Books 83-85
Lore Olympus: Volume One by Rachel Smythe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
I struggled with what to rate this. I'll be honest I don't think it lived up to the hype. Was it a fun read? Yes. Was the art all that? No, honestly didn't like the art nor color coding the Gods (though I get it, royal purple for Zeus, sea green for Poseidon, cold blue for Hades etc)
Even in a modern update to Greek myth you're going to expect a certain level of dub/con and rape (because in case we're only familiar with this via Rick Riordan's cleaned up YA books, the Greek gods are a rapey bunch). I appreciated that Hades, at least, is not a rapist nor even kidnapped Persephone in this update (I also liked that Smythe included Persephone's other name, Kore)
What did bother me is Persephone still has almost zero agency. She's depicted as a nineteen year old girl fresh to college (we don't see much about this) and has an overbearing mother who has sheltered her completely (okay that's pretty spot on Demeter). But she really has not much will of her own. She's following the celestial virgin path because Mommy said so. She bounces around from one thing to another because of peer pressure. What she wants is nowhere in evidence.
At a party Artemis dragged her to, Persephone gets on the wrong side of Aphrodite (thanks to Hades) and Eros is dispatched to embarrass her and/or get her raped by putting her drunk to the point of semi-consciousness in the back of Hades' car.
Hades proves to be a gentleman but is now infatuated with her. The creepiest part of the story comes via Apollo and trigger warning, depicts something a lot of women are familiar with unfortunately, the intense pressure to sleep with someone. I'm not sure what was worse that or Artemis's blind spot where her brother is concerned.
Hades is hands down the least irritating character (because again the Greek pantheon is slammed with irritating deities) and I love that he loves dogs. I was intrigued enough to want to read on but on the other hand this isn't something I feel compelled to put into my permanent collection.
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Lore Olympus: Volume Two by Rachel Smythe
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Pretty much what I said in the first one. The story is engaging enough but the art still isn't my thing (though there are a few really nice panels, like Hades staring up thru Persephone's hands). The story does however drag quite a bit in the middle.
What I did like was Smythe is fleshing out Hades and Persephone much more in this and Minthe to a lesser extent. Hades has officially become the least toxic of all the gods in this. He's not perfect but the rest do set a really low bar.
Also I did like seeing Persephone starting to get some small amount of agency in this. Yes she's still letting herself be controlled by literally everyone which okay if we're taking her as actually nineteen that's understandable. She doesn't even much question why Hera would want her to work for Hades but she does fight for the opportunity which is about the best thing I've seen this girl do in two volumes.
On the other hand there is a huge amount of slut shaming in this (actually undeserved) that is off putting. Apollo is turning into a manipulative controlling creeper (who has not yet disclosed what he did to Persephone so I'm waiting for that shoe to drop).
I am still infatuated with Hades and his dogs. At this point you're rooting for him to have an actual love match for him vs actual myth.
Still interested enough to want the next volume but still not interested enough to add it to the collection.
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American Goth by Cyn Mackley
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
Trinity Goode, originally from a small rural town in NW Ohio, has been making a living as an artist in NYC until she gets the news that her grandfather has passed, out in his farm fields, killed by his own tractor. The police have written it off as an old man going faint and falling and it all being accidental but Trinity doesn't believe it entirely. Her beloved grandfather was pretty OCD about things, things that weren't seen to before he went out to the fields.
Trinity moves back home as her grandfather left the house and some of the land to her and her brother and his wife have the rest of the land. Most of the people in town think she'll leave again because she's so 'weird' dressing all in black (Trinity has the goth fashion sense but not much else). One person who is happy she's home is her h.s. friend, Deputy Bobby Grace. Trinity does get him on her side thinking something is fishy about Granddad's death. Bobby's other concern are the strange, potential cult, who are on the land abutting the Goode property.
Trigger warning: there is a huge amount of slut shaming in this as that is the mechanism the mean girls back in h.s. tried to control Trinity with but it was also picked up by the adults. Actually the mystery in this is rather thin. A lot of the book is given over to Trinity's homecoming and finding out the source of these rumors and the real reason Trinity was hospitalized as a young teen (hint it's not because of an abortion as rumored) Another big chunk of it is taken up by Bobby and Trinity's relationship. I don't want to call it a romance because it's really not so much. There are none of the usual romance tropes. They knew each other in school, were friendly and it's merely resuming that.
I did see other reviewers upset that Trinity is a super good quilter/cooker/home redecorator, crying 'Mary Sue.' I want those people to meet me and my friends. We're all skilled in most of those things and beyond. Yes people can have more than one skill. That didn't bother me.
What did bug me was some of the inconsistencies in characterization and Trinity's overweening Catholicism. I have no issues with religion in a story but Trinity comes across as very judgy (no premartial sex for her and a bit of judgement for those who do). For instance, she says at one point she has no empathy for people in jail and wishes the homeless would go be homeless elsewhere and I'm like okay yeah I see this a lot in the religious set (having grown up Catholic) but on the other hand she ran a program in NYC for teenaged prostitutes to help them (often they are homeless) so that just doesn't really track. Bobby is little better whining about having to help the homeless as well because they smell so bad. (True and again as someone who has worked with the homeless empathy goes a long way and these two seem to have little).
I got this one as a loss leader for free. I might read another from the library but I wasn't in a hurry to buy the next one.
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