Though Greek mythology originates from several millennia ago, their stories have been renewed again and again over the centuries through art and literature. In this anthology, more than a dozen authors tackle this too – but their tellings are with a twist, bringing racially, sexually, and culturally diverse takes to the classic stories.
I’ve always loved Greek mythology and have engaged with in a plethora of ways, from reading classic translations to the Percy Jackson books to the recent trend in novel-length unpackings like Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles and Circe. However, while I’ve seen more diverse adaptations of, say, fairy tales and Shakespearean plays on the rise, authors seem less willing to play around with Greek myths, so I was pretty happy to pick up this anthology.
In this book authors take on everything from the gorgons and the furies to episodes from the Trojan War and the Odyssey, covering every genre from romance to horror to sci-fi. I loved that while the stories stretched and transposed the familiar stories into forms that the ancient Greeks never could have imagined, they remained at their heart themselves. Some of my favorites were Sarah Gailey’s “Wild to Covet,” which turns the story of Thetis and Achilles into an uncanny Appalachian tragedy; Valerie Valdes’ “Atalanta Hunts the Boar,” which takes Atalanta’s story to the stars in a fast-paced space race; and Taylor Rae’s “The Eagles at the Edge of the World,” which sets Aeneas’s fleeing of Troy in a post-apocalyptic water world.
However, as is the case with any anthology, I preferred some stories over others. I thought a couple of the stories stretched the connections between myth and retelling a bit too thin, more ‘inspired by’ than ‘reimagined.’ Similarly, a couple stories felt rushed or incomplete, ending without making its point.
Disclaimer: I received an ARC of this book from NetGalley. This is my honest and voluntary review.