“And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved.”
Stone Blind, by Natalie Haynes
Summary
They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.
Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .
My Thoughts
I’m a big fan of Greek mythology retellings, and Stone Blind was the next one I got in the library. I wasn’t sure how to feel about it at first, but as I got into the book, I realized that I loved the way Haynes writes it. The perspectives are constantly changing as she tells the story from every possible angle. She focuses on three women: Medusa, Athena, and Andromeda, but they are far from the only narrators. Haynes has chapters from Perseus’s mother Daenae, and even a chapter from the perspective of the olive tree that Athena creates in Athens, of all things. From the perspective of an olive tree.
The changing perspectives are the biggest strength of this book; the narrators will sometimes speak directly to the reader using the word “you” and ask questions, provoke ideas. The story is not just one person’s story, it is everyone’s story. It belongs to Medusa’s sisters, to their mother, to the monster that Perseus kills, to Andromeda’s mother Cassiope, to the nymphs, the Nereids, to Poseidon’s wife Amphrite, to Hera, to so many women we don’t even think about in this well-known myth. I love the fact that it’s not just about Medusa, but about all the people around her, the people we don’t even think of.
I’ve always been a huge fan of the myth of Medusa; it’s my favorite, after the myth of Icarus. This was the first retelling I’d read with a focus on her, and I loved the new perspectives it brought. The book takes a bit to actually get into; there are a lot of perspectives, so there is a bit of setup near the start of the book as we properly delve into the plot. I think Haynes biggest strength is in not sugarcoating things, and in focusing on some of the atrocities. She doesn’t diminish one ounce of power any of the characters of the story have, especially the women, but she also doesn’t hide the fact that sometimes power isn’t enough; bad things happen to these women, and they have to recover, and move on. She writes about the apathy of gods towards mortals while still being sympathetic to them in some lights, about the cruelties of men without being cruel. It’s really a very just book, and I think the perspectives have something to do with it.
I loved this book, overall. I’d absolutely recommend reading it; the author, Natalie Haynes, wrote another centered around the Trojan War called A Thousand Ships that I plan on reading next (well, after I finish Daisy Jones & The Six). A lot of the characters in the books, I’ve made Pinterest boards for; they’re linked below.
Review: ★ ★ ★ ★ ✭ ✩
Medusa: https://www.pinterest.com/blabalnblaba/myths-greco-roman/medusa-gorgon-sister/
Andromeda: https://www.pinterest.com/blabalnblaba/myths-greco-roman/andromeda-princess-of-ethiopia/
Athena: https://www.pinterest.com/blabalnblaba/myths-greek/athena-goddess-of-wisdom/
Niharika Agrawal 