A faithful retelling of the myths with some added banter. I loved this one more than the other one I read from this author, I'm not sure if this is a later book and she got better at writing, or if this source material just allowed for more embellishment since it's got a lot of fantastical elements. Either way, it got a lot of heart in this retelling. I loved the idea of Perseus being an inept asshole (not sure where he gained that attitude as a fisherman but ok).

I was kind of puzzled why his most famous thing with the mirror shield wasn't in there, but with how the characters were set up it made sense to just have him murder Medusa in her sleep

. I loved how the story of Medusa was told, how warm her little family was even though you know it won't end well.

I am not sure I quite enjoyed the intermezzo bits by the crow and the gorgoneion, the content was interesting but the form was a bit awkward, especially the 'dear reader' type exposition. Athene was always my favorite godess and I get the feeling she's the author's as well. The ending kind of caught me off guard, which got me very conflicted. On the one hand I understand it and think it's beautiful and sad and interesting, on the other hand, I was very much not ready for Athene pretty much committing suicide by turning into a statue. Some more foreshadowing would have been nice because I didn't see it coming and the book ended somewhat abrubtly to me because of it.

That said, I enjoyed this book a lot and will probably read some more from this author.