus“ by Claire Heywood is a novel about the Greek hero, told by three of the women in his life.

Danae, his mother, was banished from her kingdom when she became pregnant because an oracle foretold her son would be at the death of her father. Perseus grows up and meets Medusa, who sees him as an injured boy and tries to help. In return, Perseus takes her head. Andromeda just wanted to help her family out when Perseus finds her tied to a rock and takes her from her family. In all instances, there is the Perseus we think we know and the deconstruction of that legend.

There is a current trend in literature to remake Greek heroes from a feminine perspective. Some of these retellings are pretty good. This one is pretty average. I enjoyed it, but there are better versions of these kinds of tales out there.

A free eARC of "The Shadow of Perseus" by Claire Heywood was provided by the publisher Dutton by email in exchange for a review.

I did read Claire Heywood's "Daughters of Sparta" beforehand to get familiar with her writing and note if there was a sort of series going on behind the scenes, while I did like most of "Daughters of Sparta" it was not without it's extra cruelty to Helen and Klytemnestra heaped onto the side already weighed by plays and myths that are not kind to them.

I can't say I enjoyed "The Shadow of Perseus" which follows Danae, Medusa and Andromeda as Perseus largely acts as a boy wanna be man throwing the tantrum of natural disaster proportions and wreaking havoc in these women's lives but, oh no, it's not his fault, it's theirs, of course and they have to "handle" him with care, walk on egg shells fearing for their lives and his "good soul" protected by his temper and bronze blade.

I'm sorry I lost my stomach for it and my interest in finishing it for almost half a year. I'm not sure what the author was trying to show here, is the true monster here Perseus? In the end nothing is done about him, he is off to live his best life with his raped wife Andromeda and widowed but pregnant mother Danae who's husband her son outright murdered. These two women and the murdered/ martyred Medusa are all somehow blamed for the "shadow" of Perseus upon them.

Retellings of myths that skip gods and monsters as mere made up stuff and don't realize that the cruelty of gods, monsters, is the cruelty of "nobility" and ancient powers of people lording it up over weaker people -women and slaves, more often than mere explanations of the natural world and it's disasters, are far from "the truth" and making historical sense of a story. It's offensive and more so because the deviations made go against the myth in obvious and sometimes outright outrageous and offensive ways.

So let's start with Perseus dad? I think the first joke is that the name Myron, who in the book was a bakers son (Perseus being the bun in the oven as he climbs into Danae's bronze chamber reverse Rapunzel prince style) but Myron is the historical name of a bronze artist who's works don't survive but for a listing of sculptures and Roman copies, one of which may have been Perseus.

Acrisius is shown as getting along with his twin brother Proetus and sharing a kingdom, thrones and court with him, raising their children together.

Uhm, sure, let's ignore that myth says these two quarreled in the womb.

No attention is paid to why a Oracle may not want Acrisius to trust or raise a grandson/heir (his being founder of the Delphic amphictyony) or to Danae's mother Eurydice (A Spartan princess, sister of Amyclas so you see where I thought there may be a connection to "Daughters of Sparta") or Aganippe, or her sister Evarete, wife of Oinomaos.

So never mind myth in this Seriphos, Dictys dies (in myth he and his wife Clymene survive to rule the island after Perseus turns the Gorgon head upon his brothers supporters, but oh well) - his household which had been keeping Danae and Perseus as a kind of servant/sister/daughter, dissolves, split smong his sons and wife and his brother Polydectes decides he's going to marry Danae - never mind the pretenses of marriage to Hippodamia, daughter of Oinomaos (yes the same Oinomaos in myth who Danae's sister married- so Hippodamia is her niece/Perseus cousin) and making a wedding gift of Medusa's head.

Medusa in this retelling is something like a priestess Peter Pan of a tribe of lost girls, in other words a Amazon. She gathered together women abandoned by their tribes/men/people and they become sisters in a found family that grows by adopting orphans.

So fun fact on Perseus....

There.
Are.
No
Amazons.
In.
His.
Myths!

None.
Never happens.

Perseus is one of the rare Greek heroes who does not go to war with, or encounter, any Amazons at all. None the less this was actually my favorite parts of the book and if it had just been worked into the story of the Nymphai/"daughters" of Themis instead may have worked out better as oracle/guards of a grove or garden, Hesperides even have a dragon/serpent protector of Hera's apples!

There are many things Medusa could be, but not a Amazon, come on.

