As soon as the newest Natalie Haynes book comes out, I spring for it, full price and all. I’ve never been disappointed. She is a master at breathing new life into retellings of Greek myths. Stone Blind, a retelling of Medusa, is no exception. Haynes makes the reader look at the very meaning of the word monster. “… the hero isn’t the one who’s kind or brave or loyal. Sometimes—not always, but sometimes—he is monstrous. And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved.” Haynes belongs in the authorial stratosphere inhabited by Madeline Miller (The Song of Achilles and Circe). Miller’s writing soars to poetic heights while Haynes’ conversational style makes the Greek myths very accessible.
Gorgons Sthenno and Euryale are amazed when a mortal baby arrives outside their cave. An actual baby with tiny wings and curly hair. Soon they realize she is their younger sister, deposited there by their father Phorcys as the newborn cannot live under the sea. These “monsters” learn to accommodate her mortality and raise sheep and learn to cook to feed her and come to love her. After the teenaged Medusa is raped by Poseidon in Athene’s temple, Athene punishes the victim rather than the perpetrator by blinding her, turning her curls into snakes, and giving her a lethal gaze that can turn living thingsto stone.
Stone Blind is told in many points of view (the sea-nymph Nereids, Athene, Danaë, Cassiope, the three Gorgon sisters, Gaia, Andromeda, and the Gorgoneion—Medusa’s head after Perseus cuts it off) and and covers far more than the story of Medusa, ranging from the Gigantomachy (the war between the Greek Gods and the giants), Perseus’s life and “heroic adventures”, and Cassiope who declares that she is more beautiful than the Nereids, resulting in her daughter, Andromeda, being punished by Poseidon and rescued by Perseus. Don’t worry—the story of Medusa runs throughout this saga and ties it together.
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Stone Blind (HarperCollins, February 7, 2023) is available through:
Your local independent bookseller | Amazon | Barnes & Noble
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You can read my reviews of other Greek myth retellings here:
Natalie Haynes
Pat Booker
Madeline Miller
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