Disappointing Penelope retelling
Huge chance it's ai generated image on the cover
"Her heart longed for the old ways, when the one Goddess was worshipped in peace, rather than the new, brutal male gods."
Female deities are all kind, peaceful and would never commit atrocities/s 🙄
"She shivered and thought a swift prayer to the Goddess in all her incarnations: Athena, Aphrodite, Hera, Artemis."
I refuse to believe these 4 goddesses are supposed to represent the same ancient being
"Five years ago, Theseus had kidnapped her cousin. Tyndareus sent Penelope away to her mother's home in Alybas to protect her, though she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to kidnap her at the time."
Penelope has a really gross mentality that only pretty girls are kidnapped 😡
"See, boy, the women in our family come from a long line of priestesses. Your grandmother would have been a priestess, but she was never consecrated."
"I gave one daughter to Icarius, brother to the king of Sparta [...] your aunt drove away every man who asked and now she's a lonely, bitter old virgin, filling my grandson's head with nonsense about the Goddess."
Such a insane way to talk about your daughter
"Tyndareus was elder brother to Penelope's dead father, Icarius. He had sent for Penelope to use her as a peace offering and buy Helen's safety."
"Her brother, Ithios had been especially adept at making her feel unlovely."
"Thinking of childbearing, of enduring a man's touch and satisfying his hungers, made Penelope writhe inside."
Just like that, we discover some things: her father Icarius is dead, her brother doesn't like her, her uncle Tyndareus tried to use her as exchange for Helen, she's constantly compared in a negative way to her cousins Helen and Clytemnestra, she hates the idea of getting married
"Bachan had taught Penelope all she knew of the old ways, when women led their households and served the Goddess. [...] Penelope vowed she would not be bred like a cow, even if she couldn't avoid marriage."
"I will not need much. A goodly number of people in Alybas, men and women, still worship the Goddess in the old ways. They will watch over me."
"The old ways were still followed here; the rest of Achaia worshipped male gods, with the many faces of the Goddess subordinated to the roles of chattel and pleasure toy, mocked and punished when they did not submit to neglect and injustice, with their powers stolen or diluted."
That's such a mysoginistic way to talk about greek goddesses, and unfortunally it's not a surprise a woman wrote this shit
"Aunt... I want to be a priestess, not marry a warrior prince. I want to stay virgin and serve the Goddess."
"A woman's power is that of life, of serving the Goddess in creating new life and sustaining it. Men chose the illusion of power that comes with fighting, division and death. Women fight that cold pull to the land of shadows. Only women can redeem men through loving them and giving more life to the world."
This book is the worst of both worlds of sexism: men are a violent hivemind, women are supposed to fix them while also having babies
"She had been with Penelope since her mother died in childbirth and had the right to scold and correct the royal daughter."
And just like that, we discover that her mother died too
Odysseus is described as having dark red hair
The Aias of this scene is Ajax the Lesser
The first chapters has many lines of Penelope thinking of herself as a lesser girl. And somehow reaching the conclusion that no one would kidnap a "ugly" teen
Penelope and her grandparents are "woke slave owners" 🤦♂️
Here we have sexual harassment scene that never happened in myths
Penelope fights back, but isn't enough because Ajax is taller, older and stronger. But Odysseus appears to help her
Just to inform: she's only 15 YEARS OLD!! Odysseus is clearly described and portrayed as an adult!
"Both had the same golden-brown hair as their dead mother, Leda;"
"Clytemnestra had been born to his first wife, who died birthing the next child, a boy. Tyndareus had married Leda several years later. She had immediately given him Castor and Polydeuces. Helen had been a surprise a surprise, born eight years later."
We're only 3 chapters in and 3 mother figures are dead. Seriously, greek mythology had a lower death rate for mothers than this book 😑
"Don't consider a man as anything but a friend until you are in your bridal bed with him. Then it's safe to give your heart."
"I speak from experience."
I'm worried what kind of insanity the writer created about Helen's time as prisoner of Theseus to cause such idea on this girl
Would you believe the writer is a fan of Epic The Musical? Somehow she listened to the songs and never considered that making Penelope a 15 years old child bride was gross
Ps: acoording to the Foreword she started writing this years ago
@galusandmalus @aliciavance4228
@sarafangirlart these female writers HATE their female characters
