I came in with low expectations and they were met.

The only reason I picked this up was for A) research for my own story about Medusa and B) it was short.

It’s really just two people sitting on opposite sides of a cave telling each other their origin stories. Nothing really happens. There’s a lot of thinking–I might almost call it stream-of-consciousness. I think making a story out of the Medusa myth is difficult unless you’re willing to make some bold choices. There isn’t much to the original myth. Hero enters a cave, fights a boss monster.

The originating material doesn’t give her much of a personality nor much of a chance. It’s an interesting myth but doesn’t make for a novel. Especially if you take the side of Medusa, because her story starts in tragedy and ends in tragedy. It’s not an uplifting tale if you’re the monster.

The lesson learned from her is a bad lesson. It says if you’re beautiful, people are going to get jealous, men will rape you, and then you get punished for that. Then they send someone in to kill you after your punishment.

I think the author did as best she could with what she was given, but there just isn’t enough here. I don’t think she wanted to deviate enough to fit the story to modern values, so it ends up being not enough from either side.