The only women Medusa had about her were her immortal sisters, the Gorgons, Stheno and Euryale. She was not a monster who turned her gaze on mortals or immortals, she was a raped and impregnated person who wanted to be left alone at the edges of the world. Her only other kin nearby were the elderly Graiai (Grey Ones) swan like elderly women at birth who had one eye and one tooth between the two or three of them.

As well to make Andromeda come from a nomadic people out of Egypt who retained only one God (Ammon) who had two Wives (the Sun and Moon, who when one isn't in the sky the other resided in a pool of water to explain water being cool at daytime and warm at night...), yeah, hm, that felt very Abrahamic religious and was really the only time characters mused upon any gods and their stories.

Myth makes Andromeda and her family writ large in the stars and I hate that she's raped here because Perseus in myth went to her parents and asked for marriage before he saved her, in Aristophanes' Women at the Thesmophoria he mockingly uses perhaps Euripides' Andromeda where she calls upon Echo for help. Echo, few realize, had reasons to hate rape. As well if this Andromeda was as competent as Euripides' Helen, Perseus would have been as in love and as foolish as Menelaus. Perseus is perhaps one of the only men in Greek myth loyal and in love with his wife, Hermes perhaps being another lover.

The utter lack of gods probably saved me from any longer rant about Athena and Hermes who in myth helped Perseus in this journey and Atlas and his Hesperides daughters (or the three Themeides - Nymphai/"daughters" of Themis) happily ignored entirely and gifts of gods kept safe in their garden.

Little things like that popped out all the time and made me roll my eyes out of my head. No care was taken to retell it in a way that myths may use was given.

When Perseus takes Danae and Andromeda "home" to finish his fate, to kill his grandfather, they are first welcomed by Proetus who offers a kingdom and mourns his wife and the death of one his daughters....Bellerophon who would later ride Pegasus (Medusa's son) lived in the kingdom of Proetus and his wife who would lie about the hero raping her and get him sent away to Iobates and his quests. That's supposed to happen still but oh well! It won't now!

I'm sure that this was meant as a accurate to history as the author know it retelling of Perseus that instead makes him a monster out of patriarchy that needs coddling instead of killing.

I actually started to count the ways he could have died. Still wishing he had died, I might have like it better had he died by the Gorgo head or by Megapenthes as myth has it. In the end no step was taken by these women to get out from underneath the shadow and burden put upon them by terrible men. Their suffering continues without consequences because there are no heroes.

A female-centered retelling of the Perseus myth focusing on three separate but converging tales. The story begins with his mother, Danae, followed by Medusa, and culminating in the story of his wife, Andromeda. An interesting story that flips the old myth on its head, re-envisioning the mythological hero as instead a violent, gaslighting abuser. It removes the magical and mystical elements from the historical style tale and instead explores the potential "truth" behind the stories.

The writing in this book is beautiful and Heywood does a fantastic job of creating her characters. There was a lot of strong emotion tied to each of the sections of the story and I loved the deft way in which she managed to instill messages of feminism, autonomy, and misogyny. The underlying current of the book carried home the lesson that history is written by the victors...in most cases by white men...and as a result we aren't always necessarily given the truth in the history we have learned. Yes, this is a retelling of a myth, but all tales have some basis in fact and it's good to consider how this tale may have come into being.

Key takeaway: perspective matters. It is always good to question what the story is from the opposite point of view. Humans are not great at admitting their faults and, historically, writers have tended to want their characters (or themselves/their side in cases of nonfiction) to be seen as faultless, valiant, and in the right. Heywood's imagination in this case created a LOT of moments where I really paused to consider how the tale's core truths would be altered based on who was the teller and which characters wished to be seen in the best light. An intriguing read.

If you enjoyed Daughters of Sparta, you will love The Shadow of Perseus. In a sea of Greek retellings and new stories emerging from female voices, Claire Heywood stands out . Will read anything she puts out!

I received this book for free from Netgalley. That did not influence this review.

The Shadow of Perseus by Claire Heywood is a lush re-imagining of the Greek myth of Perseus and the slaying of Medusa. The story is centered on Perseus but comes at the story from the perspective of the three women who shaped him: his mother, Danae; his wife, Andromeda; and his victim, Medusa.

Danae is a princess of Argos. When her father hears a prophecy declaring that Danae’s son will be the death of him, he locks her away to keep her from ever marrying. Mythology would have it that Zeus impregnated her. But in this novel it was a local young man who found a way to sneak into her prison. Furious and terrified when he learns she is pregnant, Danae’s father attempts to have her killed by putting her in a small boat and setting it adrift. Danae is rescued – and Perseus is born.

