2021 EDIT: Reread. This time round the grammatical errors and typos of 'The Deep End of the Sea' were a bit much for me, and it was overall kind of a slog to get through. Hermes as a love interest did not endear me - he is always described as being too gorgeous and too damn perfect, which is suitable for a literal god, but for a YA lover who's given so much page time, it's repetitive (especially his dialogue) and very, very boring.
Hermes is an arse sometimes, too: he's pushy and forward towards the traumatised, shamed and cursed rape survivor Medusa; in the habit of making assumptions about what she wants and what is best for her. He touches her, hugs her, kisses her on the cheek, without her consent more often than not, and that's before they're an actual couple. Of course, as a god Hermes is entitled on a cosmic scale, and is used to his authority never being questioned, so he would hardly ever listen to Medusa's protests. He even treats his bullying her into letting him into her life as a joke on page 62, which is never brought up again. At best, he's a cocky idiot. Medusa has no negative thoughts towards him, unless she thinks he's seeing another girl. It's ridiculous. As kind, comforting and sweet as their relationship can be, it's mostly based on the physical. It's overbearing and takes up a lot of the book.
Medusa, sheltered and isolated as she is (though not really, since she's regularly given info on the outside world), is bafflingly clueless about a lot of things, such as Hermes' painfully obvious love for her. She is always apologising for things that are clearly not her fault, and for understandable emotional outbursts. Even when looking at it from the perspective of a victim, it's infuriating. She barely does anything for herself for the majority of the book, without being coerced, pressured or manipulated into it.
And I am so bloody sick of YA stories happening/existing simply because of everyone keeping secrets from the female protagonist for no good reason. I can't count how many times Medusa demands what is going on, and nobody bothers to tell her. There is no reason for her to be in the dark concerning a huge secret about herself; about who she really is, which I won't reveal due to spoilers. However, I will mention: Are most of the Greek pantheon, adherent to the modern age, kind and decent to Medusa because it's the right thing to do, or because of a super secret, ulterior motive? Because she's special? If it's the latter, then yikes, that's an unfortunate implication right there.
Why does Medusa have to turn out to be so special? So inherently extraordinary? As if the millions of real life sexual assault victims in the world don't feel shamed, lowly and unworthy of kindness and understanding by their society enough, because of their "ordinariness" and "insignificance". Though no matter who the victims are and where they come from, there will always be victim blaming and slut shaming, unfortunately; as long as rape culture exists.
And Athena is a jealous woman scorned - for thousands of years - and that's why she's batshit insane, and an internalised misogynist. How peachy.
I'm also disappointed that, in a book all about the Greek gods and myths, Artemis, my favourite Greek deity, isn't mentioned once. Neither is Circe, for that matter. This is conspicuous and perplexing since 'The Deep End of the Sea' is a modern feminist text about the Greek myths.
But I still love Medusa, and regardless of whether I feel I am too old for this kind of YA fantasy romance, stories about rape and sexual assault and survivors like 'The Deep End of the Sea' will never stop being needed. For that I thank it and the author for continuing the discussion; for bringing this serious issue to light in YA.
Leaving aside all my recent reservations, I mostly agree with my first review. I might not like this book like I used to, but I still recommend it.
Final Score: 3/5
Original Review:
I've always had a strange sort of fascination with Medusa as a character. I’d also felt this way about nearly all the gods of Greek mythology (especially Artemis. I know, big shock). I grew up learning about them and the Greek heroes/demigods of legend in school. Plus in movies, TV shows, and books like the 'Percy Jackson' series. But Medusa - the woman with snakes for hair and whose look literally kills you stone dead - has something of a Dark Horse vibe and aura for me. Like an anti-heroine. So scary.
So mysterious.
So eerily beautiful.
And yet I had hardly ever come across a version of her that's sympathetic. Or, gods’ forbid, human. A human who was taken advantage of, violated, and unfairly ostracized; cursed by man-children who have more power and control over those beneath them than common sense and sympathy. Or as they are also known as, Greek gods – humans with immortality and the power to destroy lives with a hissy fit. Over the years I came to realize that these gods I'd loved to read about as a kid are arseholes.
