All Medousa wanted was a life of love and acceptance but one fateful night it changed. While she’s alone in the Temple of Athene tending to the sacred fire, Poseidon pays a visit. No human can stop an immortal from taking what they want.

[Full disclosure: As a thank you for reviewing her four previous short stories, Luciana Cavallaro sent me the paperback Accursed Women as a thank you.  I was not expected to review Cursed by Treachery and as always this review is honest.]

The thing I like most about all of Luciana Cavallaro’s short stories is the level of detail she goes into.  She doesn’t just rehash the common re-tellings of myths that we’ve all heard here in the Western hemisphere.  She actually goes to different source material and tells quite a refreshing version of famous Greek myths.  In this story, for example, Medousa is the daughter of Titans.  That’s not a detail you find in the more common version of this myth.

All of the short stories in the Accursed Women anthology are unique in the way they’re told.  In Cursed by Treachery we see things from Perseus’ viewpoint and that’s interrupted by flashes of Medousa’s life as a Gorgon and her old life as a priestess in Athena’s temple.  It’s a fascinating way to tell Medousa’s tragic story and you would think it would be confusing but it isn’t.  We slowly learn how Medousa came to be a priestess in Athena’s temple and the horrible events that led to Athena cursing her for something that was hardly her fault.

Was Medousa’s tale my absolute favourite story in the whole anthology?  Not really.  But it’s a testament to the strength of Luciana Cavallaro’s writing that I still enjoyed it while learning something new.  It’s a well-written short story with interesting subject matter and a very interesting ending.  What more can you ask for?

I give this short story 5/5 stars.

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