Medea tells the story of the commonly reviled sorceress Medea from her childhood to after she takes her revenge on Jason in a new light. With new twists and interpretations present within this story, even those familiar with the story of Medea will find themselves surprised by some of the events present in this retelling. 

I’ve recently read two separate retellings of Medea, both of which interpreted the character in their own unique ways, but I may be beginning to think that Greek myth retellings may not be entirely for me. While this book was written in an interesting and engaging way, I think the thing it struggled with most was in refusing to allow Medea to be any kind of villain until the story forces the author to have her be one. Instead, for most of this book, there was some kind of explanation that absolved Medea of any guilt or responsibility - either a complete changing of the myth itself, or having her be forced into those actions by the gods/Fate or Jason himself. Medea herself has very little agency within this story - not with her relationship with Jason, her decision to leave Kolchis, nor many of the deaths she causes along the way. In a way, while trying to make Medea more of a sympathetic character she has been stripped of anything interesting about her to instead become a vessel of the story to be told - rather than the architect telling her own story. 

I personally think my biggest issue with this book was simply the fact that Medea was, at no point, ever allowed to embrace being any kind of villain. Instead, this book attempts to absolve her of any guilt for her actions entirely. I won’t spoil exactly how in my review, but I think the change that bothered me the most was with one of the first major things Medea is known for - with the “truth” being almost entirely the opposite of the myth. This, I felt, almost completely defanged her as a character and set the precedent that anything ‘evil’ she does from any point forward will be explained away, rather than being the truth. This, in turn, has the negative consequence that any time Medea does do something that matches the ruthlessness of the myth it feels like a different character entirely. And so, we are left with a character who doesn’t feel natural when she does those violent actions that the Medea in the myth is known for doing. 

However, I do think my issues with this book stem more from wanting a retelling of Medea that allows her to embrace being the villain she is known for while telling her side - but that also doesn’t completely remove those actions from her story. As such, I would highly encourage anyone who is a fan of Greek myth retellings, as well as the story of Medea, to check out this book for themselves to see if you get something out of this book that I did not. Overall, this book is written very lyrically and I did enjoy the story told within it, I just felt it was - at times - not a story of Medea.