Stone Blind

by Natalie Haynes

Longlisted for the Women’s Prize for Fiction 2023

"Haynes is master of her trade . . . She succeeds in breathing warm life into some of our oldest stories.”—Telegraph (UK)

The national bestselling author of A Thousand Ships and Pandora's Jar returns with a fresh and stunningly perceptive take on the story of Medusa, the original monstered woman.

They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster.

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know.

When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge—on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude.

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon . . .

In Stone Blind, classicist and comedian Natalie Haynes turns our understanding of this legendary myth on its head, bringing empathy and nuance to one of the earliest stories in which a woman—injured by a powerful man—is blamed, punished, and monstered for the assault. Delving into the origins of this mythic tale, Haynes revitalizes and reconstructs Medusa’s story with her passion and fierce wit, offering a timely retelling of this classic myth that speaks to us today.

Genres: Mythology, Fantasy, Greek Mythology, Fiction, Historical Fiction, Retellings, Audiobook

9 pages, Audiobook

First published September 15, 2022

About the author

Natalie Haynes, author of THE FURIES (THE AMBER FURY in the UK), is a graduate of Cambridge University and an award-winning comedian, journalist, and broadcaster. She judged the Man Booker Prize in 2013 and was a judge for the final Orange Prize in 2012. Natalie was a regular panelist on BBC2’s Newsnight Review, Radio 4’s Saturday Review, and the long-running arts show, Front Row. She is a guest columnist for the The Independent and The Guardian. Her radio series, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics, was first broadcast in March 2014.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 2 out of 5]

Noooo! I wanted to love this.

The glaring issue here is that this is not Medusa’s story. This is the story of Medusa, reincarnated in modern language with some imaginative embellishments and only a smidge more sympathy for the titular character than the original Greek myth affords.

This title is mentioned in the same breath as any antecedent in the recent retelling renaissance, most notably Circe. But what Miller achieved was exactly what Haynes failed at: Circe did not fall into the tradition that it was clearly aiming to subvert. What I mean by this is that Miller committed entirely to Circe’s perspective; it was her story, and hers only. Medusa appears in Stone Blind as something as a minor character, and in the brief interludes we are privy to her perspective, she doesn’t have much agency or complexity. I’d go so far as to say that the main character, really, was Athene – who, if you know how the myth goes, isn’t a character you want to spend much time with.

Major grievance aside, I found this book dull, really dull. It doesn’t offer anything particularly fresh or exciting if you already know the myth (although there is a chapter narrated by a crow, and another by Medusa’s snakes, hence the additional star). The writing is rather anaemic, the characters have no real depth, and the dialogue is stilted. (I think this is another unfortunate case where perhaps the author had a word-count to hit, and just used repetitive speech to do so. Also, it tries to be funny, but doesn’t quite get there.) I found myself skim reading from the halfway mark.

I have a great deal of respect for what this set out to do, in terms of reinstating another the female figure of myth who has been (effectively) demonised for literally millennia now. Sadly, it just did not deliver.

With thanks (but no thanks) to the publisher for the review copy.

[jessica · Rating 4 out of 5]

this book has an image of medusa on the cover. the story is subtitled ‘meduas story.’ so shouldnt the main character/focus of the book be… i dont know… medusa??? lol.

im so genuinely disappointed that medusa only really appears in about 30% of this novel, if you were add all of her appearances together. the predominate focus of the novel is on the gods, their petty squabbles, and their revenge schemes against each other. because of this, medusa is reduced to just a minor player in the gods lives, rather than her being the story itself.

so im a little bitter about that.

however, this actually is a really good story! i enjoyed reading about the gods one-upping each other, how they use mortals to achieve their goals, and everything in between. i found them to be very entertaining and enjoyed how their characters are written. the overall narrative is also quite nice.

i just wish either 1) this had more medusa or 2) this hadnt been pitched/advertised as a medusa story. :/

↠ 3.5 stars

[Will Byrnes · Rating 5 out of 5]

Perseus…has no interest in the well being of any creature if it impedes his desire to do whatever he wants. He is a vicious little thug and the sooner you grasp that, and stop thinking of him as a brave boy hero, the closer you’ll be to understanding what actually happened.

--------------------------------------

Who decides what is a monster?

When Natalie Haynes wrote Pandora’s Jar, a collection of ten essays on the women in Greek myths, she included a chapter on Medusa. In nine-thousand words she offered a non-standard view of the story of heroic Perseus slaying the gorgon. But the story stayed with her, well, the rage about the story of how ill-treated this supposed monster had been, anyway. If the feeling remained that powerful for so long, it was a message. She needed to devote a full book to this outrage in order to get any peace. Thus Stone Blind.


Natalie Haynes - image from Hay Festival

We learn how Medusa came by her notable do. After being sexually assaulted by Poseidon in one of Athena’s temples, the goddess was appalled. No, not by the rape. I mean a god’s gotta do what a god’s gotta do. But that he raped Medusa in Athena’s temple! Desecration! Well, that cannot go unpunished. So, Athena seeks revenge on Poseidon by assaulting Medusa, figuring, we guess, that this might make Poseidon sad, or something. Uses her goddess powers to turn Medusa’s hair to snakes and her eyes to weapons of mass destruction. Any living creature she looks at will be lithified.


Image from Mythopedia - Head of Medusa by Peter Paul Rubens – 1618

Then there is the other half of this tale, Perseus. We are treated to his dodgy beginnings, another godly sexual assault. He is not portrayed here as the hero so many ancient writings proclaim. Decent enough kid, living with his mom, Danae, and a stepfather sort, until mom is threatened with being forcibly married to the local king, a total douche. Junior tries to make a deal to get her out of it, said douche sending him on a seemingly impossible quest. Good luck, kid. I mean, seriously, how in hell can he hope to bring back a gorgon’s head?


Image from Ancient Origins

Zeus feels a need to help the kid out. I mean, Perseus may be a bastard, but hey, in Greek mythology, that would put him in the majority. Am I right? Still, he is Zeus’s bastard, so Pop does what he can to help him out, sending along two gods to coach and aid the lad as needed. Hermes and Athena snark all over Perseus, pointing out his many weaknesses and flaws, while providing some very real assistance. They may not hold the kid in high regard, but neither can they piss off the boss. Very high school gym, and totally hilarious.


Image from Wiki - Perseus Turning Phineus and his followers to stone by Luca Giordano – 1680s

Which should not be terribly surprising. Haynes is not just an author and classicist, but a stand-up comedian. You can glean what you need to know about her comedic career from the Historical Archivist interview linked in EXTRA STUFF. There is plenty of humor beside godly dissing of Perseus. Athena (referred to as Athene in the book) tries to talk an unnamed mortal into signing on to a huge battle between the Olympian gods and the Giants, new powerhouse versus the current champs. It is clearly a tough sell.

‘If you get trodden on by a giant or a god – which wouldn’t be intentional on our part, incidentally – but in the heat of battle one of us might step in the wrong place and there you’d be. . . . Well, would have been. Anyway, it would be painless. Probably very painful just before it was painless, but not for long.’… ‘Come on. If you do die, I’ll put in a word for you to get a constellation. Promise.’

There are plenty more like these, including a particularly shocking approach to relieving a really bad headache.


Image from Scary For Kids (reminds me of the nun I had for eighth grade)

But the whole quest experience uncovers Perseus’s inner god-like inclinations. He becomes an entitled rich kid with far too many high-powered connections helping him out. And develops a taste for slaughter. When Andromeda sees a knight in shining armor, come to save her from certain death by sea monster, her parents suggest that “Maybe, Sweetie, you might consider how gleeful he was when he was murdering defenseless people?” Or noting that if he had really been solid on keeping promises he might have headed straight home to save his mom with that snaky head instead of stopping off to frolic in blood for a few days. “This boy’s gonna be trouble, Andy.”


Image from Classical Literature

The gods have issues. The Housewives of Olympus could well include some unspeakable husbands, who seem to have a thing for forcing themselves on whomever (or whatever) catches their eye. As a group they are always on the lookout for slights, insults, or minor border transgressions. What a bunch of whiny bitches! But with power, unfortunately, to make life unspeakable for us mere mortals, whose life expectancy is not even a rounding error to their eternal foolishness. Medusa, in that way, was one of us. There is uncertainty about Perseus.


