3/5 Stars

Not a bad book, just not for me. I keep picking up mythology-based books because I'm so interested and just want to love them. However, I find that sometimes they seem to be a little dry and boring for my taste. This is completely a me issue and I get that. That being said It was still enjoyable and I would recommend giving it a read if you're at all interested.

I was SO excited about this book when it came out. I started it, and then put it down. I came back to it 2 years later, and I remember why I put it down. The writing wasn't for me. It felt a little too "I'm not like other girls" in the writing for my personal taste. No shade to the author here. It just wasn't working for me.

I thought this was such a thoughtful look at Medusa's tale and that of her sisters. I loved how the author took different pieces of mythology and woven them together. I loved the sisterly dynamic between the girls andhowy it's not perfect, but it's real. The love and devotion they have for one another is heartwrenching. This was such a moving story; I highly recommend it.

I really wanted to like this because it was based on Greek mythology. However, there were many disturbing and graphic scenes that made me uncomfortable. Overall, this book was just not my cup of tea.

This was a great book and an interesting read that did a lot to tie the Greek myths together and give a voice to Medusa’s sisters who I hadn’t seen be anything but side characters in retellings prior to this.

A captivating reimagining of Greek mythology that gives voice to Medusa's forgotten sisters, Stheno and Euryale. Through stunning prose and deep emotional resonance, this novel explores sisterhood, immortality, and the complexity of being labeled a monster. Perfect for fans of Circe and mythology retellings who seek a fresh perspective on ancient tales.

This was such a fun Greek mythology retelling! I love how we not only got a look into Medusa's perspective, but her sisters as well. It was an interesting focus, and I loved it!

It’s a retelling of Greek Myths so there is a lot in this book that could be triggering. This book depicts prostitution, rape, and childbirth.

This book has probably been the best retelling of these women's story, I loved the writing, I loved the deep dive into Greek mythology and how Lauren didn't shy away from all the horrible events they went through and handled them beautifully.

A solid read for anyone who loves to read about Greek Myth retelling.

I loved this twist on a medusa retelling. Medusa's immortal gorgon sisters, Euryale and Stheno, are glossed over in typical mythological retellings of the infamous Medusa's story. I loved bringing their perspectives to the forefront. It added an even greater depth and feeling of tragedy to the well known tale of Medusa's curse from Athena, and enhanced backstory to life before the curse. This story was beautifully written, and wonderfully depicted the love that comes from growing together and grief.

Thank you, Penguin Books [Ace], for a copy of "Medusa's Sisters" by Lauren J. A. Bear in exchange for an honest review. I will eat up anything that contains my girl Medusa and/or related. Fans of Greek Retellings, Jennifer Saint, and Madeline Miller would love this story. It is beautifully written by Bear, as she manages to capture the beauty of womanhood and relationships, While the novel is gripping and heart-wrenching, I fell in love with the style. I rated it 5 stars and would highly recommend to anyone who loves fantasy and fiction.

Wow. Just wow. This book was breathtaking — gorgeously written, achingly human, and stunning in its craftsmanship of myth.

This book tells the story of the Gorgons, but goes beyond the "Perseus and Medusa" episode. It tells of their birth as the children of monsters, of their lives as lesser immortals, of their roles intertwined in the myths of Semele, Orion, and, of course, their own creation.

I loved the way Lauren J.A. Bear wrote these women into the mythological scene — her representation of the complexity of mythology, gods, and humanity was just stunning. As a classicist, I've read plenty of "retellings" that miss the mark in this respect, falling into misogynistic portrayals of gods, romanticizing them, or just not representing the everyday life of those in this time period correctly. The gods of Greek myth are benevolent and vicious, loving and hateful, unchanging forever — Bear represents them this way. Her portrayal of the nature of gods and the stories that prevail were fascinating, and her analysis cut to the core of their beings.

This book is by no means easy to read, it contains the horrors and gore and violation inherent in Greek myth. There's violent rape, murder, suicide, suffering, cruelty, and inhumanity on all sides, even from our main characters. It's hard to sit with the actions of our heroines — especially Euryale — but Bear approaches their characterization with respect for their flaws, their mistakes, their selfishness. They feel real, and that's all you can ask from a mythology retelling. Most Greek myths aren't stories of heroism and love, but of sacrifice and violence. This book makes you sit with that, and it cuts to the core of why I became a classicist, why I love these stories so much. For the inherent humanity they represent, the stories they preserve, the voices they cover.

