Tagged: greek gods
Spotlight: Prophecy of the Most Beautiful by Diantha Jones
Spotlight is my new regular Saturday feature in which I highlight a book I really enjoyed or am eagerly waiting for. This week it’s a book I really enjoyed: Prophecy of the Most Beautiful by Diantha Jones. (Link leads to my full review.)
She has a destiny so great that even the gods fear her.
Constant hallucinations and the frequent conversations with the voices in her head, have earned eighteen-year-old Chloe Clever the not-so-coveted title of “Whack Job” in her home town of Adel, Georgia. With the onslaught of prescription medications and therapists threatening to push her over the edge, she wishes for a life far away from the one she has, a life where she is destined to be more than the butt of everyone’s jokes and mockery.
Be careful what you wish for has never rung more true.
That’s not the full blurb (it’s actually quite long), but you get the idea: girl who’s special is an outcast in a small town that thinks she’s crazy until something attacks her and she’s saved to be introduced into a completely different world. This all happens to Chloe, but that’s definitely where the clichés end because Diantha Jones has put her own unique twist on a typical YA premise. And oh boy, what a twist!
Prophecy of the Most Beautiful is very well written and Diantha Jones has done such a good job with the plot that she keeps you guessing until the end. If you’re looking for some unique fantasy to brighten your day, you’ll love this book. But be warned! Upon finishing it you will have no choice but to buy the second book not only because the first one was so good, but because there’s one heck of a cliffhanger at the end.
Troy by Adèle Geras
(Cover picture courtesy of Winter Park Public Library.)
The siege of Troy has lasted almost ten years.
Inside the walled city, food is scarce and death is common. From the heights of Mount Olympus, the Gods keep watch.
But Aphrodite, Goddess of Love, is bored with the endless, dreary war, and so she turns her attention to two sisters: Marpessa, who serves as handmaiden to Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world; and Xanthe, who tends the wounded soldiers in the Blood Room. When Eros fits an arrow to his silver-lit bow and lets it fly, neither sister will escape its power.
After reading The Song of Troy by Colleen McCullough, Troy by Adèle Geras just pales in comparison. That doesn’t mean it’s a bad book. It just means it isn’t the best book about Troy.
Troy follows the story of Marpessa and Xanthe, two sisters trying to live their lives during the last months of the Trojan War. They’re both three dimensional characters with interesting backgrounds and we get to see them through other characters’ perspectives, but they’re not really all that memorable. There’s nothing that really sets them apart from other characters in fiction, so in my mind, they will always be good characters, but not great ones. For those of you hoping to see the traditional legendary heroes of the Trojan War, you’re going to be disappointed. Achilles, Hector and Odysseus receive practically no page time. However, if you want to read about the lives of those who were forgotten, the lives of the background characters, Troy is perfect for you.
The plot isn’t exactly fast-paced because Troy is more of a character-driven novel, but it isn’t boring either. Adèle Geras has certainly done her research about the Trojan War, but I wouldn’t say that there were any exceptional historical details. Just like in The Iliad, the gods come down from Olympus and interfere with the war, but what’s really annoying is the fact that their warnings are pointless since mortals forget meeting them anyway. What’s the point, besides to foreshadow what most people already know? As I said before, it is a good book, not a great one.
I give this book 3/5 stars.