A Feminist Retelling of the Medusa Myth, for Middle Graders

Credit…Jennifer Dahbura MEDUSA (The Myth of Monsters, Book 1), by Katherine Marsh When I teach contemporary rewritings of Greek mythology, I begin with a warning: The world these myths conjure is especially brutal for women. We read fiction about Iphigenia, sacrificed by her father, Agamemnon; about Clytemnestra, duped into sending her daughter to her death; about Briseis and the Trojan women, captured by Greek invaders and subjected to every imaginable horror. We see the lonesome drudgery of Penelope at her loom and of her doomed maids, hanged upon Odysseus’ return. The rape and banishment of Persephone, the grief of her mother, Demeter. So it’s a treat to encounter a fearless heroine in Katherine Marsh’s “Medusa (The Myth of Monsters, Book 1).” Ava is a seventh grader coping with wild brown curls; an older brother, named Jaxon, who always seems to outshine her; childhood friends turned mean girls; and flares of anger her mother urges her to control. When a classmate pushes her too far, the intensity of Ava’s rage literally freezes the boy in place and sets in motion an unexpected journey for Ava and Jax. Within days, they’re enrolled in their mother’s alma mater, the Accademia del Forte — a boarding school founded by Zeus, Poseidon and Hades — where they’re informed that they, and all their fellow students, are the descendants of “monsters.” Not to worry, the smooth-talking headmaster, Mr. O’Ryan (a.k.a. Orion, Poseidon’s son), assures them; their education will prepare them to control any unseemly powers that develop in their adolescence, quash monstrous impulses and “be forces of good, rather than evil.” Choosing their own destiny doesn’t sound too bad, although early on a fiery Irish girl named Fia demands to know why there aren’t any goddesses in the frescoes on the Great Hall’s ceiling. Ava is eager to follow her mother’s example and “fit in to normal mortal society.” For the first time she’s a top student; even myth enthusiasts might wonder at her encyclopedic knowledge of all things Greek. She’s eclipsing Jax. She’s making true friends. She doesn’t want the lonely life of a […]

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