Khanh, first of her name, mother of bunnies's Reviews > The Deep End of the Sea

Actual rating: 4.5

The girl whose beauty was once fabled became a horrifying monster.
Her legs twisted together into a reptilian beast. Her hair, so envied by women and the subject of many an ode by men, transformed into a nest of vipers.
I am the Gorgon Medusa. And my eyes can turn anything living to stone.

Percy Jackson's dad is not only guilty of being an absentee father, he is a rapist. The Gorgon Medusa knows it well; she is one of his victims.

This book is just so fucking good. So fantastically amazing. I'm practically allergic to giving 5 stars, but I can pretty much guarantee you that this ranks among one of my favorite books this year. I have scarcely read a retelling of modern-day Greek gods and goddesses that is more faithful to the original. I have scarcely encountered a character who is more sympathetic, so loveable, whose story is as heartbreaking as Medusa's.

Medusa's personality is amazing. She is so strong, yet so unsure of herself; so scared, so damaged from her past, so fearful to love, but never resistant to it. As a victim of rape, she hates herself, and she has to come to terms with the fact that she is a victim. Needless to say, I absolutely adored Medusa's character, and I'm not going to have a separate section on her character analysis or else this review will run the length of an entire book.

The Greek Gods may be deities, but they are quite human in their imperfection. Many of them are benevolent. Some of them are, gently put, petulant, sulky, fantastically moronic motherfuckers. Humans throughout the ages have suffered grievously at their hands. These poor mortals have been cursed, some justly, most unfairly, and nobody is less deserving of their punishment than Medusa.



Summary: You might have heard of Medusa. A terrifying creature with snakes upon her head. So monstrous that anyone who gazes upon her turns into stone. She was raped by Poseidon while serving as a maid to the goddess Athena. Instead of pitying Medusa, Athena scorned her, cursed her, doomed her to an eternity of misery and solitude.

So much for Athena's reputation as the Goddess of Wisdom.

Medusa's skin is lizard-like, she has a tail. Her head teems with slithering snakes. She calls her snakes "The Girls." The Girls may be snakes, but they are sweet, gentle creatures. They are oftentimes her only companion.

They are gentle creatures, individually named by me but normally referred to as a whole, since they intertwine together more often than not. More importantly, they abhor death just as avidly as I do.

Medusa is monstrous in appearance, but she is not a monster. Medusa is all too human at heart, she is kind, compassionate, she is gentle, loving. She hates being a monster.

And it sucks. It genuinely, truly, absolutely, unequivocally sucks. I hate stealing lives.
Thus, not only am I a monster, I’m a really lousy one. A lonely, classic Five Stages of Grief following, insecure, shut-in of a pathetic beast who talks to the snakes on her head and the statues on her island.

Medusa is still broken and haunted by her rape, 2000 years afterwards.

There are few who love her, looking like she does. Friendship is hard for one whose looks can kill. Even so, isolated on the Greek isle of Gorgona, Medusa leads a quiet life. She has two friends, a kindly, old, blind fisherman named Mikkos, and then there is the god Hermes.

Hermes is her best friend. The golden, kind, gentle (Vans sneaker-wearing) god is the only one who has sought her company and friendship throughout her curse. Hermes is kind, persistent. He seeks her out, he has never abandoned her.

I loathed and feared him at first, convinced he would abuse me like his relatives had, but he is a persistent thing. It took years—literally, hundreds of years—but he chipped away at my shell with acts of kindness small and large.

Hermes has a knight-in-shining armor thing going on.

He is always trying to right wrongs, save people, and make the world a better place, which is one of the things I love best about him.

And his latest mission, in fact, a mission he has been trying to accomplish ever since Medusa has been cursed---is to free her from her monstrous existence; Hermes intends to right a wrong that has been allowed to fester for too long.

“The simple fact is, my uncle raped you, and somehow my bat-shit insane sister blamed and cursed you for it happening in one of her temples. In no way did you deserve what happened to you.” He shakes his head slowly as he closes in on me. “You’ve born it better than any other person I could ever imagine. It’s time for it to end, though. I sorely regret not doing anything earlier.”

Medusa is scared, terrified at the prospect. She has suffered this punishment too long, she is too resigned to her miserable existence. Medusa does not dare to hope that she might regain a normal life. But maybe...after all these millenias, it is time to allow herself a spark of optimism.

Before—I had no say in my punishment. I’ve born it quietly.
Maybe it’s time I finally take a chance.

...and off they go to Olympus.

The Greek Pantheon is not altogether bad. They can be kind, and luckily for Medusa, they are reasonable. They realize that they're not perfect, and their sister, the goddess Athena...is kind of a bitch. How else do you explain the punishment, the shaming, the utter hatred of a girl who has been raped?

Athena is sitting next to Poseidon. Her hair is in a tight bun, her expression sour as she peers down at me. There is disdain there, and something else—something I can’t quite pinpoint. But whatever it is, I am more than aware of her revulsion, and it saddens me. I worshipped her. Served her. “How many times do I need to say it? The little whore got what she deserved.”

Luckily, Medusa has defenders. There are gods and goddesses who believe in her innocence. Like the fantastically awesome Hades, lord of the Underworld.