Image from Talking Humanities

Sisters abound. Apparently, triple-sister deities was a thing for the ancient Greeks. We are treated to POVs from Medusa’s two gorgon sibs, and look on as Perseus hoodwinks the three hapless Graiai sisters, who are doomed to having to share a single eye and a single tooth among them. (Could you please wipe that thing off before you pass it along?) The Nereids are more numerous (50) and a bit of a dark force here.


From Greek Legends and Myths – by Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901)

Never one to stick to a single POV, Haynes offers us many discrete perspectives over seventy-five chapters. Fifteen are one-offs. The Gorgoneion leads the pack with thirteen chapters, followed by Athene with eleven, Andromeda with eight and Medusa with seven. There are some unusual POVs in the mix, a talking head (no, not David Byrne), a crow, and an olive tree among them. Haynes dips into omniscient narrator mode for a handful of chapters as well.


Image From Empire

As noted in EXTRA STUFF, there is a particularly offensive sculpture of Perseus holding Medusa’s severed head. Not only has he murdered her, he is standing on her corpse. You can see how this would piss off a classicist who knows that Medusa never hurt anyone. Damage done by her death-gaze was inadvertent or done by others using her head as a weapon. And this supposedly brave warrior killed this woman in her sleep. Studly, no? And with all sorts of magical help from his father’s peeps. What a guy!


Image from Smithsonian American art Museum – by Lucien Levy-Dhurmer – 1915

Natalie Haynes set out to tell Medusa’s story, and it is completely clear by the end that the monstrosity here is the treatment this innocent female mortal received, at the hands of abusers both male and female. Haynes keeps the story rolling with the diverse perspectives and short chapters, so that even if you remember most of the classic myth there will be plenty of mythological history you never knew. You will also laugh out loud, which is a pretty good trick for what is really a #METOO novel. The abuse of the powerless, of women in particular, by the powerful has been going on only forever. Haynes has made clear just how the stories we have told for thousands of years reinforce, and even celebrate, that abuse. Next up for her, fiction-wise, is Medea. I can’t wait.


Image from Smithsonian American Art Museum – by Alice Pike Barney - 1892

Medusa may not have been a goddess, but it seems quite clear that Natalie Haynes is. This is a wonderful read, not to be missed.

He’s just a bag of meat wandering round, irritating people.’

Review first posted - 02/24/23

Publication dates
----------UK - September 15, 2022 - Mantle - Hardcover
----------USA – February 7, 2021 – Harper - Hardcover
----------USA - February 27, 2023 - trade paperback




This review has been cross-posted on my site, Coot’s Reviews. Stop by and say Hi!


Image from Wiki by Caravaggio – 1597

=============================EXTRA STUFF

Links to the author’s personal, Twitter and Instagram pages

Interviews
-----The Bookseller - Natalie Haynes on challenging patriarchal historical narratives and championing female voices by Alice O’Keeffe
-----CBC - Natalie Haynes on the fantastic and fearsome women of Greek myth
-----LDJ Historical Archivist - Brick Classicist of the Year 2023 Natalie Haynes - video – 16:46 - this is delicious
-----Harvard Bookstore - Natalie Haynes discusses “Stone Blind” - video 1:03:55 - - This is amazing! So much info. You will learn a lot here.

My review of other work by the author
-----2021 (USA) - A Thousand Ships - Helen of Troy and the women of the Homeric epics

Items of Interest
-----Wiki on Gorgoneion
-----The Page 69 Test - Stone Blind - a bit of fluff
-----Widewalls - An Icon of Justice - Or Something Else? A New Medusa in a NYC Park - interesting contemporary sculptural response to a classical outrage.


Left: Benvenuto Cellini - Perseus holding the head of Medusa, 1545–1554. Image creative commons / Right: Luciano Garbati - Medusa With The Head of Perseus, 2008-2020. Installed at Collect Pond Park. Courtesy of MWTH Project - images and text from Widewalls article
The MWTH (Medusa with the head) image is sometimes accompanied by the ff: “Be thankful we only want equality and not payback.”

[s.penkevich [hiatus-will return-miss you all] · Rating 5 out of 5]

‘Men call you monsters because they don't understand you.’

There is a saying often attributed to Winston Churchill that states ‘history is written by the victors.’ That there is no record of Churchill saying this and it may be a paraphrase of many others all but forgotten by history only stands to exemplify its own point. The Greek myths are some of the most lasting tales—often because the stories contain themes that still ring true today as social metaphors—though, as Natalie Hayne’s novel Stone Blind observes, how much of the tales of great heroes are sanitized towards glory due to their status as victors over what we’ve been told are monsters. ‘This particular monster is assaulted, abused and vilified. And yet, as the story is always told, she is the one you should fear,’ write Haynes at the start of the novel, drawing the tale of Medusa to the center of the narrative, ‘We’ll see about that.’ Told through an assortment of narrators such as humans, gods and even inanimate objects, Haynes deftly reconfigures a variety of Greek myths into one long and multi-faceted story with Medusa acting like a center of gravity pulling the disparate tales into a contextual orbit. Though, for a book about Medusa, we find her only minimally present, focusing more on the voices and actions of those around her—most notably Perseus and Athene—and how they act upon her as if it were a meta-narrative expression on how someone is pushed aside and othered even in their own story. Like trying to tell about your day to a group of louder people who are less listening and more waiting for a moment to interject and tell about themselves and manufacturing relevance. Written with great humor, wry wit and sharp insights, Hayne’s Stone Blind is an engaging retelling that functions as internal commentary on the original tales that readers will certainly connect to social discussions of the present day and reminds us why the Greek myths have lived on in relevance for centuries.

‘And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved.’

I had a blast with this novel, which was longlisted for the 2023 Women’s Prize and truly stands out even during a time when the market seems saturated with myth retellings. I’d like to thank Andrea for her incredible review that had me racing to the shelves to pick this one up. Hayne’s extensive experience in the world of comedy really helps this story shine. She has performed stand-up, been a regular guest on BBC comedy shows and even has her own podcast, Natalie Haynes Stands Up for the Classics and her sense of humor combined with extensive knowledge of the myths maks for a delighftul read with snarky, snappy dialogue (I love Hera berating Zeus) and sardonic charm that keeps the story emotionally buoyant even in the darkest moments. Unpopular opinion alert but I think I prefer her to Madeline Miller, which isn’t a slight on Miller who I find fantastic and can write soaringly gorgeous sentences but there is just such a jubilant upholstery to this story and a wide-reaching scope of tales that I was utterly enamored the whole way through. But first, let’s talk about Medusa as a symbol for a moment.

‘Who decides what is a monster?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Medusa. ‘Men, I suppose.’

I was apprehensive at first as the tale of Medusa is much beloved and she has become such a multi-dimensional symbol that has morphed through the ages, but Haynes manages to be a worthwhile and insightful addition to the Medusa commentary that feels fresh, fun and faithful to the spirit of her source material (much of the tales here are adaptations of Ovid’s Metamorphoses and, sorry Pegasus fans, but the winged horse is absent from this tale). Medusa, a name that became synonymous with monster, has been depicted in history both as a hideous beast and a great beauty even with her snake hair and lethal gaze. As is common with the myths, multiple versions exist and key figures can take on different meanings (Joseph Campbell has even postulated the story of Perseus beheading Medusa is a quasi-historical metaphor of an actual invasion). With myths we often have archetypal analysis, such as Sigmund Freud who wrote in his posthumously published Das Medusenhaupt (Medusa's Head) that beheading equated to castration and ‘the terror of Medusa is thus a terror of castration that is linked to the sight of something…the female genitals, probably those of an adult, surrounded by hair, and essentially those of his mother.’ As one expects with Freud, the turning of men into stone is an erection metaphor in his eyes and he thus interprets Medusa as secondary in her own story to center men.

