I’m not uninterested in Hera as Zeus’s conquest and one of his victims. But there’s a woman wronged in every book of Saint’s and rewriting myths from the feminist perspective is hardly revolutionary at this point. What makes this novel stand out is Hera grasping for any means of control available in a world where she has none, be it through vindictiveness or plain cruelty. It’s Hera, a mother of monsters, who grieves her stolen birthright. Her sense of injustice would scorch the world entirely had she the freedom to do so, and it begs the question if she would really be anything different than a conqueror like Zeus were she in his place. It’s her desperation for control and order which moves me because even when reality shifts and then shifts again she refuses to admit gods are becoming obsolete. By moving the story in the direction of change and adapting to the unpredictability of life, Saint reaffirms a very human sentiment that we must simply go on when faced with misfortune or tragedy - gods or no gods, and that has enchanted me completely.