Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes
There is one question that devours me still. ‘Why didn’t I close my eyes?’
Medusa is the only mortal in a family of gods. Growing up wth her sisters, she quickly realizes that she is the only one who gets older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.
When desire pushes a God to commit the unforgivable, Medusa’s mortal life is changed forever. Her punishment is to be turned into a Gorgon: sharp teeth, snakes for hair, and a gaze that will turn any living creature to stone. Appalled by her own reflection, Medusa can no longer look upon anything she loves without destroying it. She condemns herself to a life of solitude in the shadows to limit her murderous range.
That is, until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon…
This is the story of how a young woman became a monster. And how she was never really a monster at all.
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Natalie Haynes is one of the only authors I trust with Greek retellings and because of this, Medusa’s story wasn’t quite able to live up to the lofty pedestal I’d propped it on before even reading it. I do still love Haynes’ writing and her take on mythology but Medusa’s story was extremely overpowered by side plots in this book which made for a bit of a let-down when I finally picked it up. Medusa is such a complex character/monster in Greek mythology. I think in modern-day people understand how unfairly she was treated and I was so looking forward to her story getting told in the right way. But this book hardly focused on her. We instead spent most of the time exploring the myth of Perseus and Athena and how those myths were tied into Medusa’s. And then Medusa took a back seat in her own story. It was disappointing given the expectations I and other reads have going into this.
We start the story with a baby Medusa being dropped off with the Gorgons and their struggles in learning how to care for someone so mortal and breakable. It was a heart-warming beginning that made the later events of Medusa’s life even more heart-breaking. True to Haynes’ usual method, we take breaks every few chapters to visit other points of view including those of the Greek gods with one of the most prominent being that of Athena. Although this book did a good job on focusing on the unfairness and trauma imbedded in classical mythology of violence against women, it fell short in portraying Athena as a woman-hater and then having most of the book told from her point of view. There was no empathy in this version of the story and it felt as if the author was purposefully distancing us from the characters and, in doing so, alienating us from the story.
The characterization in this novel was strange so it feels a little difficult to summarize my feelings on this. All the characters had depth in the sense of what we are already familiar with going into the story (for those that are familiar with the myths at least) but no further. There was no growth or learning to make these characters’ journey’s feel worth the lessons imparted. Perseus starts off as a naive, pompous boy and ends as a cruel naive pompous boy. Athena treats women unfairly for the acts committed against them, and then faces the same treatment from the men in her life. Instead of this opening her eyes to her behaviour, she learns… nothing? And Medusa, our shining jewel in this story. We get minimal insight into her character, and then she dies. When were we supposed to get to know her? To learn about her life and characterization? I felt robbed by the end of this book.
I will say that the writing was great. Haynes knows how to weave a tale and tell familiar myths in exciting ways. I love her choices in viewpoint and how some of the least expecting are able to parallel each other so well. Maybe if this were another retelling of a great epic tale with many characters it would have worked out better for her. But given that this should have been focused largely on Medusa and we barely seen her, I feel the method didn’t quite suit a solo tale.
All in all, it was enjoyable as a straight retelling. But if you’re looking at any further insight than a modern version of what you can read in a classics text, you might be disappointed. I gave this 3 stars as I still love Haynes’ writing, I just didn’t think she did this story justice.