I must admit I find Greek mythology a little intimidating – I’m not sure why that is because I absolutely loved this! There is a very helpful cast of characters in the front which includes their relationships to other characters and I referred to it often. Athene meanwhile takes great offence that such an act could have taken place in her temple, and knowing she cannot get revenge on Poseidon while he is in his underwater kingdom, goes to Medusa, cursing her to become the character that is familiar in Greek mythology, a woman with snakes for hair and the power to turn any creature to stone, just by looking at them. Traumatised and scared she returns to the beach where her sisters are worried about her but she does not confide in them. While a teenager, Medusa is visiting Athene’s temple when she is set up on by Poseidon and raped.

They quickly have to learn to take care of a baby, to feed and care for it and they come to love Medusa. She is a mortal child (with wings) born of sea gods, and is left on the beach in the care of her immortal sisters the Gorgons, Euryale and Sthenno. Stone Blind is one of the many books from 2022 that I was desperate to read but somehow ran out of time for! I’m so glad I finally picked it up as part of my resolution to read at least one backlist hardback a month. Until Perseus embarks upon a quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon. She is condemned to a life of shadows and darkness. The power cannot be controlled: Medusa can look at nothing without destroying it. Writhing snakes replace her hair, and her gaze now turns any living creature to stone. When the sea god Poseidon commits an unforgivable act in the temple of Athene, the goddess takes her revenge where she can – and Medusa is changed forever. And her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know. Growing up with her Gorgon sisters, she begins to realize that she is the only one who experiences change, the only one who can be hurt. Medusa is the sole mortal in a family of gods.

Stone blind book