But back to Medusa. In Heather Lyons' 'The Deep End of the Sea', Medusa is the heroine - not a monster to be slain, but a victim through and through. She was an innocent girl who once served and worshipped Athena. But after Medusa is raped by Poseidon, Athena rages at her for "desecrating" her temple, and so curses her to suffer all eternity as a Gorgon; not to be looked upon by anyone ever again. Medusa is forced to live alone on an isolated island for thousands of years. Those who sail for the island and are unfortunate enough to stumble across and take her by surprise are turned to stone. Medusa is forever sorrowful; to make up for her wretched existence she places the statues of those she accidentally killed around her home like guests of comfort. She invents for them backstories and lives, and helps in any way she can even though she knows it's futile.
This novel is more than a reimagining of the Medusa from Greek legend. It is about redemption for only the gods, because Medusa did nothing wrong – those who made her into a pariah whose eyes kill are at fault. ‘The Deep End of the Sea’ is a story about change; about coming to terms with a tragedy, talking about it, seeking and accepting help, standing up to injustice, facing up to a horrific past that's come back to haunt you, moving on in life from a scarred and reviled victim to a person stable and strong in independence, and about finding love again after fearing it for so long.
It is also about moving on in the times, and how certain attitudes can and must change for us as a society to survive. This is true of the Greek gods (some, anyway), who are finally maturing and trying to undo their wrongs in order to fit in with modern morality and development.
In a contemporary, slice-of-life framework, 'The Deep End of the Sea' is a story about rape, and understanding the despicable and inhuman crime for what it is. It is about myths and not believing everything you hear in popular consensus, so I don’t think it is a far cry to interpret the novel as a noble attempt to debunk rape myths as well. It is a coming-of-age and moving-on-in-stages journey for Medusa – the infamous, misunderstood Gorgon; told from her point of view and in the present-tense narrative.
All the characters are a distinctly memorable and unique bunch. Medusa is a lovely main character whom you feel deeply sorry for from the first page. She can come across as being a silly and naïve teenage girl at times - despite being over two-thousand-years-old - but given that she was a little young (twenty-three?) when her life was ruined by the gods and so had to live on an island away from civilization for far too long, I could let this pass. She's given access to the internet, literature and other useful things, so she is not entirely naïve; only about real feelings and experiences. She comments on how things outside her island are not like how they are in movies or books. I loved that when she is first taken into an elevator in Olympus, she claps like a happy child getting on a carousel for the first time. Despite her lapses of angst and self-pity at being a monster - the novel is enthused with this kind of prose - Medusa grows stronger and more assertive during the course of her story, reminding anyone who will listen to her that she is a person. She is no one's property. No one’s prize. She will learn to make decisions for herself and trust more people - people who really do care about her, and who may grow into life as her friends and family...
The only god Medusa has ever trusted in her two-thousand-year curse and exile is Hermes. Hermes is her best friend and only occasional companion besides an old mortal friend named Mikkos, who is blind and therefore unaffected by her deadly stare. Compassionate and loving to the end, the messenger god wants justice done for Medusa and for her to be happy once more. As is typical of YA male love interests, he is the quintessence of hotness (though he is a god, so this is to be expected), he has a hero complex, and is extremely protective of our initially-helpless heroine, to the point of being overbearing. But he is still respectful of her privacy and personal space.
Immediately the reader knows that Medusa is in love with Hermes - has been for thousands of years in fact - but Medusa herself is oblivious to this, or just doesn't want to admit it. Looking at her past and what happened to her involving Greek gods and love, this comes off as more understandable than annoying.
When all seems well and Medusa and Hermes finally get together (slight spoiler: she comes on to him first, and I like that), all the will-they-won't-they rubbish beforehand no longer holds water (pun intended) to some of the hottest and steamiest-written sex scenes I've ever read. 'The Deep End of the Sea' may be a young adult book, but I would not recommend it for anyone under fifteen, in spite of the sex scenes being perfectly healthy and, most importantly, consensual. Surprisingly, the romance and sex make up some of my favourite parts.