Medusa is a member of a small tribe of women, the Gorgons, who have been abused by men and sought refuge away from the world that leaves women powerless. They are self-sufficient and content. Snakes are their guardians. Medusa is not a monster. She is simply one of the most highly regarded among the women. But one day, the 18-year-old Perseus, desperate to prove himself a man, comes across the women.

Andromeda is the youngest daughter of a wealthy nomad. Just before she is to be wed to a kind local man, a sandstorm blows up. The priest says the gods are angry. To appease the god, Andromeda offers herself. She is to be lashed to the rocks on the seaside for a night and a day. The winds are already slowing when Perseus spots her from the ship he is on. He “rescues” her against her will.

The novel shows Perseus in a very different light than the old myths. Far from heroic, he is an insecure, boastful coward who constructs his own untrue story after demonizing Medusa and forcing his will upon women whose own wishes he ignores. Heywood does a wonderful job of showing Perseus’ own trauma, so that he is not a one-dimensional villain. Nevertheless, it is the women who are heroic in this tale.

Claire Heywood is very quickly becoming one of my favourite authors in regards to the retellings of myths. I love greek mythology and having the lens turned to the women in the story has really painted the picture in a different light. I will say I am here for all of the Perseus slander. I look forward to seeing what Claire Heywood does next!

Thank you to netgalley and the publishers for providing me with an arc for an honest review!

I wanted to enjoy this one a lot more than I did. I liked the writing but I felt like the original plot that was on the synopsis wasn't accurate to the book and it didn't spend enough time exploring the women's stories and instead lingered too much on Perseus and the men.

Perseus was one hell of a crybaby and a narcissist. He wasn't meant to be some prince or king. He was meant to be her mother's son and focus on his hobbies. Government, military, or order weren't his cup of tea. Not ever boy in the Hellenistic period was meant to be mighty kings and warriors. Perseus would have been a great farmer, shepherd, artist, merchant, etc. But not someone in power.

His notion of power was cruel. He thought murdering people, tricking them in to believing you, and gaslighting them was the way to go. He did not want to use that chickpea size pink organ in his cranium for a second to think. When he didn't get what he wanted, he threw a tantrum. When people talked back, he killed them. While his personality must had hidden all these qualities (I mean look at his grandpa), but he could not be blamed for all. He was nurtured into that character.

None of these women meant to be under Perseus' shadow because Perseus was no more than shadow of a man. I don't want to consider this book as a rise of a villain and consequent redemption arc but more of a women having enough of spoiled brat's tantrums. He annoyed me. He just annoyed me so so much.

I think this might be the first Greek Mythology I've read that I didn't really like the "Hero," and while it did take me a few to get used to this retelling of Perseus, I actually really liked the story. Now if you are a diehard mythology lover, this story might be hard for you because it turns the myth into more of a historical fiction read. While the Greek gods are mentioned, everything that happens is due to the hands of man, and it took me awhile to get used to that. I really loved the way the author writes though, and while I felt so bad for the women in Perseus's life, I believe it's pretty accurate to how women were treated back then, and if I were to be honest, the way some women are still being treated today.

i love Greek mythology retellings, especially told from the view of the women, so I was really excited to jump into this novel. Unfortunately, this one just kind of fell flat for me. I enjoyed the story from the mythos standpoint but found myself just not connecting with any of the characters. I think my major grievance with this retelling is the absents of everything that makes Greek mythology what it is. i think that this would be a great book for anyone that would like to read a more realistic retelling of the old stories.

A lot of care went into this book and it shows. Heywood took time to justify each choice that was made with locations, dress and appearance. All wonderful. A fantastic addition to the many femme retellings out right now. Adding this to the list of suggestions for those interested in Greek retellings. All of that being said,
I hate Perseus. An awful little creep. Except you Percy Jackson, you're on thin ice.

The Shadow of Perseus is a refreshing retelling of the story of the Gorgon slayer told from the perspectives of three influential women in his life: his mother, Danae; the Gorgon, Medusa; and his wife, Andromeda. This retelling flipped the hero’s journey on its head (pun intended), revealing how dark the narrative gets when you let the women who suffered at the “hero”’s hands tell it. I hadn’t read much Greek mythology before this, besides the Odyssey and Percy Jackson in middle school (lol), and this book has inspired me to explore the genre further. Thank you to NetGalley and to Dutton for providing me with an ARC of The Shadow of Perseus in exchange for an honest review!

I had mixed feelings on this myth retelling. It takes a "historical fiction" approach, removing all the fantastic elements – which, while an interesting choice, I think removed some of the most interesting resonances and parallels for this set of myths. There were some options to restore those parallels which Heywood chose not to take – for reasons I understood, but I thought it removed some of the impact and effect of the stories. (The most notable change was to the story of Danaë, and the identity of Perseus' father – I won't be specific, to avoid spoilers.)