‘In Western culture, strong women have historically been imagined as threats requiring male conquest and control, and Medusa herself has long been the go-to figure for those seeking to demonize female authority.’
- Elizabeth Johnston, The Original ‘Nasty Woman’

Medusa has since been reclaimed as a feminist symbol, particularly one of women’s rage and associated with pushing back against toxic masculinity and sexual assault. Athene punished Medusa for having been raped by Poseidon under a statue of Athene, which has always felt quite wrong even with the excuse that she couldn’t punish Posioden and took it out on Medusa (there are many essays on internalized misogyny that cite this tale, as you can imagine). Following the depictions of Medusa as a monster came images that symbolized her as a sort of femme fatale, though we still see Medusa as an object pursued by men and her head as a weapon to be used by men. As a rebuttal to Freud, and as commentary on how Medusa is objectified, acted upon, never given her own agency, Hélène Cixous writes in The Laugh of the Medusa that ‘A woman without a body, dumb, blind…is reduced to being the servant of the militant male, his shadow.’ 20th century looks at Medusa have addressed the issue of how a beautiful woman will be objectified, and woman with rightful anger is considered a monster. It is no surprise she has become a symbol of rage against the patriarchy, such as the head of Medusa in Stone Blind saying ‘I feel like becoming the monster he made.’

‘Men will tell you that Gorgons are monsters, but men are fools. They cannot comprehend any beauty beyond what they can see. And what they see is a tiny part of what there is.’

While she is a small part of the story, the Medusa aspects speak volumes about these issues. We have Perseus, who is given a delightfully unflattering depiction in this novel, who ‘ thinks anyone who is not like him is a monster…and any monster needs killing.’ Though Haynes gives us a very different look at Medusa and the Gorgon, showing a loving family of sisters who raise Medusa from infancy and care for one another. Perhaps the heart of the novel rests in conversation between Perseus, Hermes and Athene (who resent having to aid him in his quest and find him to be insufferable):
‘Why would anyone love a monster?' asked Perseus.
'Who are you to decide who is worthy of love?' said Hermes.
'I mean, I wasn't...'
'And who are you to decide who is a monster?' added the messenger god.
The novel also asks the question ‘Can a monster be beautiful if it is still terrifying?’ offering the possible answer that ‘perhaps it depends on how you experience fear and judge beauty.’ We see Medusa as kind, suffering bravely and refusing to use her lethal gaze because she would never want to harm a living thing.

‘Would it kill you to be sympathetic about someone who isn't as fortunate as you are? Would it?’

There is the irony that of all the characters the one considered the monster is perhaps the most loving and kind, especially in juxtaposition with the gods who are shown as cruel, callous, and only concerned about themselves. We see them looking down on mortals as ‘a bad of meat…useless,’ and ‘so prone to anxiety and haste.’ They use mortals for whatever they want, sex, war, entertainment, etc. and care nothing for them. Even time is meaningless to them and this remove from the feelings and finite lives of mortals makes them unable to truly care about anything. Though my favorite passage of the book is the Nereids ranting about the irresponsible behavior of mortals:

‘Mortals have a word for this kind of arrogance…the word is hubris. And while I am al in favour of using precision to describe something, might I suggest that you would be better off not doing something so dangerous so often that you need a specific wordfor it? Perhaps develop your self-control, rather than your vocabulary.’

Of all the characters, however, Perseus is the most monstrous. Depicted as ‘extraordinarily petty,’ as a ‘coward’ who ‘doesn’t learn anything. He takes easy shortcuts whenever they’re offered and gives up when they aren’t’ and his entire hero story is one the gods made happen for him and all he did was develop a taste for senseless murder and cruelty. ‘He saw Medusa as a monster and he sees Stenno and Euryale as the same,’ we are told, showing how his prejudices make him more a monster than the one he murders without much justification, ‘all he hears is danger from this creature that wishes him harm. He doesn't hear sorrow or loss.’ And if the argument he is doing it all to protect his mother is to be made, Cassiope points out he abandoned his mother’s needs the moment he heard a lovely woman crying out in help. He only cares about what gives him glory. And if there is a tendency towards glorifying Perseus in tellings of the myth it may be a good example of what Kate Manne terms himpathy: ‘ the excessive sympathy shown toward male perpetrators’ especially at the expense of women. This undue preference is what helps gatekeep and uphold patriarchy by policing the actions of women while giving abusive men a pass.

‘Perseus…has no interest in the well being of any creature if it impedes his desire to do whatever he wants. He is a vicious little thug and the sooner you grasp that, and stop thinking of him as a brave boy hero, the closer you’ll be to understanding what actually happened.’

Which is all uproarious fun here and he is quite easy to hate. Literally everyone in the book does, except maybe his father, Zeus, though Zeus can’t even remember his name and only appreciates him for the glory his actions bestow on Zeus by proxy. Plus we have the whole aspect that his deed was cowardly, beheading the weakest of the Gorgons while she was sleeping. ‘He will try to claim there was a battle,’ we are told, ‘but there is no battle to be had between an armed man and a sleeping girl. Don’t forget’

Though outside of the Medusa story this book is also a wild ride. We have so many tales coming together as if parts of a giant puzzle and we see how hard feelings and betrayals carry over from one tale to the next. We get the story of Andromeda, the funny moments of an axe splitting Zeus’ head to birth Athene, the story of Hephaestus, the contest between Athene and Poseidon over patronage of Athens and so much more. It is a blissful trip through myths told in such an infectiously readable way. And I adore the variety of voices that tell the stories, most of them in a rather snarky fashion. There are some fun ones, like the head of Medusa insisting on being the more reliable narrator ‘because I am not a lying deceitful hateful vicious murderer,’ the Athens contest told in braggadocio by an Olive tree, or even a reed formed as the first flute by Athene to recreate the shriek made by the Gogron Euryale when finding Medusa’s murder. This is such a fun book that feels like a giant epic despite being an actually pretty quick read.

‘No one could help being afraid of something. And being afraid of dying must be especially awful, because there was no hope of avoiding it.’

I found Stone Blind to be a fantastic journey through Greek mythology with a lot of important insights and commentary. It also happens to be a humorous and endlessly engaging telling that combines many stories to give a wonderfully vast look at the characters and their actions. Haynes is a joy to read and Stone Blind is a new favorite of mine to recommend for those looking for a good myth retelling. But above all, it is a good reminder to be wary of what we call monsters and question who it really gives power to and why. And then wonder why, in all this, it is not Perseus who is called the real monster. This is a brilliant recontextualization of Medusa and Perseus full of heart and wit.

4.5/5

‘Come on. If you do die, I’ll put in a word for you to get a constellation. Promise.’

[Rebecca · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Who decides what is a monster?”

The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change, feels weakness. When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene's temple, the goddess is enraged.

Punished for Poseidon's actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude. 

Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon...

As someone who has always been an advocate of female voices in literature, I am thrilled to say that Stone Blind has swept me away and has quickly become a new favourite. This novel is a true masterpiece that showcases the strength and depth of female storytelling.

Medusa is a character from classic myth that did not, originally, get to speak on her own behalf. In Stone Blind, gone is the predator we've understood her as and instead we bare witness to her as prey not just to Perseus but a pawn in a larger political game of the Gods.

Stone Blind is not only a triumph in Greek mythology retelling but a triumph of feminist literature, displaying the power of female storytelling and the richness of the female experience. I have always loved Medusa and I am thrilled to say this book finally does her the justice that l've always believed she deserved.

My Highest Recommendation

“So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our teeth, our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.”

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

↠5 stars

As the only mortal of the Gorgons, Medusa knows true weakness. Residing with her sisters in their windswept cave by the sea, she and the Gorgons are fully at the mercy of the whims and desires of the gods. When the sea god Poseidon enacts a violence against her in the Temple of Athene, Athene takes her revenge, transforming Medusa from a young woman into a monster. Armed with a head full of snakes and a piercing gaze that can turn any viewer to stone, Medusa becomes a proper Gorgon. Resigned to never harm a living thing, she retreats to a life of solitude, until a quest blinded by arrogance places the hero Perseus on her shores. With quests and complicated deals at play, limiting the scope of her power may be impossible when divine intervention reigns supreme and women are mere tools for the beings above.

