2023/119: Medusa's Sisters — Lauren J A Bear

We had entered the age of heroes, and we were beasts. [loc. 4449]

Debut novel Medusa's Sisters tells the story of Stheno and Euryale, the Gorgons who were not murdered by Perseus, from their youth as beautiful immortals (the snake-hair came later) to the death of mortal Medusa, and the different ways in which Stheno and Euryale grieve and endure. Other myths are woven into their stories: they spend time with Semele, and witness the tragic fate of a mortal who loves a god; they travel to Athens, where they meet Ligeia, a female musician who is perhaps the most vividly-drawn character in the novel; they flee from Athene's rage to Sarpedon, an isle in the furthest west, where Euryale bears a child.

The story is told in two voices: Stheno's first-person narration, measured and poetic and full of rage, and a third-person account of Euryale's actions. Euryale, I fear, is hard to warm to: she is secretive and full of envy, and it's she who inadvertently sows the seeds of her sister's demise. Euryale has her own agenda, and she does not share it with her sisters. Not that Medusa doesn't keep secrets of her own...

Semele burns, Medusa is raped, Euryale is monstered: but this is not only a novel about the perils, and the power imbalance, of relationships with the Olympians. Medusa's Sisters also deals with the ways in which women (mortal and immortal) are complicit in these inequalities. Victim-blaming Athene punishes the victim, not her attacker; Euryale's envy leads her to betray a goddess' secret; Stheno dedicates her life to her sisters, leaving nothing for herself.

I liked Bear's prose (especially Stheno's voice) and the ways in which she wove the Gorgons' stories into the wider canon of Greek mythology. There were points where the pacing seemed uneven, and I think I would have preferred to have Euryale's first-person narrative rather than a less intimate third-person account: perhaps this would have rendered her more likeable, or at least more relatable. True, she doesn't have an easy time of it, but out of the three she seems to suffer least ... unless you count her envy and sullenness.

Thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this full honest review. UK publication date is 12 SEP 2023.