Fun, feisty and full of snark
There's no secret that I love books based on mythology and I have to say that I really enjoyed this book. It was fun, feisty and full of snark.
Characters
What made this story for me was Sophie (Persephone). She was just so sassy, funny and had moments of pure snark. But it was the type that was fun. It made me laugh at her antics, not want to stab her with a spork, like some characters make me feeling like doing. She was relatable. She had 'Mommy' issues and had a quiet confidence in herself where it didn't matter that she was surrounded by pretty, yet sometimes, mean girls.
I really liked the secondary characters. Hannah was a gorgeous and bright. Theo (or Prometheus) was someone I adored. Just the whole way he was written really appealed to me.
And then there was Kai - the son of Hades.
Seriously, I wanted to kick him at times. One minute he was sweetly teasing, and the next, a massive flirt. He was still adorable though and he was definitely a boy with a hidden agenda, which made me keen to see what he gets up to in the next book.
Plot
The plot was eked out slowly, I think. It's hard to say what the plot was about because I think I've only read part of it in this first book. I can see part, but not all of what is happening. I know that there's some kind of feud going on. I know or I think I know who the main players are going to be, but how I'm going to get there is a mystery. And the ending was not so much a cliffhanger, but a teasing glance of what may occur next.
Setting
I enjoy boarding school settings and the fact that a Hades and Persephone re-telling was set there just made it all the more exciting for me. I don't know what it is I like about characters who live away from home as opposed to them living with their family, but the parents are never seen, but I just do.
Mythology
I think although it had been based in a very modern setting, it kept to the basic legends about the characters. Prometheus, was exactly how the myths explained him, only a little poetic licence had been used because he was different. I know that sounds weird, but I don't want to reveal to much about him. I must admit he was one of my favorite characters.
I also enjoyed how it took several aspects of Greek mythology including Cassandra's and twisted it into a plot I really enjoyed.
Romance
I don't actually think there was any. There was glimpses into a possible romance. The story almost started off with two of our characters kissing after all. But that's all there was. I think this is going to be very much a love/hate thing between Sophie and Kai and I kind of enjoyed it being that way. So if you're looking for swoony moments after that first initial kiss at the start of the book, well, I think you'll be kind of disappointed. But it does make up for the lack of that department with other things.
Writing Style
There's no question at all that there's a lot going on in this book and there's definitely not a chance to get bored. Well, I don't think so anyway. The novel was written in first voice, with Sophie, being the main character throughout the whole book. The writing was simple and pleasant. I didn't have any problem with it anyway. And I read this book in about five hours. It's a quick, fun and easy read.
Overall
I think it's easy to say that I really enjoyed this book. So much so that I'll definitely be going on to read the sequel. I have a kindle version of this book, but I want a paper copy for my shelf - that's how much I enjoyed this story. I would recommend this to anyone who like Greek mythology and doesn't mind a bit of poetic licence to make the book interesting.
Now for my rating:- four out of five stars