“Niece,” he stresses, mimicking her formality, “this isn’t the first time you’ve overstepped your bounds by punishing innocents; this one just so happens to be the last remaining victim. If you even try to spew that victim blaming crap again, I’ll take you down to the Underworld with me for a spell. Maybe then you can understand what true justice entails.”

That glorious motherfucker. LET ME LOVE YOU, HADES.

*ahem*

Medusa may be freed of her curse, but it's just the beginning. She has not been human in a long time. She has forgotten what it feels like to be freed. She has to learn to love again, to trust again, she has to undergo physical therapy...she needs to learn to be angry.

“Anger is good. I can work with anger. She doesn’t need your coddling, Nymph-girl. She needs somebody to help her kick some ass.” His lips curl so high that I swear, the corner of one side of his mouth closes in on an ear. “And I can do that.”

Enemies from her past resurfaces, and as good as her current life is in Olympus, peace doesn't come without a price. There are people who want their vengeance.

But Medusa has allies now, she has friends, she is no longer alone. She has a lover who will not give up on her.

Another kiss, a light brush across the center of my lips. “I will fight for us, Medusa. I will not give up. Please do not give up on yourself, either. Never forget that I love you. Never forget that you mean everything to me.”
Our foreheads touch. “I love you. Hold onto that. I did not wait two thousand years for your love only to lose it so easily.”

The Setting & The Writing: It is modern time, and the setting works perfectly. Medusa is isolated, but she knows about the modern world, she has technology, gifts from the outside world brought to her by her friend Hermes. He can travel the world outside, she cannot; he brings the world to her.

The gods and goddesses of Greek mythology have grown, adapted to their time. They live in Mount Olympus, and they have modern technology (Hades uses an iPad). They have grown perfectly to fit the modern era. They are not so incongruous with the time at all.

The setting is a modern-day imagining of Olympus, and it fits perfectly. Olympus is a city, beyond the reach of mortals. There is technology in it, there are modern shops and restaurants in it. It is populated by nymphs, gods and goddesses, satyrs and centaurs. Welcome to the 21st century.

The writing flows perfectly. It is evocative, it reaches emotional depths. Medusa's narrative is in first-person, and it is modern enough, although rather formal, and it never feels inconsistent or out of place. The writing is absolutely spot-on.

The Greek Pantheon: I found the portrayal of the Greek gods and goddesses very authentic to the originals. Let's get the big issue over with: the portrayal of Athena as an insane batshit. This is controversial, but I accept it. For one thing, it is true that in Greek mythology, Athena cursed poor Medusa to be monstrous, despite the fact that the girl did nothing wrong. Therefore, the portrayal of Athena as less-than-flattering in this book is completely acceptable to me. I agree with Hades' assessment of his sister.

“For somebody who is supposedly the bastion of wisdom,” Hades continues darkly, “you do a piss-poor job of exhibiting it yourself.”

As well as Hermes'.

His voice matches mine. “No. It’s like I said—she’s insane. Her being named the purveyor of wisdom is one of the greatest of cosmic jokes.”

The gods and goddesses are modernized, as fitting the time, but the main aspects of their personality remains very true. Zeus is pretty awesome. And totally chill.

He is lounging in his throne, dressed in a t-shirt, torn shorts, and flip-flops. There is no beard, no mustache—just sandy hair and weathered, tan skin.

The gods are reasonable. They squabble among themselves, like a big, boisterous Greek family.

“Cease your frivolity, cow,” Athena hisses at her sister.
“How delightful. Your daughter strives to show example of my words,” Hades says, this time to Zeus.
“Athena, shut it, will you?” Zeus snaps. An exasperated sigh escapes from his lips as he kneads his forehead. Hermes was certainly right on this account—the Assembly loves to bicker.

We meet so many of the gods and goddesses. We get to know Persephone and Hades as Medusa lives with them for awhile. Hades likes coffee, Persephone hates it. Hades and Persephone loves each other, despite what Medusa knew of them from legends.

It is obvious he and Persephone are deeply in love, which is yet another surprise. Like most everyone, I’ve read the stories of how he’d kidnapped her and held her against her will half the year in the Underworld. Only, Persephone doesn’t act like a kidnapped victim ought to act; that, or she’s an excellent actress who suffers heavily from Stockholm syndrome. She dotes on his words, as he does to hers.

There is Aphrodite and her husband, Hephaestus. Aphrodite is wonderful, gorgeous; as kind as she is beautiful.

I so loved the way the gods and goddesses are written in this book.

The Romance: There is a romance in this book, and it is completely understandable. The love in this book comes pretty fast, but it develops from friendship, from a history of knowing each other for thousands of years. I understand it, I support it, and I completely adore the couple.

And I want to give Medusa a hug for daring to love again, for finding the strength to look for love and to accept it after the traumatic events of her rape.

He murmurs sweet words of comfort, ones that do not rush me to wrap up nor belittle me for my outburst. And I know, just know, in this moment that I love him. That I am in love with him.
That I have been for a long time and too blind to see it before now.

And he, in turns, is the best of lover, the most wonderful, compassionate, loving of friends.

“You have a goodness in you others would have long let die away in such circumstances. This is what I fell in love with. Not your body—which, I won’t lie, I enjoy very much, or your beautiful hair (because you know I most certainly was fascinated with your snakes, too), or those eyes of yours I find myself so easily lost in on a regular basis. Dusa, I love you. Who you are."

This is such a wonderful book.