Natalie Haynes transforms the Medusa story we’ve been fed into a layered history of the women at its center and the monster we’ve all been taught to fear. Stone Blind delivers exactly the kind of retelling I have been craving, inexplicably rich, lyrical, and wound up in tragedy. Distinctive with this one is the emphasis on the intersection of time and place, with all characters that coalesce in the Medusa myth. There is not a singular focus on the figure of Medusa, as Haynes grasps at the threads binding the story together, fashioning an elaborate tapestry that rivals that of Athene. I was pulled into the story almost immediately with Medusa’s golden childhood by the sea, completely torn asunder by the acts of violence against her by Poseidon and Athene. Like the tide returns to the sea and back again, there is a constant give and take in Haynes’s narrative, with seemingly insignificant events that take shape, strike, and then fade into the background. Every action leaves behind an echo that lingers, leaving an imprint on every event that takes place further on. There are a broad range of voices present, from godly beings to nymphs, and even animals lending their eyes to the narrative voice. With every delicate line and merciless moment, Haynes dismantles the complex relationships and powerful forces at play within the Medusa myth, creating a wholly authentic view of the monster and existing as a woman within the sphere of the gods. As the focus shifts back to Perseus, it's clear that existing in spite of these overtly monstrous qualities can equate to a loss of agency in the wrong hands. Stone Blind is the kind of story that will forever be imprinted upon me, long after I have managed to look away from its pages. Natalie Haynes crafts a Medusa retelling that will withstand the test of time, bringing new meaning to the Medusa figure and every woman held within the confines of her myth.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing this arc in exchange for an honest review.

Trigger warnings: rape, death, sexual assault, violence

[Tanya · Rating 1 out of 5]

I love Medusa, so I was willing to give Haynes a second chance after her novel A Thousand Ships missed the mark for me. I wanted a modern feminist retelling that puts the Gorgon at the center of the narrative… but I guess that I’ll have to keep looking for one, because this novel, despite being subtitled Medusa’s Story, was anything but. It wasn’t her story, but the story of Medusa—big difference.

The book suffers of the exact same problem as Haynes’ retelling of the Trojan War: The scope is too large, ridiculously so, with too vast a cast of POV characters. It at least made sense for that story, but this one? It felt as if she didn't even want to tell Medusa's story, and instead busied herself with other storylines of little or no consequence to avoid the main one. Instead of giving us Medusa’s perspective throughout the novel, which would have required coming up with her own embellishments of established myths (for a successful example of an author doing just this, look no further than Madeleine Miller’s Circe ), Haynes stuck to the existing canon and went the long—and I mean long—way around. It’s like she was desperate to hit a page count, because there really was no need to include so much backstory (I’d be hard-pressed to find an actual protagonist in this, but if I had to pick one, it’s the detestably written Athena—why else would Haynes bother to give us the whole myth of how she came to be born… in a story about Medusa?), or two chapters told from the perspective of the olives Athena gave to win patronage over Athens. Yes, you read that right—olives. There’s also a chapter narrated by the snakes on Medusa’s head, and one narrated by a crow. Cawing included. It was so cringe-worthy, that one may just have been the book’s low point.

Really, just about everyone and their mother (literally; Metis, Hera, Gaia, Cassiopeia, Danaë all get one or more chapters) gets a word in, but the character the novel purports to be about? She gets six chapters, and shares one with her Gorgon sisters. For comparison, Andromeda, Perseus’ future wife who doesn’t enter the story until half-way through, gets eight. Medusa’s severed head gets thirteen (and shares one with Athena), but most are only brief, patronizing half-page interludes that break the fourth wall to remind the reader that Perseus is a cowardly, selfish twat, and to not have any sympathy for him or his choices and actions. He has always been my least favorite Greek hero, which is why I wanted a story from misunderstood Medusa’s perspective, a character unjustly demonized for centuries, but the way he is portrayed as an utterly monochromatic whiny man-baby was so over the top, it misfired. The stilted dialogue in the chapters in which he gets help from Athena and Hermes was trying hard to be funny, but never got there—it was really tonally inappropriate humor amid a dull straight retelling rather than the falsely advertised, mismarketed character-study it isn’t by any stretch of the definition. Stone Blind contained no fresh takes or ideas, except for the final chapter, which was even worse, because it was really stupid, rushed, and sloppy.

I don’t understand how Haynes made a successful career out of writing such generic, disappointing retellings, but I won’t be bothering in the future; I have a few other of her works on my Kindle, but I’ll be removing them; she’s just run out of chances.

[Sujoya - theoverbookedbibliophile · Rating 4 out of 5]

Longlisted for The 2023 Women's Prize for Fiction!


“I’m wondering if you still think of her as a monster. I suppose it depends on what you think that word means. Monsters are, what? Ugly? Terrifying? Gorgons are both these things, certainly, although Medusa wasn’t always. Can a monster be beautiful if it is still terrifying? Perhaps it depends on how you experience fear and judge beauty.”

The mortal daughter of the sea god Phorcys and Ceto, Medusa is raised by her Gorgon sisters, Sthenno, who treats her as if she were her own child, and Euryale who loves her no less. (”we are one, but we are many”). She leads a sheltered life under the loving care of her sisters for sixteen years until she becomes the object of desire of Poseidon who violates her in the temple of Athene. Athene’s rage manifests in the form of a curse. Overnight, Medusa transforms into a Gorgon – anguished not only by the painful physical transformation but also unable to look at any living creature without it turning to stone. Her transformation into a Gorgon also seals her fate. Perseus is on a quest to capture the head of a Gorgon, not without the assistance of Goddess Athene, Hermes, and others who arm him with whatever he would require to complete his quest successfully.

Multiple characters (gods, demigods, nymphs, mortals and even a talkative crow) take us through the events that lead to Perseus’ encounter with the Gorgons and beyond. My only complaint is we don’t get much of Medusa’s own voice telling her story (which is what I was expecting.) Though Medusa or rather Medusa’s head does share her PoV, her voice felt overshadowed by that of Athene. I loved how the author describes Medusa’s childhood years and her relationship with her sisters. Medusa’s story is a sad one. She did not deserve the treatment she received from Poseidon, Athene or Perseus. Not only does Natalie Haynes do a brilliant job in voicing her innocence, helplessness and fear as a wronged young girl-turned-Gorgon but she also packs a powerful punch in voicing her rage after being decapitated when her head takes over Medusa’s narrative. Natalie Haynes balances the tragic element of the story with her signature sardonic humor and wit. I enjoyed the stories of the gods and their insecurities and pettiness (Hera and Zeus never fail to entertain!). We also get to know the story of Athene’s origins, the Gigantomachy and the story of Perseus and Andromeda. Much of the narrative focuses on Perseus (his conception, his quest and the aftermath). In keeping with the strong feminist overtones of Natalie Haynes’ mythological retellings, the author holds nothing back in her portrayal of Perseus “as arrogant and spoiled”.

“He is a vicious little thug and the sooner you grasp that, and stop thinking of him as a brave boy hero, the closer you’ll be to understanding what actually happened.”

Despite the multiple perspectives, the narrative is well structured, flows seamlessly and the pacing is consistent. The author provides a list of characters at the beginning of the book which makes it easy to place the characters, the varying timelines and the role they play in Medusa’s story. Those who follow Greek mythology might be a tad disappointed that the author chose to leave out a few details from Medusa’s story, which would have added a bit of depth to Medusa’s narrative but overall this is an absorbing read. Natalie Haynes is a masterful storyteller and her prose is exquisite. Having enjoyed both Pandora’s Jar and A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes I could not wait to pick up her latest offering. I was thrilled when I found out that her new novel would be based on Medusa, a character whose story has always fascinated me. I promptly pre-ordered my copy of Stone Blind: Medusa’s Story from the UK and I must mention that this beautiful edition is a worthy addition to my personal collection!

[Miriam · Rating 5 out of 5]

Oh my gosh, I’m so emotional!!! This was so good. Will write more after book club (but I do want to mention how masterful the dialogue is so I don’t forget)!

Leaving the below so people understand why this review has so many likes:
I may have spent too much money ordering this from England when I live in the US and I didn't even know how much I was actually spending because everything was in pounds and I didn't do the conversion until I had finished the transaction.
But.
PRETTY COVER!
SPRAYED EDGES!
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR!
I have no regrets.

