House of Odysseus

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Penelope is proving to be an outstanding epic hero in her own right. A sensational retelling' Elodie Harper, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wolf Den Penelope knows destruction will follow in his wake as surely as the furies circle him. His uncle Menelaus, the blood-soaked king of Sparta, hungers for Orestes' throne—and if he can seize it, no one will be safe from his violent whims.

On the isle of Ithaca, Queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband, Odysseus, sailed to war with Troy and never came home. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace - but this is shattered by the arrival of Orestes, king of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra. House of Odysseus is the brilliant continuation of the story of Penelope that began with the first novel, Ithaca. I was restrained,” grumbles Priene. “Though the night is dark and accidents happen when ships land in smugglers’ coves.”Well, Claire North has leveled UP. I felt way more emotionally invested in ALL the characters in this book. I can’t even put my finger on why that is. My theory is that because this story is told from Aphrodite’s point of view, rather than Hera’s, Aphrodite took a more actively participating role in the lives of the characters. The mortals in the story have to surrender to Aphrodite’s whims and follies and gain from her divinity. I felt that there wasn’t much of that in Ithaca. The pacing is fast, I could have consumed this in a matter of hours if it wasn’t for my stupid human needs like eating and sleeping. The worst part of finishing House of Odysseus is waiting until June 18, 2024, to find out how North wraps up this trilogy. There are a lot of questions to be answered: Will Odysseus really kill them all? Will Telemachus be there when it happens? But most importantly, who is North recruiting to do the narration? My money is on Athena, but she seems a little too no-nonsense to tell an interesting story; she is more of a how-to kind of narrator. I would kind of like to see Artemis, she is the kind of girl to put an arrow through your eye just for looking at her the wrong way or any way at all for that matter. She would tell a fun story. I love how each book is narrated from the perspective of a different goddess. Ithaca, told from Hera’s perspective, focused on Penelope as a mother and a queen. In House of Odysseus, Aphrodite, the goddess of love, lets us see Penelope as a woman, someone with passions and desires. Please tell me now if you killed any of them,” sighs Penelope. “I would rather not be embarrassed by the revelation later.”

Oh, and don't forget clever Penelope, although I liked Clytemnestra, but I was waiting to see Penelope on, and look what she has to say:I was a huge fan of Claire North’s first book in the The Songs of Penelope Series. This is my bag, retelling of the ancient Greek epics. North is keeping this to a trilogy, which I think is perfect, long enough to really dig into the details, yet not so long and dragged out that the reader will lose interest. This is also hands down one of the most feminist works I’ve ever read. I’ve loved the recent trend of taking such classic, masculine myths and examining the women of those tales, giving them voice and agency for the first time in millennia. Works like Circe and Stone Blind and Clytemnestra have done this beautifully, with power and poignancy. But the Songs of Penelope series has done this with a broader scope, showing the vitality of an entire island of women instead of a select handful or a single woman. I love that it has also included the major goddesses, Hera and Aphrodite, Athena and Artemis, giving more dimension to these deities, as well. And our titular queen, Penelope, is more than a match for her wily husband. Reading about her cleverness has been a joy. The characters are complex and striking from beginning to end. It is clear in the first chapter that everyone who has descended upon Ithaca to pursue Odysseus’s crown underestimates Penelope, who has been deftly running the Western Isles since Odysseus departed. This idea is a thread that runs through the book, and it surfaces when describing Penelope, her group of female soldiers, Ourania, and of course Helen herself.

For a woman to contemplate her own beauty is vanity, superficial pride, shallow beyond contempt, the sign of a mindless slut. Of course for a woman to be anything less than beautiful is for her to be ugly, or in the best case invisible and without merit, and that is also unacceptable, but still, but still. The most a woman born without socially acceptable perfection can do is worry about these things in secret, rather than be caught trying.”Penelope is proving to be an outstanding epic hero in her own right. A sensational retelling’Elodie Harper, Sunday Times bestselling author of The Wolf Den I really can't praise this book enough. Its an absolute joy to read. Claire North has outdone herself. If only all retellings could be this good (she said wistfully). This will give you a completely different outlook on various goddesses, Spartans in general and Helen in particular. Highly recommended. Many thanks to Little, Brown Book Group UK (Orbit) via NetGalley for giving me a chance to read House of Odysseus (The Songs of Penelope #2) by Claire North, I have given my honest review.