Another Greek god to appear here is, of course, Zeus, who is a laid-back surfer kind of guy (not bad for someone who's depicted as a serial rapist in myth), but is also kind of useless (Zeusless?). Hades (swoons!) and Persephone, the cool and oddly-sweet King and Queen of the Underworld, are like any normal, happily-married couple. Neither signs of abuse nor Stockholm syndrome are present in their relationship in this retelling. They are as compassionate and caring as Hermes, and they are awesome, especially Hades (love!). Then there's Aphrodite, who is wonderful. Bubbly and fun, I love that - along with a nymph girl named Kore, who works for the gods in Olympus - she fills the void of a female friend for Medusa. One of Hermes' favourite relatives to boot, Aphrodite genuinely feels dreadful about what happened to Medusa, and tries to get her life back on track. Aphrodite takes Medusa out shopping, and she can do martial arts! So the goddess of love isn't just a beautiful face - she can get angry over what she deeply believes in as much as the other gods. I wish she could have appeared more in the story, however.
Do NOT get me started on Athena and Poseidon. Some gods never change.
There are no grey areas to them: Athena, the so-called goddess of wisdom who cursed Medusa to begin with, is absolutely, irrevocably, batshit insane. Bitter, stubborn as hell, slut-shaming and victim-blaming, she is the real monster in this tale, alongside Poseidon. The god of the seas is a slimy, delusional, self-entitled, possessive, can't-see-past-his-head-up-his-own-arse rapist. I'll never see him the same way again after reading this book. But thankfully there are good people - and gods - who see through Poseidon and those like him for what they really are, and perhaps justice can be served in this, a story about rape...
I’d like to have gotten more out of these two gods, who seem to have no redeeming qualities whatsoever purely because they're the villains. Disappointing for a YA novel which handles such a delicate subject matter effectively.
Although there is another side of the spectrum here, when analyzing Athena’s character. Maybe it’s to show there really is no logical reason to blame the victim, if even the goddess of wisdom can’t come up with anything better than “the whore got what she deserved”.
However, I cannot pardon what is the book’s major flaw in my opinion, which is as follows:
'The Deep End of the Sea' is one of the few published works I've ever read that I felt was in desperate need of an editor. I mean, the writing itself is fine in terms of grammar and pacing - no overt description, no scene drags too long, and only the important elements are left in. The way the plot is structured and how the characters' personalities shine through are also very well done. I've already mentioned how nicely written the sex scenes are for the YA genre.
But so many typos! I wanted to get a pen and correctly spell or edit a word out on more pages than should be tolerated. I don't know if this is because I had somehow ordered an unofficial, un-proofread version of the book, but it did perturb my reading experience of what should have been the perfect YA book I’ve been looking for in a long time.
And as a note on the side, I liked Medusa's varied interactions and connections to the rest of the characters, and to her newly-acquired pet kitten. But not much thought is brought up about the snakes on her head, which she calls her Girls. She is very affectionate to them – at first. The Girls have been constant company to her on the island for two-thousand-years. Yet as we move further away from Act 1 - from the introduction to the sad, lonely girl-turned-monster Medusa - and towards the aftermath of the life-changing inciting incident, the snakes make no impact on the story at all. Barely a mention of them is written. I'm not too bothered by this, but it is moments like this which make me think that 'The Deep End of the Sea' could have potentially, in retrospect, been more.
As it stands, though, it is a good read. A satisfactory story of Medusa for any lover of Greek mythology. Sad, suspenseful, thrilling, sweet, even funny in places, and sexy without being inappropriate considering the subject matter. There is a marvellous, myth-shattering plot twist near the climax, following regrets that are mirrored and reflected in times past, and changes of scenery – all for easily-bored readers to keep turning the pages to find out what happens next. The romance between Medusa and Hermes is a little overblown, but their love - one that's been developing for over two millennia at that - nevertheless feels real and gorgeous.
Medusa is a gorgeous Gorgon/innocent/heroine who deserves nothing less for all she has suffered through.
Final Score: 3.5/5
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