fiction Archives

Hera

A New Look at an Old Villian Author: Jennifer Saint Hera – the raging goddess of marriage – is a much-hated figure from Greek mythology. While it is her husband, the mighty Zeus, who tricks and rapes his way through both mortals and goddesses, it is Hera that catches our ire. Shouldn’t she, we reason, be gentler, know better, and stop perpetuating a vicious culture of victim-blaming? Shouldn’t her vengeance, her impotent rage, be directed towards the one who really deserves it (her philandering husband) instead of in fits of jealousy towards his often-unwilling paramours? Well . . . author Jennifer [...]

Frances Carden2025-03-23T08:40:21-07:00March 23rd, 2025|Tags: book review, botm, fantasy, fiction, Greek mythology, mythology, read, reading, retelling|

Bright Young Women

A Fictionalized Story of the Ted Bundy Murders Author: Jessica Knoll Bright Young Women is an ambitious attempt to tell a segmented story of trauma, misogyny, exploitation, resilience, and women fighting against a biased and broken system. While the true crime story it’s based on (the Ted Bundy murders) is interesting, Bright Young Women fails to capture the tragedy of those involved. Instead, it comes off as a caricature of what happened, an outline of complexity that fails to capture a deeper, bloodier story. It strives to do something honorable, to highlight the victims instead of the insidious, egotistical perpetrator, but [...]

Frances Carden2025-01-27T10:39:19-07:00January 27th, 2025|Tags: book review, botm, fiction, read, reading, true crime|

Apples Never Fall

When Dreams Die Author: Liana Moriarty I recently discovered, and fell in love with, Liane Moriarty. She has a way of stepping into normal life situations and unraveling the yearnings and failings of the heart, peeling back the layers of pretense to reveal the raw heart of a character. In Apples Never Fall, Stan and Joy appear to have the perfect marriage, at least to those on the outside. Before retiring, they ran a successful tennis academy. Tennis – the battling on the courts, the challenges and last-minute skill-defying successes, the dreams of Wimbledon – shaped their lives and dreams and [...]

Frances Carden2024-12-08T15:13:49-07:00December 8th, 2024|Tags: book review, drama, fiction, read, reading|