It could be worse. It could be drugs.

[Chrissy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Retelling of the myth of Medusa and Perseus. In this version, Medusa is mortal but has some Gorgon traits, raised by her immortal Gorgon sisters, and gets the snake hair and stone glare after being victim-blamed and cursed by Athene. Perseus is clueless and needs all the help he can get along the way with his quest. Andromeda's story is also here, so a lot is covered. This was witty and I wasn't expecting that. Very easy to read, with multiple points of view that don't get confusing and Medusa is a kind and sympathetic character, unlike the monster she is often portrayed as.

[Daisy · Rating 1 out of 5]

Living in the UK I am quite aware that we are a nation currently on our uppers. We have strikes, a revolving door policy when it comes to our leaders and energy bills that wouldn’t be much less if we were buying uranium direct from the Russians to build our own personal nuclear reactors in our backyards. But I had always assumed that the things we excelled in, music and literature would remain our stalwarts through adversity.
And then I saw this quote by Adam Rutherford on the cover of Natalie Haynes new novel,
”Haynes is the nation’s great muse.”
And I thought, hell we are in more trouble than I thought.

This book is so bad I had second-hand embarrassment reading it. The dialogue beyond poor. Dialogue should propel the action forward or at least give context/explanation. In short it has to serve some purpose otherwise it goes nowhere and becomes tedious, much like the dialogue kids write when they get excited over using speech marks and fill pages with inane conversation. Haynes’s book is predominantly dialogue and the majority of it is vacuous. It’s a lot of short back and forth that I’m sure she intends to be witty and winning but is just weak and irritating. Take this humdinger,
” Are you…?” The man grabbed at his throat as though someone were choking him.
Athene frowned, trying to make out the words. “Am I …? A goddess? Yes, Athene. Good to meet you. Could you come and help us fight the giants?”
I can’t be certain but I think the man answered ok and off they went to the park to play.

The Olympians are all annoying, I understand that there is a case for showing them to be imperfect and quite human in their foibles of petty jealousy, revenge, lust etc but there are other aspects to human or god nature too surely. It was just too over the top, they became caricatures behaving the same way every time they appeared on a page for over 350 pages. Zeus was reduced to a hen-pecked husband behaving in a way that would not be out of place in a sitcom of the 1970’s with Penelope Keith playing his wife, Athene a spoilt brat that displayed none of the wisdom that she is synonymous with and Hephaestus a sex pest/stalker.

Worse than that the premise of the book was flawed. We hear the Medusa story from her own point of view and various chapters break the fourth wall to talk directly to the reader (a device I particularly hate and even more so when it is done in a chatty, matey way which it is here) and her point of view is that Perseus is a waste of skin. We are repeatedly told that he is vain, selfish, cowardly, self-absorbed, arrogant – the list goes on.
But when did he become these things? We don’t see it. Up until he goes on his quest (incidentally to save his mother from having to marry an old lech) he is depicted as none of these things. When we meet him he is happily living a simple life in a modest home among humble fishermen. He joins his ‘stepfather’ out fishing everyday and works hard and seems happy with his lot. Yet we are repeatedly told not to forget what a terrible human being he is. Maybe the quest did change him – meeting gods and having to decapitate a sleeping young woman is the kind of thing that can change a person but Haynes never explores that, she just tells us now we must think he’s the devil incarnate and leaves it at that.

Haynes has taken the richness of the Greek Myths and made them tawdry, turning the silk purse back into a pig’s ear for what seems like a cheap laugh. For a writer who adds rather than detracts to these classical tales read Madeline Miller who develops the characters while leaving them their integral dignity and gravitas and writes with such poetical beauty that they are a joy to read.

So back to the beginning. Is this really the work of a muse? Only if your intended meaning is one who inspires others, because I can see how this could inspire anyone to crack open a laptop and start writing in the belief they could do better, and I suspect anyone probably can.

[Teres · Rating 4 out of 5]

Consummate storyteller and scholar of the classics, Natalie Haynes’ Stone Blind is a retelling of the entwined stories of Medusa, Perseus, and Andromeda.

In traditional accounts, Perseus is cast as the hero, bravely slaying the monstrous snake-haired Medusa whose eyes can turn living creatures to stone.

However, in Haynes’ world of gods, goddesses, mortals, and magical creatures, Perseus is portrayed as a self-absorbed, bumbling boy who ends up completing his quest almost by accident.

Told through many voices, the author’s former career as a stand-up comic shines through in the Olympian gods’ lively banter with entertaining accounts of their petty squabbles and rivalries. Haynes expertly uses her dry scathing wit to mock Aphrodite’s vanity, Zeus’ philandering, Poseidon’s self-aggrandizement, and Hera’s fury.

If I have one criticism of this imaginative retelling — and what prevents me from deeming Stone Blind a five-star read — it’s that I found myself more immersed and invested in the characters and stories of Medusa’s Gorgon sisters than in her own.

Fearsome as they may look with their claws and tusks, Sthenno and Euryale are tender and motherly with their foundling mortal sister, and I loved them oh-so much. While I felt compassion for Medusa, I just didn’t feel that same level of endearment toward her.

Ultimately, Stone Blind is a tale about family, a seemingly impossible quest, and fate. It is a novel that challenges us to think about who the real monsters are. It shows us that not all heroes wear capes… and not all villains have snakes.

[Mimi · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 stars

For anyone who is well acquainted with Greek mythology, the plot of this book will be nothing new.
Neither is the interpretation of what happened to Medusa as an account of sexual assault and victim blaming, but it's an important story to tell nonetheless. So I was fully onboard.

Until I was swept up and drowned by pages upon pages of storylines having painfully little to do with Medusa.
I would go as far as to say that Athene was the main character of this book—and she was not viewed favourably at all (so why write a whole book about a character you clearly don't like? I don't get it).
Medusa's life and suffering, even the rape she endured, were merely brushed over.
Haynes' style keeps the reader at a distance at all times, so although I did feel for Medusa in an abstract way, I just didn't know her well enough to truly care about her.

Such a missed opportunity.

[Hannah Greendale (Hello, Bookworm) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Want to see my Top Reads of 2023 on BookTube? Come find me at Hello, Bookworm.📚🐛

Loved the audiobook! Keen to get my hands on a physical copy, as I plan to read it again and would like to explore the story even more slowly.

Hard to believe, but I almost missed out on this book. I started by reading a physical copy but struggled to pick up on the rhythm of the writing and therefore almost abandoned it. Fortunately, I chose to listen to the audiobook, and that was a complete game changer.

So much of Greek mythology is about men enacting violence on women, and those same women being punished, demonized, condemned for whatever horrible thing was done to them. I'm glad more retellings are surfacing so we can explore these stories from new points of view and confront the problematic aspects of Greek mythology head on. Haynes does that marvelously in this book, in which she paints a more sympathetic portrait of Medusa. And despite some of the darker elements of this story, she manages to weave in a fair bit of humor too.

[Gillian · Rating 4 out of 5]

“So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our teeth, our flight, our strength. They fear us so they call us monsters.”

I really enjoyed this book! This was a fierce and beautiful retelling about strength, power, family, and love. Medusa is a mortal and sister of the Gorgons. Medusa is raped by Poseidon in Athene's temple and Athene transforms Medusa into a being with snakes for hair to get revenge on Poseidon. Medusa is given the power to turn everyone into stone with her gaze. Medusa decides to hid from her sisters in a cave until Perseus comes for the head of a Gorgon.

The pacing was slow in the beginning, but it picked quickly. I loved Medusa she is strong, fierce, brave, and protective. Medusa did not deserve what happened to her and I was proud of her for making the best of the situation. I really liked Medusa's sisters they were both kind, caring, strong and protective. I loved that this book focused on the stories of women and telling the events from their perspective. I really enjoyed all the perspectives of women, I wished that the story focused on Medusa more. I felt overwhelmed by the amount of characters at times, but I learned a lot and I appreciated learning about each event. I enjoyed learning about Medusa's childhood with her sisters and watching her grow up. The storytelling and writing was great! The writing is so descriptive and easy to follow. I felt like I experiencing every event and emotion that the characters felt. The character development was lacking, I wanted to learn more about the characters and see different sides of them. This book opened my eyes to all the perspectives of women that are being erased from myth and history. I enjoyed the ending, it was heartbreaking and also hopeful.

