Katherine Marsh (1) (1974–)

Ava, Jax, and their friends Layla, Fia, and Arthur (and their nemesis Zale) return to the Accademia for a new school year. Ava has been warned against getting strikes, but the new headmaster Perseus (actually Proteus in disguise) seems set on "trolling" her. Unfairness abounds: swim team is cancelled in favor of wrestling, which is only open to boys; Ava is placed in Remedial History; and their ally Ms. Demi is away from the school. Layla is more beautiful than ever, attracting the attention show more of new golden boy Angus (Zale's roommate), and Fia spends her free time in Design Lab making a pandora. But when Layla is accused of attacking Angus, she's turned "full Empusa" - and because she's a vegan and can't eat/drink blood, she will soon die if the others don't rescue her, so they're all off on another mission to get her ancestor Lamia's true story.

The concept for this series - revealing the true stories of monsters that were twisted and changed by the Olympians for their benefit - remains solid and exciting. The themes of equality, feminism, and truth - and the importance of who gets to tell the story - are important. Yet the execution feels heavy-handed and moralistic, done all in black and white rather than any shades of gray. It could have been done with a lighter touch for an equal, or greater, impact.

Quotes

"You make it sound like we were setting off fire alarms or vandalizing bathrooms, not uncovering a secret Olympian conspiracy to rewrite history and suppress womankind!" (Ava to her mom, 5)

"No woman or girl's life is perfect, no matter how beautiful she is." (Ava's mom, 101)

"As you may have noticed...there's a double standard. Gods and heroes are encouraged to strive and act, but they expect girls and women to behave in only two ways: either you're born perfect...or else...You express or defend yourself and they treat you like a monster." (Ava's mom, 102)

"This was a lesson to all of us," Fia said. "We don't fight the Olympians alone. Everyone stays together." (126)

"Zeus decided you were becoming too powerful. It's one thing to be pretty - he has no problem with that. But to be pretty and defiant? Pretty and opinionated? Pretty and clever?...He worried you might start your own cult of influence like Medusa." (Cupid to Layla, 145)

"But Zeus just thinks of any woman who wants too much from him for his liking as a vampire." (Lamia, 191)

"I wonder how Zeus would feel about making this a boys' school?"
"It kind of already is." (Perseus and Fia, 199)

"It is not a matter of what you or I want or deserve."
"It should be."
"...There is no happiness without power." (Hera and Fia, 217) show less

Ava Baldwin has trouble controlling her temper, especially when she's treated unfairly - differently from the boys in school, for example. After an incident, Ava and her older brother Jax are whisked away to their mother's alma mater in Italy, the Accademia del Forte, and they learn that (1) the Greek gods are real, and (2) all of the students are descended from monsters.

*Spoiler alert*

Ava makes fast friends with Irish girl Fia and her roommate Layla (Egyptian-Italian), but the three show more quickly discover that something is not right at the school; there's a dominant narrative, and it favors gods over goddesses. Ava and her friends set off to discover the truth - a journey Ava's mom Melanie started when she was a student, but was dissuaded from finishing. Ava learns she's descended from Medusa, and that discovering Medusa's own true story is what will free Ava and her mother from living in fear.

Swift pacing, creative worldbuilding, compelling characters, and strong themes combine into an excellent series starter.

See also: The Lightning Thief (Percy Jackson)

Quotes

Genus non est fatum - Ancestry is not fate (43)

"Any time we question the stories they teach us or suggest there's a different way of seeing things, they say we're causing trouble." (Fia to Ava, 105)

"Stories are powerful....That's why the male Olympians shaped the myths to celebrate and protect themselves. Look at those stories carefully. They either transform women into objects that have no voice...or else they turn them into monsters." (Medusa to Ava, Layla, and Fia, 168)

"You can't be happy and afraid at the same time." (Medusa to Ava, 169)

"If there's anything we've learned so far, it's that the myths we've been taught aren't always right." (Ava, 206)

"History is the story the powerful tell. It's not always the true story." (Hestia, 223)

"One thing the myths get right is that families are always complicated." (Medusa, 263)

"...you can't change the world by force."
"Then what can you change it by?!"
"Stories....You want to change the world? Find and tell the stories of the silenced and the powerless that haven't been told." (Medusa and Ava, 265) show less

I was surprised by this book in numerous ways. I thought it would be a fast, light read, and it was a fast read (I read it in one night), but it was also far more complex, creative and pro-women (smash the patriarchy!) than I expected. That latter aspect was a complete surprise, but I loved the message. Things aren't always what they seem and neither are "monsters"... especially if you get all your information from their enemies.

I thought this was a very different kind of tween fantasy, and show more provided a lot of food for thought. It was a powerful book for girls and for liking who they are, no matter what others think, and being true to themselves and what they believe. Girls have been silenced for a very long time and told what to think and say, and it's good this is changing and that more and more we are seeing examples of strong and powerful women and girls whose stories have been suppressed or hidden away. They deserve to be told. show less

DNF @ 43%

I picked this book up at a resale store because the main character was an LP. Rarely have I ever found an LP protagonist . . . if ever, to be honest? And in YA fiction too! There was nothing stopping me from purchasing it!

Unfortunately, what I thought would be some swashbuckling adventure turned out to be a horrible, never-lightening tragedy of a novel that basically displayed every single act of violence that could happen to court dwarves in a historical setting (I'm not sure which show more centuries exactly), including

Book content warnings:
ableism
rape
fetishization of marginalized people (in this case LP)
torture & other violence against LP
slavery
- and probably more

It ended up making me very uncomfortable . . . that an able-bodied writer (is this the correct terminology for contrast with LP?) writing about a marginalized group she's not a part of, made her book so depressing and fit every tragedy she could in the book with so little happy moments. It's less a story and more an article on historical abuse against court dwarves.

I ended up reading halfway through until book one ended with something like "I never thought I would long for my home back at [the other abusive court]" and hinted at an even more abusive servitude. And nope. I just shut the book. The last thing I needed/wanted was an even more abusive detail of this kid's life by his oppressor's.

Though the experiences aren't the same, imagine a white person or a straight person writing a book about a black / gay person and making it about their oppressors torturing them? Solely about that (not that it hasn't . . . been done before . . . )? But as a marginalized person myself in many ways, my stomach couldn't handle it.

This book might have a happy ending far ahead, but I just don't want to go through all the struggle to get there. One half is all I can take. show less