Review: Excellent retelling of the Hades and Persephone tale
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 10 3, 2013
I will be honest, I maintain a high level of skepticism for fairy tales, folk tales, and mythology that have been put into a modern day setting or retrofitted for today. However, this book proved to me that my skepticism was unfounded in this case.Ms. Bevis presents a refreshing view of the myth set in modern day. While there are still a few questions left unanswered, this is the first part in a trilogy and I anticipate certain issues will be explored further in Books 2 and 3. In this book, Persephone is a normal 16-year old girl. Or so she thinks. Due to the divine heritage she learns she possesses, she becomes the target of several unfriendly folks, and her rescuer turns out to be none other than Hades.This is different than the usual telling of the myth, as in this story, Hades kidnaps her to protect her from the ones who would harm her, and once she is safe, he tells her she can leave (although she risks her safety if she does so) He has no interest in her other than her safety, but that changes later on as Hades and Persephone start to develop feelings for one another. Other myths are incorporated into here, and it is obvious the author did a lot of research for her story, and the liberties she took to write this novel fit in with the world and their original myths smoothly, which is not always easy when mixing elements from an ancient world with the modern.Ms. Bevis also paints a lovely image of the Underworld, although it was a bit surreal for me to think about TV's and phones being down there (this story does happen in the modern day after all, and Hades has allowed these upgrades in his realm) There were a couple of surprising twists in this story, and that made the story stand out amidst all the other H and P stories out there. This book has a overall satisfactory ending, but you can tell there will be more, and I look forward to it. I give this book a well-deserved 4.5/5 stars.