[kefinka · Rating 1 out of 5]

(Mis)marketing at its best.

If you are hoping to read Medusa´s story (as it claims on the cover), you´ll need to keep looking.

I am partly to blame for being disappointed because I was expecting to read either a feminist retelling or an intimate pseudo-memoir of one of my favourite female characters in all of Greek mythology, perhaps something similar to Circe or The Witch´s Heart.

And while Stone Blind can technically be categorised as a retelling, there is nothing intimate about it. It is a retelling in a literal sense - a story retold almost exactly as we know it with no added value. Think more along the lines of Stephen Fry´s Mythos, though he does it significantly better, in my opinion. If I had to recommend Stone Blind (which I don´t), it would be to someone unfamiliar with Greek mythology who wants a fairly accurate overview of the legend of Perseus and Medusa.

First, let me warn you away from the audiobook version of this book. If you plan on picking it up, get a physical copy or an ebook. I usually like when authors read their own works because it gives the reader a better idea of what they wanted to say and how they meant to say it. However, Natalie Haynes is an incredibly inconsistent narrator. She has a beautiful voice and her accent sounds very polished and sophisticated. She does reasonably well when it comes to dialogue, especially of a softer variety. Where she fails miserably is the narrative itself. Her cadence and overall performance are mechanical and don´t engage the reader.

Unfortunately, even if I disregard the medium, I cannot in good faith recommend Stone Blind for several reasons:

As I mentioned before, this is not really Medusa´s story at all. She gets very little on-page time which is a shame because her chapters are arguably the best part of this book. I actually don´t think I could identify the main character, as there are many (I would say too many) POVs throughout the story. Ironically, it feels like Perseus gets the most real estate in the novel and can emerge as the MC.

I can definitely tell that the author is a comedian from her writing style. Sadly, I find the humour tonally very inappropriate here. If she chose to tell a different story, it would probably make the narrative more interesting. However, in a tale containing sexual assault, mutilation and isolation, it feels terribly out of place.

There is no complexity to any of the characters apart from Medusa, and even hers is very limited. There is virtually no introspection after the assault and very few signs of PTSD. The entire fallout from what happened to her is reduced to a single chapter before she is turned into a gorgon and we only deal with the monster dilemma from that point onward. The rest of the characters are completely flat with no possibility of proper development, especially...

Perseus. I feel like the author wanted to tell a black-and-white story for which, naturally, she needed a villain. As a result, Perseus is cast to this role. He gets no layers, no moral ambiguity and no development whatsoever. There´s also no choice for the reader to form their own opinion of him because the author frequently breaks the 4th wall to tell us we are not to do so. These rants are completely superfluous, and they feel very patronising.

The hypocrisy of the narrative staggers me. A substantial portion of the book deals with the question of what/who is a monster and why. It is one of the more interesting points of the story. But, prejudiced towards Perseus as she is, the author never extends the dilemma to his actions. I am by no means a fan of his character from the original myth but in Stone Blind, we are repeatedly beaten over the head with the most biased, one-dimensional viewpoint I have come across in quite some time.

The last part of the book is a complete shambles. Incidentally, Medusa finally gets a proper say only after her death when there´s very little humanity left in her. The amount of killing done by Perseus upon the slightest annoyance feels gratuitous and takes away any emotional impact of the plot. Compared to the rest of the book, the ending feels rushed and sloppy.

The depiction of the gods is spot on, though I also wish the author would have been a bit more subtle about it. They come across as petty and insecure (which I can get behind) but also very flat and cartoonish (which I cannot). Also, if you´re hoping for the version of the story where Athene turns Medusa into a gorgon in order to protect her rather than to exercise a temper-tantrum-fueled vengeance, you´ll be disappointed.

I have to applaud Natalie Haynes on three specific scenes/chapters in Stone Blind:

1. The conversation between Medusa and Poseidon just before the assault is very unique and I wish the author set a similar tone throughout the whole book.
2. Medusa´s death scene is also done very well. It´s a fairly different approach from the rest of the narrative but I believe it creates a powerful emotional reaction.
3. Medusa´s final conversation with Athene is quite beautiful. Some of the lines feel a bit like stating the obvious but I believe this was done on purpose and it makes complete sense to me.

Overall, I´d say this book would have been much more palatable if the title and the blurb made it clear this is not an account of a human being turned into a supposed monster but rather a retelling of a particular chapter of Greek mythology, as it focuses solely on the plot.

That being said, no book with this little depth and complexity to its characters (and frankly, this little respect for its reader´s intellect) will ever be a book I recommend to anyone.

[Trish · Rating 5 out of 5]

What a wonderful book.

Disclaimer first:
I‘ve loved Medusa and her story ever since I first read of the poor, beautiful girl being punished by Athena for having been raped by Poseidon in one of Athena‘s temples. Yep, earliest case of victim-shaming/blaming I know of.
I always hated how she was made to look the monster and hated how the Gorgons were judged by their outer appearance (one, I might add, that I don‘t find monstrous at all by the way).
There has never been a time when I didn‘t rage against Poseidon, Medusa‘s arrogant rapist; the goddess Athena, who took it out on the victim simply because she couldn‘t take it out on the actual culprit; idiotic Perseus, who saw something he considered ugly and therefore thought himself righteous in killing; the other deities who had enabled the whole thing.

If you didn’t know, that is the basic outline of the story. Rape, hurt, blame, punishment, death. And yet, there is so much more that has happened in the Greek myths surrounding Medusa‘s.

The author, Natalie Haynes is a historian and one hell of a power house when it comes to retelling Greek myths. I‘ve read almost all her books this month and have immediately become a fangirl. You could, rightfully, say that I‘ve become addicted and fully trust her to do any story justice. And she hasn‘t let me down here either.

We get several points of view: from Olympians, nymphs, mortals and others. We thus see how Perseus was born and to what parentage (influencing his character), how Athena herself was conceived and what a prick she‘s been from the start (I guess she didn‘t want to feel inadequate compared to gods like her father and uncle and so became „one of the boys“), how vanity has resulted in other events that tie back into the lives and sorrows of the Gorgons.

Yes, it is all important and the author wrote this story in a wonderfully wholesome way.

Moreover, Haynes managed to take an old yarn and spin it into a fantastically gripping tale full of colourful details, characters that are masterfully endearing or infuriating, and heartbreak that nevertheless shows the strength of the victim(s).

I was gnashing my teeth, sneering and growling, tearing up, cackling gleefully - in short: I felt all the feels as the kids are calling it these days. Read it! I know you‘ll love it!

[Юля Проліт · Rating 2 out of 5]

Виникло враження, що в якийсь момент авторка сама перестала розуміти, що саме вона хотіла написати.

[Rimma · Rating 2 out of 5]

If disappointment was a novel, this would be it.

I was so excited when I found out that Natalie Haynes was writing a Medusa-retelling. I had even pre-ordered the signed Waterstones edition and was ready to pay extra for the shipping… Needless to say, I have cancelled the order.

This was marketed as Medusa’s story, however she is barely visible on the pages. It feels more like a retelling of Perseus’ story, where Haynes is so eager to prove to the reader that Perseus is a spoilt brat and doesn’t deserve the label of a hero, that she exaggerates the hate to the point that it backfires.

The novel is told from several points of view: from Athene to an olive branch, from a crow to the snakes on Medusa’s head. And all of these narrators are annoyed with Perseus. Haynes keeps telling and not properly showing that Perseus should not be considered a hero.

The novel fails on several levels and I will try my best to write them down in the most possibly organized manner.

1. Perseus should not be considered as the main bad guy in Mesusa’s story

She is raped by Poseidon. As a result of this it is not the god of the seas, but the victim that is punished. Athene jinxes her for being sexually violated in her temple.