This should become required reading for anyone who wants to do a mythology retelling right. Its raw and real and powerful, and it has become one of my favorite books.

Oh, how I enjoyed this book. Going in to it I had no real knowledge of the story of Medusa's sisters and what a tale it turned out to be. The love and rivalry the three shared was both relatable and at times horrific. This book is well written, the words flowing on to the page and keeping the reader completely engaged. I wish I had words to do this review more justice. I simply loved the book and continue to recommend it to everyone.

I requested this one at a time when I was really into literary Greek myth retellings, but truthfully I just don't have that reading taste anymore, so this one really didn't do anything for me. I still will recommend this to people itching for a good mythology story, it just wasn't for me.

I read this after reading Natalie Haynes book Stone Cold about Medusa, where Stheno and Euryale make several appearances, although in that retelling they have always been in gorgan form. It was interesting to read a retelling where they are just as beautiful as their mortal sister Medusa. Bear's writing is beautiful and thoughtful. She doesn't shy away from the story of Medusa's rape, which makes this a heavy read. But what truly stands out is the bond between sisters. Perfect for fans of Madeleine Miller.

My lifelong love of Greek mythology is always rekindled when a new retelling comes my way, especially when that re-telling comes from the perspective of overlooked characters. Medusa’s Sisters is the debut novel of Boston author Lauren J. A. Bear, and follows the lesser known sisters of Medusa from birth and past the death of their beloved sister.

Medusa, Stheno, and Euryale were born to Phorcys, god of the sea’s hidden dangers, and Ceto, goddess of sea monsters. They were born before Zeus overthrew his father, and they witnessed Prometheus and the eagle, and the dawn of mankind as we know it. They were immediately a disappointment to their mother, as none were born with fangs or talons, they were simply ordinary. But none more ordinary than Medusa, the only one of the three born mortal. Initially believed to be dead, they quickly realize that only her “immortality was still born.” Those assembled for the birth argue over a mercy killing before she is named Medusa, and allowed to live by her mother. Her older sister Enyo then poses a question that drives the entire narrative of the book. She asks, “What can a life mean for one who will die among those who cannot?” And while Medusa is usually the focus of her story, in Medusa’s Sisters, the focus is definitely on what can a life mean for those who will not die, loving so feverishly one who will?

All three sisters are curious about mortals and their lives, and so they enter the human world in search of a place to belong. Eager to observe, they are quickly embroiled in the lives of not only the humans, but also the Olympians. They find themselves always on the outskirts of greater stories than their own. Watching their story reminds me of watching a disaster movie from the perspective of a side character, and it is a captivating perspective. Their lives are so important, and nuanced, and interesting, yet so marginal to the thrust of the major stories we remember.

“Monsters, but not monstrous,” Stheno and Euryale come to the forefront in this story for the first time to tell of how all three lived and were changed by each other. Bear explores the struggles of individuality and sisterhood, and where the individual stands between myth and truth. I find myself enjoying this in the same way that I enjoy the relationship of Glinda and Elphaba in Gregory Maguire’s Wicked, and with the same joy that the act of true love saving Arendelle was that of the sisters, not the lovers. While love is a central theme in Medusa’s Sisters, it is how those relationships affect the sisters that we are focused on.

The story begins with a prologue, and so the ending we all know of Medusa’s decapitation is revealed immediately. This has us asking on page one what this story is actually going to be about, if not about the most often cited part of Medusa’s story. I am usually irritated by the use of time in this fashion, but loved that this story began in this way so as to re-direct our focus away from Medusa’s main story into contemplation of the tangential straight away. Bear addresses the elephant in the room immediately, and now we can focus on the sisters and not the ending.

Of the three sisters, only Euryale and Stheno are given a narrative voice. Euryale above all else seems to crave experience. She wanted to experience love, she wanted to experience the mortal highs and lows, and above all else she wanted to experience Poseidon. Her love of the sea god drives so many of the joys and disasters that come her way. This is not Percy Jackson’s dad, this is the vengeful, selfish being of disaster. Stheno does not crave closeness to humanity in the way her sisters do, but craves her sisters. In many ways, she is the link between the mortal Medusa, and the experience-seeking Euryale. The love among the three, the jealousy, the familial complications, all are explored as the sisters move from one mortal experience to another.