That said, it was well-written and researched, and I really liked the multiple POVs; it kept me engaged and interested, and the plot moves along nicely. All in all, not a bad book, but not my cup of tea personally.

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC!

Wasn’t for me. Hard to get into. Was slow paced for me. The storyline was interesting but I couldn’t get into it

I loved the story, the world building and meeting the different characters. I felt completely immersed in the story and couldn't stop reading it. The Plot was amazing and I can't wait for others to read it too.

One Sentence Summary: This is the story of the three key women in Perseus’s life: his mother Danae, the Gorgon Medusa, and his wife Andromeda.

Overall
The Shadow of Perseus follows the life of Perseus from the time before he was even born to when he fulfills the Pythia’s prophecy. Told by his mother Danae, the Gorgon Medusa, and his kidnapped bride Andromeda, this is Perseus’s story and how he came to not be the hero the myths paint him to be. His mother Danae’s story was interesting and I enjoyed her backstory, but her coddling kept Perseus from growing into a proper man who could understand the world. And that led him to the brutal beheading of Medusa and the kidnapping of Andromeda. And yet these two women weren’t innocent as their own ways of treating Perseus didn’t do anything from staving off his anger. I hate that I feel like a part of me blames these women, but Perseus doesn’t get a say of his own. Still, I enjoyed that this was very readable and found ordinary explanations for the interventions of the gods.

Extended Thoughts
The Shadow of Perseus is the sort of story I ought to love. It takes Greek mythology and gives it an historical spin, stripping out the gods’ intervention and finding wholly Earthly explanations. While I do love reading about the gods, I also love alternate explanations for what the ancient civilizations deemed as acts of the gods. And I did enjoy this; very much so. But I also find myself torn about this one, especially when it came to the depiction of Perseus. Oh, I understand this is the story of Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda, but they made Perseus’s depiction seem like a serious side effect of who they were and how they treated him.

Since The Shadow of Perseus is divided between the three women, though, for reasonable reasons Medusa’s is quite truncated compared to the other two women, I figure the best way to discuss this book is by breaking it up likewise. After all, this is the story of Perseus from the eyes of the three key women in his life. I did find this oddly fascinating as this is about those women, but their treatment of Perseus from the time he was but a babe in his mother had a profound impact on him. It was interesting to find a message, perhaps a side effect of the story being told or perhaps purposeful, that women have a great deal of impact on men, which is quite powerful but also potentially destructive.

Danae is Perseus’s mother. A princess, she’s characterized, especially early on, as appropriately spoiled. She’s also a bit naive and self-centered. It was lovely to get her backstory and see her with her father’s brother, as well as get the rivalry between them as they jointly rule the kingdom. I found her story to be fascinating, and then, when the Pythia’s prophecy is given, it was quite sad, though I liked how there was a very ordinary explanation for how Perseus came to be. There are quite a lot of ordinary, plausible explanations given regarding Danae’s life past this point, and I found myself not even missing the intervention of the gods. It worked really well and I found myself fascinated by it all. The best was that I didn’t even feel like I needed to be knowledgeable in ancient history and geography to understand any part of this book.

The part of Danae’s story that didn’t quite work for me was when the story skips forward to when Perseus is basically a young teen. He’s still attached to his mother’s hip, much to the consternation of the family they’ve taken shelter with since a pregnant Danae washed up on shore. Danae has raised him with the Pythia’s words in mind and has sought a non-violent existence for her son. It was quite sad to watch her have to deal with the loss of the family she’s come to regard as her own after living the life of a princess and then have to see just how much she failed her son. But some part of me couldn’t help but put some of the blame for how he turned out on her. She sheltered him as a mother might, but she ignored all the other ways she could have helped shape him. Though the men and boys he grew up with didn’t help matters at all, either. I couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for Perseus at this point, and could see how he was likely going to spiral as he encountered Medusa and then Andromeda.