Medusa’s rape and metamorphosis is the focal point of her myth, her becoming and her undoing. Yet Haynes doesn’t linger on the topic. She shifts her attention to Perseus and depicts him as the villain of the story, when he is not the one who raped and jinxed an innocent young woman. He is trying to save his mother from a forced marriage (which presumes rape as well, by the way). Yet from the point of view of Medusa’s head Haynes writes: “Anyway, don’t even begin to feel sorry for that brat. He isn’t saving his mother from some awful torment. He’s saving her from the mild inconvenience of travelling a day or two on horseback, making a few snide remarks about former lovers until the king - who isn’t even interested in her, just spiteful - loses patience ans sends her away again. Probably lending her a horse for the return journey.”

How is this paragraph in a presumably feminist retelling? Why is Medusa not feeling for another woman that is in the same situation as she was before? And this brings me to my second point -

2. Medusa is depicted as an unreliable narrator

In her decision to retell the myth from different points of views, Haynes robs the readers of the intimacy and the emotional connection that we would feel with Medusa had she been the only narrator. This is not Medusa’s story, this isn’t us reading her thoughts as she goes through rape, metamorphosis and then gets killed. This is a modernized retelling of the myth where Medusa plays a small part and is driven by her spite against Perseus (not Poseidon or Athene). This leads to us simply not trusting Medusa as a narrator, she is blinded by her hate, hence must be twisting the facts.

3. Haynes depicts Perseus as a weak whiny brat
It is true (I mean it’s a myth, but still) that Perseus killed Medusa while she was asleep and not without Athene’s help. And this does show his cowardice, because he would not win against her in a fair fight, BUT. Is his depicting as a small whiny cry-baby appropriate in a novel that considers itself feminist? Imagine the story - Perseus is a brave and very strong young man, who is not afraid of a fight, but he understands that he is useless against Medusa. He decides to attack her in her sleep to at least have a chance of winning…

I do understand that Haynes’ intention was probably to show that throughout the centuries women were so mishandled and villainized, that a coward got known as a hero and a strong woman was depicted as a monster. However, Natalie Haynes fails at the execution of this.



After all this rant you may wonder why 2 stars and not 1? Well, firstly because I simply cannot rate a Natalie Haynes novel that low. I respect what she has written before and I do believe that had she been given more time, this would have been another hit. I assume that the popular authors are expected to write best selling novels almost every year. This isn’t realistic and does have an impact on the quality of the text. Secondly, I love what she did with the final chapter, the resolution of Medusa-Athene relationship was executed beautifully. If only this was true about the rest of the novel.

I will definitely read Haynes’ next novel, but I will definitely not be re-reading this one.

[Lucy · Rating 4 out of 5]

4-4.5****

”We know who it was,” Euryale said. “Vengeful and cruel, always blaming women for what men do to them. She has always been like this. You know she has.”

I feel a plethora of emotions whenever I read a story based on Medusa: this includes Rosie Hewlitt’s Medusa and the graphic novel by Jessie Burton.

In this story, as with others, Medusa is the mortal child of Ceto and Phorcys. Gifted to her immortal sisters- the Gorgons, Sthenno and Euryale become her caregivers.

It was so cute to see little Medusa and her growing up! Especially as Sthenno and Euryale had to adapt to take care of their younger sister. As Medusa grows up with only her sisters for company and the wide ocean, her version of beauty is different to others- kindness and love, no matter on looks, are her standards of love.

While loving the beginning, I knew the horror of what was to become of Medusa. Every time I read Medusas story my stomach just churns- I feel anger, despair and pity for what is to happen to her.
Since learning from previous stories of what Athene does to Medusa- I have a severe hatred and anger for the goddess.

In addition, this book also includes the story for which Medusa is famous for: her snake hair, the statues, and Perseus’ vicious murder of her.
Natalie Haynes really delves into Medusas unjustifiable curse by Athene, and horrific murder by Perseus. I, again, at this stage of Medusa’s story, become deeply distressed and sad over her murder. Natalie Haynes does so well to delve into the characters emotions of these horrific events.

Natalie Haynes also expands on Medusa’s power and includes her into other parts of myth: she recounts a brilliant involvement of Medusa’s head and the tale of Atlas.

This book did not just focus on Medusa (which is what I was expecting) but of numerous characters: Hera, the Nereids, Perseus, Andromeda, etc. which was interesting to read but I think I just wanted more Medusa, as I love the Gorgons!

Natalie Haynes does great in portraying the Gods like absolute petulant and annoying children (which they do sound like in myth), and the Hero for what he is like- being generally awful. She very much examines the script of hero and villain in Greek myth and takes on her own re-telling.

”The goddess- to whom I have done nothing and who has gone out of her way to torture me and conspire in my murder- is right here and all I can think of is: of course she is. Why stop now?”






My anger at Athene, Poseidon and Perseus, as well as my upset and stomach clenching at Medusa’s curse and horrible murder.

It was just so good, and this is the quickest I have read a book in a while!!

[Literally Lesia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Така чудова ідея, і таке паршиве виконання 🥲 ставила дуже багато на цю історію, адже це один з найпопулярніших ретелінгів грецьких міфів - а по факту пук в муку

[inciminci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am not at all a fan of any kind of mythology, really, and neither do I particularly like to read the re-tellings, re-imaginings, adaptations and whatnot thereof. And YET I really enjoyed reading this!

We follow a few parallel stories which ultimately come together to form the story of Medusa from a feminist lense. Haynes is such a master character writer! I was genuinely interested in these figures and I loved the little snarky comments spread throughout the book.

I still can't believe that Hephaestus, during a fairly normal conversation, suddenly went on and jerked off on Athene's leg! These Greek gods, really! 🤦‍♀️

I've read this for the ShiSha January Light read!

[Leo · Rating 3 out of 5]

The higher end of a 3 stars for me. I've enjoyed most of Natalie Haynes books previously but I was so hyped up when I saw this was Medusas story. While I found it very readable I wanted more. Felt like there could be more added. Wanted more of Medusa

[Neale · Rating 5 out of 5]

Natalie Haynes has again returned to Greek Mythology to tell a tale in a different light. This time she is retelling the myth of Medusa.

Just as Jessie Burton did with her wonderful “Medusa The Girl Behind the Myth”, Haynes humanizes Medusa adding layers of emotion and empathy to a mythological monster. However, while Burton’s book focusses on Medusa and her meeting with Perseus. Haynes’s book covers more of Perseus’ quest and contains many more characters.

There is a narrator, Gorgoneion, who from the first page sets the tone,

“I see you. I see all those who men call monster. And I see the men who call them that. Call themselves heros, of course. I only see them for an instant, then they’re gone. But it’s enough. Enough to know that the hero Isn’t the one who’s kind or brave or loyal. Sometimes - not always, but sometimes - he is monstrous. And the monster? Who is she? She is what happens when someone cannot be saved. This particular monster is assaulted, abused and vilified. And yet, as the story is always told, she is the one you should fear. She is the monster. We’ll see about that”.

Gorgoneion’s identity remains a secret until the final part of the book, but Gorgoneion is not the only narrator. One chapter is narrated by an olive tree, another by the snakes on Medusa’s head. Each chapter is devoted to a different character, a format that works well with these retellings.

I think most people would know what happens in the story of Perseus and Medusa, so I won’t go into it. Just like many of the Greek Myths the definition of heroes and monsters is clear. There can be no mistake which is which. Black and white. The hero’s actions are always “right”. These actions never questioned. Go chop the head off a gorgon. This is fine, morally acceptable because the gorgon is a monster.

What Haynes has done with this novel is taken the roles of hero and monster and thrown them out the window. Who is a monster? Who makes that choice? Are the gorgons monsters simply because of their monstrous appearance? Is not Perseus the monster for coming to take the head of Medusa who has done nothing wrong? These are questions Haynes poses to the reader, blurring the line, muddying the waters, and questioning the definition.

Haynes started her career as a comedian and this retelling has a biting humorous edge to it. Much of it aimed at poor Perseus, who is portrayed as quite the bumbling fool in his quest to obtain a Gorgon’s head. The humour comes from the whole book, not just Perseus, however the conversations between Perseus, Hermes and Athena are hilarious.

Athena says to Zeus,

“He’s just a bag of meat wandering round, irritating people”

Haynes has done a remarkable job with this novel. Adding humour, questioning roles, and finishing with a great ending.