Whilst some of this story felt inevitable, there are parts of this narrative that absolutely broke my heart. Bear writes female stories with such passion and such a finely tuned sense of the myriad of ways to be a woman. She explores so many aspects of the sisters’ sexuality, from a simple crush to a an all consuming desire. I absolutely loved how Bear explored the relationship of these sidelined characters to their more famous relatives, and how that changes who they are. There is an Olympian party scene with Eurayle skirting the edges, that feels like a regular family wedding. These are complicated women, and becoming gorgons is probably the least interesting thing about them. I cannot wait to see which characters Bear decides to re-imagine next.

It’s a retelling of Greek Myths so there is a lot in this book that could be triggering. This book depicts prostitution, rape, and childbirth.

GeekMom received a copy of this book for review purposes

I have read many different retellings of the Medusa myth, some leave out the sisters entirely, or they are mere footnotes, a few have had them with larger roles. This book has probably been the best retelling of these women's story. I loved the writing, I loved the deep dive into greek mythology and how Lauren didn't shy away from all the horrible events they went through and handled them beautifully.

This novel is beautifully written and full of heart,

All three sisters are written in a way that you can't help enjoy all of their stories. sexuality and queerness is also explored, and pretty decently and lesbian identity is not hidden.

A solid read.

I love how this book explores the before of greek myths we are commonly told, deconstructing the popular morals and values we're told to derive from such tales. So cool!

There has been a true deluge of feminist Greek myth retellings getting published since Circe’s success, and I haven’t really dipped my toes in until now. Medusa’s Sisters met the general expectations that I’ve developed for this type of book based on reviews by trusted friends - awkward attempts at lyrical prose, a few interesting subversions of classical mythology, and a somewhat confused attempt at being feminist by showing lots of awful men and violence against women.

One of the most glaring elements that didn’t work for me was the writing. Especially in the first half, I could almost feel Bear flipping through her thesaurus on the regular. This book’s attempt at elegant prose is largely characterized by using fancy/esoteric words with a result that feels pretty stilted and awkward instead of sophisticated. Probably the worst example I found was this:

“I sheltered her too much,” she told Euryale, for despite their tenuous start, Desma had come to appreciate Euryale’s sagacity - especially compared to Medusa’s and Semele’s penchant for the quixotic.

Even if you look past the anachronistic use of “quixotic,” it’s just… not good. To be fair, this tendency gets notably better in the second half, either because the prose actually changes or because I got more used to it, I’m not sure.

Bear made an interesting choice in having her protagonists Euryale and Stheno be deeply flawed characters. Euryale spends much of the book being callous and self-centered, while Stheno is a hardcore placater who has no real identity out of caring for her sisters. Both of them grow throughout the book - not necessarily in the neat, expected way of becoming selfless and independent, respectively, but in ways that I did find interesting nonetheless. My biggest disappointment with characterization is that Medusa herself is so flat and boring - she is just perfectly sweet and beautiful and smart and curious and everyone except mean, mean Euryale loves her until she goes through horrible things and dies tragically. I can understand giving more interiority to the eponymous sisters, but it’s really glaring to me how bad Medusa’s writing feels compared to theirs, and I think the big theme of Sisterhood could have been a lot more interesting if Medusa was more interesting, too.

Like I said, there is definitely an attempt at feminism present via showing copious violence against women and endlessly brutal and selfish men, but I don’t feel that the book has anything particularly interesting, distinct, or novel to say about any of this. Otherwise, I do like that Bear clearly thought about how women are conditioned to turn against each other and hurt each other for many reasons in a patriarchal world - this is something that was definitely lacking in Circe, as were any meaningful, complex female relationships like the ones sometimes present here.

My reading experience with this book is kind of similar to my experience with The Witch’s Heart in that I didn’t really enjoy it and noticed a lot of flaws throughout, but I still ended up feeling moved by the ending. There is something that just GETS TO ME about the inevitable passage of time for lonely immortals - their loves and losses fading as life moves on and on past their horrors and tragedies to continue in some new way. Idk, I just LIKE it!

If you’re into Greek myth retellings, Medusa’s Sisters is one to pick up.

What made it different for me is that it included the sisters’ lives before they ever became gorgons.

What made it relatable is the family dynamics that are depicted in the book. Love, anger and all those other feelings you have towards your sibling can be found in this book.

Personally, I found myself heartbroken wishing the best for these girls, even though we all know how Medusa’s story ends.

Oh and there’s WLW rep