This book is a beautiful excavation, uncovering the girl beneath the gorgon, the power within the punished. We read literary fiction, non-fiction, classics and children’s books, all genres and styles embraced in our aim to share the love. Most importantly this book looks at self acceptance, accepting and owning who you are despite very dark periods and your mistakes. i found the illustrations to be extremely gorgeous and i loved seeing medusa's myth from a more feminist perspective.

Her second book, The Muse, set in a dual time-frame, during the Spanish Civil War and 30 years later in 1960s London, was published in 2016. Stheno and Euryale became immortal winged beings, while Medusa, the mortal sister, with hair replaced by snakes, received a further cruel warning. Destined to become as much an artefact of our own age as it is an illumination of the ancient past [.I was apprehensive at first as the tale of Medusa is much beloved and she has become such a multi-dimensional symbol that has morphed through the ages, but Haynes manages to be a worthwhile and insightful addition to the Medusa commentary that feels fresh, fun and faithful to the spirit of her source material (much of the tales here are adaptations of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and, sorry Pegasus fans, but the winged horse is absent from this tale). This is the story of Medusa, reincarnated in modern language with some imaginative embellishments and only a smidge more sympathy for the titular character than the original Greek myth affords. She is the author of three novels for adults, The Miniaturist (2014), The Muse (2016) and The Confession (2019), and is both a Sunday Times no. And this format is also one which I feel would reignite the wonder of more mature readers to revisit these wonderful tales. Taking her lead from the likes of Pat Barker and Madeline Miller, Higgins’s Greek Myths: A New Retelling is narrated by female characters.

A long-form poem of poignant motifs which recur throughout, the poem is a mythic puzzle, an epic for ordinary girls, and a love letter to the sea. How Zeus came to her with a bargain, that led to Danaë becoming pregnant, shut in a box by her father and dropped into the sea. Beautiful, captivating and fascinating as a retelling of Medusa, however, the standout from the book are the poignant messages, fables and life lessons that are subtly interspersed through the story. This is Perseus, chiselled, handsome, and possessed of a gleaming shield and sword, the ruby at its hilt twinkling portentously like ‘a gleaming ball of blood. Read more about the condition New: A new, unread, unused book in perfect condition with no missing or damaged pages.Oblivious to whether or not she was beautiful, until she was “accused” of being just that in the small village where she lived. As always, I prefer the original Greek myth, which didn’t have any involvement from Poseidon, but instead focused on Medusa’s innate power that came from being born the mortal Gorgon. I marvelled that we could fall for each other without meeting face to face, that the mortal mind was capable of such gymnastics when it wanted. Her sisters are immortal but Medusa remains human, enduring ‘…days when I thought I might go mad…a half-life, living in caves and shadows.