Genre: Fantasy Age Range: YA Star Rating: 4 stars Series: Standalone
Blurb:
The great love of Corey’s life has always been her best friend, Bree: closer than sisters, their bond is unbreakable.
Or so Corey believes, until Bree betrays her, and Corey’s world is shattered.
Corey finds herself heartbroken, furious and alone…
Only to discover that the Underworld – and Hades, Lord of the Dead – is closer than she thinks…
Blurb taken from Goodreads. Add to your shelves here.
Review:
HER DARK WINGS is a modern take on Greek underworld mythology – Hades, the Furies, and so on – wrapped up in a tale of anger over broken friendships. It is another textbook Melinda Salisbury – the sort of book you gulp down in one read and with a focus on the earth and living things (and yes, she manages to get that very much into a book set in a desolate underworld!)
This is primarily a book about broken friendships, above all else. The heartbreak and anger that comes after a friend betrays you and then cuts you off, about the difficulty of re-aligning things after that gaping hole is torn in your social and emotional landscape. I really loved that focus and how it dealt with coming to terms with that, particularly when you can’t really talk to that person anymore. How do you heal from that and move on such that it doesn’t overpower your life?
I would not call it a Hades and Persephone retelling personally, because there isn’t really a romance (Hades isn’t around most of the book, so there didn’t feel like time or focus on that relationship.) Instead, the focus is on friendship (with Bree and the Furies) and I really liked that. Particularly as the Furies are usually shown in books as unashamedly cruel. They were much more human here, complex and desiring Corey to become part of their tight-knit world.
The world is a contemporary one where Ancient Greek influences have remained – the Greek gods are the religion, the funerary rites are from there too etc. It is all set on an island off a mainland (I’m guessing a fictional one off the UK, but we’re never told exactly, which lends itself to the sense of the island being a bit removed from the rest of the world.)
Read my reviews of other books by Melinda Salisbury:
The Sin Eater’s Daughter:
Sorrow:
- STATE OF SORROW (#1)
- SONG OF SORROW (#2)
Standalones:
Sifa Elizabeth Reads 