[Nilguen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Happy Pub Day 🤩

Natalie Haynes, a classicist, comedian, author breathes life into the gods, goddesses and gorgons of the Greek mythology focusing on telling the sad story of Medusa. Different than all gods and goddesses, Medusa is exposed to fear and loneliness as a sole mortal whilst her only luck in childhood is her strong support system consisting of her sisters, the Gorgons.

Later and unfortunately, she gets raped by Poseidon in Athene‘s temple. This cruel act draws Athene‘s rage toward Medusa. As a result, Athene has her transformed into a snake whilst anyone glancing at Medusa will be transformed into stone. Medusa is left to live in utter darkness.

One thinks it cannot get any worse for Medusa. When Perseus comes into the story-line, however, it does get worse.

Haynes tells the sad story of Medusa giving voice to a wide range of gods and goddesses and have them exchange brilliantly witty conversations. Though there are so many voices, I didn’t feel overloaded with different POV‘s or information. To the contrary, I felt entertained.

A sliver hope inside of me was wishing for a turn of fate for Medusa though I knew her unfortunate end.

I am certainly not versed in Greek mythology, hence, the more I enjoyed learning more of this relatively new terrain to me.

Overall a 3.5 stars experience that I’m rounding up.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Find me on instagram

[William Gwynne · Rating 4 out of 5]

My 50th read of 2024!

Finished my second Natalie Haynes book! I had a few issues with A Thousand Ships, but I really enjoyed Natalie Haynes' writing style, so I had high hopes for her other projects. I thought A Thousand Ships was a bit stretched with the sheer amount of PoV's, so I thought a more limited scope will give me a great read, hence why I chose to dive into Stone Blind.

I had no idea what Stone Blind followed, other than that it was a Greek Mythological retelling. If I had thought more about the title, I would soon have guessed what it is about. Stone in greek myth, surely it is Medusa? It is! As soon as I found that out, I was even more fascinated. Medusa is one of the most famous mythological figures, yet I cannot think of any representation that characterises her beyond the fight with Perseus.

Stone Blind does a great job of following immortals such as the Gods, and mortals such as Pursues. We have a great representation of characters, with a brilliant range of tone and emotion as well. The relationships and interactions between the Olympians can be hilarious, but somehow simultaneously horrifying, as their childish behaviour has severe ramifications for humanity, yet seems like nothing to them. In this way, Natalie Haynes expertly contends her deeper messages without forcing them down the throat of the reader.

Haynes is a great writer, with smooth, often lyrical, prose that is easy to binge. I felt immersed in the world of Ancient Greece, and also in the settings from Olympus, to the deep seas of Poseidon and more, and this was largely down to Haynes' style, which just clicks to me.

Stone Blind was a really solid read that hooked me. Everything was well executed. Whilst I still did not feel that extra level of attachment so a specific character, I was still invested in this unique and fresh Greek Retelling.

4/5 STARS

[paige (ptsungirl) · Rating 3 out of 5]

"Can a monster be beautiful if it is still terrifying? Perhaps it depends on how you experience fear and judge beauty."

°•*⁀➷

Underwhelming, but informative. I wanted more Medusa. I think I had a very different idea of what this was going to be when I went into it. Not to say it was disappointing, but that I had really high expectations since I love Haynes so much.

I loved the constant back and forth on what the word monster means. How, from different perspectives, it can mean very different things. I loved bringing fear and beauty into the equation. I thought of it in the sense that some people adore bees simply because they're beautiful (I disagree), but for me fear dominates and I think they're the ugliest little creatures in the world.

I think it helps us to understand phobia a little better, how sometimes beauty rules our idea of someone and we have to understand them to feel something different. That sometimes our fear won't let us look deeper.

Medusa is a monster because men defined her as one. They couldn't look past her face, the one a god gave her on purpose, and see the true beauty inside. Isn't it always the most powerful people that can never look past the surface? They're so afraid of losing what they have that beauty is all they can see.

I thought that message was extremely powerful, and I think I want to give this another go in a different mind set one day to get the full effect of it. The only thing: Medusa didn't get enough page time. I wanted more of her story, and less of the mess that chose define her for anything but what she actually was.

- Paige

[River · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.25/5

She was asleep. We were awake, but she was asleep. It’s important that you know this, because he will try to claim there was a battle. But there is no battle to be had between an armed man and a sleeping girl.

I immensely enjoyed this retelling. I've immensely enjoyed every other work that I've read by Natalie Haynes, but this one is my favourite so far. Not only do we delve into Medusa's story (which was definitely my favourite part) but also into several of the other prominent female figures surrounding both Perseus and the myth of Medusa.

Medusa's story is one so many seek solace in, it's one that so many know was a warped retelling, that so many have fought for the truth of. I'm so glad that Haynes took on the task of its retelling and I love that she entirely made it her own. Even though there are, of course, heartbreaking and devastating moments which sing with emotion, Haynes still writes with her classic brand of wit and humour. I loved this style especially when it was used to prove the absurdity of the gods and the stupidity of mortals. I think it paralleled very well with the more serious moments.

I adored every moment we spent with Medusa and the Gorgons. I found it to be the strongest part of the narrative, however I thought every voice was essential and added so much more to the book. I loved how they were characterised, especially Stheno and Euryale as they are so often excluded from any humanity in their characterisations. In this, we instantly connected with the care they showed for Medusa as they founded the protection that they held for her all throughout. Their bond was at the very heart of the story.

So to mortal men, we are monsters. Because of our teeth, our flight, our strength. They fear us, so they call us monsters.

I adored how intricately woven it was, every character played their part and added their own fury and grief to the narrative. I adored witnessing such a wide breadth of characters come to tell their piece. Haynes develops a voice that is quite reminiscent of oral storytelling, I found, mimicking the ways in which this story would have been sung before by a poet. It feels like a play as well, with all its moving parts. I was just sitting, reading in my room, yet I felt swept across the centuries, airborne as if on wings, travelling to every land and listening to the tales spun by each woman. It was richly evocative and astoundingly immersive. I was enamoured not only with every mortal and immortal voice, but with the abstract ones too; the crows, the olive trees, the snakes, every element added to the silken tapestry of this story.

I'm an avid Greek mythology reader, yet hearing these myths retold never bores me. Especially not when they are as imaginative as this. The ending was the most surprising part of it all for me and I've noticed this as a theme throughout the fiction I've read by Haynes. She loves to make a compelling narrative change, this one is less affecting than the one in The Children of Jocasta (which I found very interesting), but still there nevertheless. Here, in Stone Blind, it made an emotional story all the more emotional and created a fascinating ending for a thread of this myth that I have never seen an ending to. It felt cyclical, almost. A true end. I'm always so interested in these choices and I think, love them or hate them (I often love them), they are there for a reason and it's a very intentional choice that I love to think on for a long time afterwards.

Men will tell you that Gorgons are monsters, but men are fools. They cannot comprehend any beauty beyond what they can see. And what they see is a tiny part of what there is.

I highly recommend this if you enjoy Greek mythology, but know that it's not a retelling in the same vein of Circe by Madeline Miller, a story with only one person retelling it, instead it spans great distances and is influenced by a whole range of other characters as well. Medusa is just one voice in the large legacy of her myth.

[Charlotte May · Rating 4 out of 5]

“They will fear you and flee you and call you a monster, just like they do your sisters.” “It doesn’t matter what they think of me.” “Then why do you want to protect them?” “Because I can.”

Once I got over the fact that this isn’t just Medusa’s story, I was able to get fully invested.

Don’t get me wrong, we do get her POV and the versions of those around her. But we also get the stories of Andromeda, Danae, Gaia and so many more female characters from myth.

I’m not mad about it, because these stories were fascinating, I just think it should maybe be marketed differently so others are disappointed.

I’m a big fan of Natalie Haynes, I’ve loved all 3 of the books I’ve read of hers and will continue to read more of her work.

[Bradley · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great read from Haynes. I've been very pleasantly surprised by her takes on mythology.

Medusa's tale is given a lot of time and care and we have a huge cast to fill it all out. Context IS everything, and I love seeing it this way.

Damn Poseidon!

I recommend this very much. :)