One of the things I do when I am preparing for Spring Mysteries is read as much as I can. I read scholarly research, websites, devotional anthologies, and fiction. Yes, I enjoy reading modern fiction about the Gods.
I don’t often expect a lot out of the fiction, especially because much of it is Young Adult. (I’m not knocking Young Adult Fiction – there’s some pretty amazing stuff out there in the YA genre. There’s also some pretty amazing drivel.) For example, a few years ago, I read a YA novel about the Furies being modern day teenage girls. It was a nice distraction, but I didn’t give much weight to it’s interpretation of the Furies.
So I wasn’t expecting a lot when I came across a book in the library’s e-book section called Persephone by Kaitlin Bevis. Especially because the description read:
The “talk” was bad enough, but how many teens get told that they’re a goddess? When her mom tells her, Persephone is sure her mother has lost her mind. It isn’t until Boreas, the god of winter, tries to abduct her that she realizes her mother was telling the truth. Hades rescues her, and in order to safely bring Persephone to the Underworld he marks her as his bride. But Boreas will stop at nothing to get Persephone. Despite her growing feelings for Hades, Persephone wants to return to the living realm. Persephone must find a way to defeat Boreas and reclaim her life.
Boreas? Trying to abduct Persephone? And THAT’S why she ends up in the Underworld? I really wasn’t expecting much. Boy, was I surprised! Well, once I got past the Boreas bit.
I truly enjoyed Ms. Bevis’s dialogue, especially between Hades and the crew in the Underworld. She writes a human-ness into the Gods, even while setting them apart from the rest of the humans. She creates a very logical world, with interesting rules such as, the Gods cannot lie; the Gods require worship to survive; worship is a broad term that includes people believing in them, as well as arguing about them, for example, whether or not Helios and Apollo are the same.
Kaitlin Bevis has definitely done her mythology homework, even if she does bend a bit here or there (even Rick Riordan does that). And for the record, Boreas did kidnap Oreitheiya in classical Greek mythology. I’m not convinced that is how winter began, but the rest of the story is engaging enough that I can suspend my disbelief.
In fact, I so thoroughly enjoyed the first book, that I went out and purchased the Kindle version of all of the books in her Daughters of Zeus series. There are three Persephone books (Persephone, Daughter of Earth and Sky, and The Iron Queen), and three Aphrodite books (Aphrodite, Love and War, and Venus Rising). It’s been just over a week, and I only have the last one left to read.
If you like mythological fiction, I highly recommend Kaitlin Bevis’s books.
Blessings,
Mary
PS. Full disclosure: if you buy any of the books I recommend, I receive NO commission. Enjoy!