Medusa was utterly fascinating. The Gorgons are women with snakes for hair, and I was dying to see how this would play out in the book. It fit well, though I could still do without snakes. I loved the background for the Gorgon community, and I loved that it existed in this world, because it really went into the things women had to deal with both then and still now. Medusa herself felt a bit in conflict. She’s found this community where men can’t hurt her and knows first hand just how badly they can cut, but still finds herself fascinated and even attracted to Perseus. On one hand, I could understand it. But, on the other, she just felt too nice to him, which would, of course, give him certain ideas. If I’m tracing Perseus from his childhood, we have a mother who coddled and never really let him grow to be a man, so now he’s spoiled and has no idea how to appropriately express himself. Now we have a potential love interest who has basically laughed in his face, so I could understand his rage. It’s entirely not fair to Medusa, and I can absolutely be sympathetic to her, and Danae, because of this world they live in, but it also feels like, since Perseus was basically raised to be an innocent child all his life and has likely been at the butt end of all the jokes aboard the ship he’s been forced onto, well, he’s going to have some anger issues. Absolutely nothing Medusa could have known about, but I do recall he mentioned his time with the other men to her. An error on both ends led to a terrible conclusion, though there’s something quite wrong with Perseus as he moves forward.

Andromeda is a lovely woman living in what would be Africa, I believe. She’s beautiful and smart, so of course she’s going to find herself engaged to an equally lovely man. Unfortunately, her mother constantly boasts about her daughter, drawing the anger of the local gods and bringing a devastating storm. Andromeda, being as lovely and brave as she is, volunteers to take the punishment, so travels with her family and betrothed to the sea where she voluntarily chains herself to be exposed to the elements. And this is where we see Perseus again. After slaying the monster Medusa, he’s quite something else. At times, I thought him delusional, and, at others, just a coward making up stories so he looks good to the men he sails with. He’s an angry young man at this point. He seems to expect everyone and everything to fall in line for him, especially since he carries a monster’s head. And, as the story goes, he “rescues” Andromeda, marries her, and carries her off. But that’s far from the end of Andromeda’s story. She’s so brave and smart, I adored everything about her. And yet, as they reconnect with Danae and Perseus moves off with them in tow to complete the prophecy, I felt Andromeda’s honeyed words to him only made his head mushroom so he became a monster. I did love seeing Andromeda and the more timid Danae. They have a lovely partnership after a period of wariness, but I do feel Andromeda was the strongest character in the book.

We see Perseus from the eyes of the three women, though I felt like I was hand held through his story and who he was was just so very strongly suggested so it was impossible for me to formulate any other conclusion about his characterization. Women have a certain power in this book. How they treated Perseus helped turn him into who he was. Since we don’t get his perspective, it appears as though he’s little more than a puppet, pulled this way and that based on how the three women treat him. I didn’t see a lot of agency in him. He was just angry and spoiled and felt like the world owed him. And that’s where I feel torn about this book. As much as I loved reading about the three women, part of me couldn’t help but blame them for what they contributed to turn Perseus into a monster. Fortunately, they do find a way to redeem themselves in the end, but so much of this felt avoidable to me, and I hate that I have a hard time not placing any blame on their shoulders.

But I did like The Shadow of Perseus. I loved that there were ordinary explanations for everything that happened, not a little of it helped by Perseus’s imagination. I also loved that I didn’t need any kind of in-depth knowledge to be able to follow along. It was very readable and flowed nicely. I did wish for more meat on Medusa’s story, but, really, what else could be said? I loved Andromeda and enjoyed her and Danae together. I do wish Perseus had felt like he had a little more agency, but I suppose that would have changed the story. Overall, this was a fun read, though not without some things I wasn’t a fan of.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

This was a fun and refreshing retelling of Greek mythology. I can’t wait to see more from this author.

The Shadow of Perseus is a retelling of the Perseus myth from the perspective of three women in his life: Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda. Perseus is one of my favorite Greek heroes and I love a good feminist retelling so I was excited to read it!

I think coming in a fan of the Perseus myth started me off on the wrong foot because he is a complete jerk the entire book. He's horrible to everyone in his life and especially the POV women. It made me cringe thinking of how much I liked the myth as I was reading it. The interesting thing about this book is that there are no magical/divine parts of the book at all. All fantastical parts of the myth have a real world explanation. While I enjoy the fantasy elements of some myth retellings, this one made me think of the way that stories (particularly men's stories) have been fabricated throughout the centuries, It was a reminder that stories come from humans and can twist depending on the tellers and the time period. This was an interesting perspective that I enjoyed reading.

I thought that some of the writing was beautiful and I generally liked Danae, Medusa, and Andromeda. There are some really brutal parts of the book that were unpleasant to read. The rest is mostly okay, if just generally sad. If you are looking for an uplifting mythological retelling, this is not it.

Overall, I liked this book for the writing and the doors it opened regarding the way that we tell and retell stories. 3.75 stars from me rounded up to 4. Thank you to Penguin Group- Dutton and NetGalley for the electronic advanced reader's copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!