Meeting the Minotaur

by Carol Dawson

An audacious modern-day retelling of an ancient Greek myth. "A sinister, slapstick thriller."--USA Today; "An abundant feat of imagination deftly executed."--The Dallas Morning News; "An exhilarating, self-assured novel with brains, muscle, and an eccentric beauty that keeps catching us by surprise."--The Boston Globe; "Scenes that are as taut, gritty, and violent as those in the best noir thrillers."--Publishers Weekly.

Genres: Fiction

398 pages, Hardcover

First published January 7, 1997

Reviews

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 1 out of 5]

Not relevant to my research.

[Zach Freeman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One of my parent's friends wrote this book. She's written a few others but this is the only one I've read. It's a modern retelling of a myth...

The characters were likable and interesting and good dialouge kept the story moving. It does feel as if the novel is divided into two halves with a brief interlude. It starts out in Mexico, moves to Dallas, and ends in Japan. All three locations are very well developed and visible while reading.

The second half of the book moves a lot quicker and I found myslef picking up the pace as the story headed to Japan. The ending is pretty surprising, and the Epilogue provides a nice finality and reminder of the legend it is based on, which lets you know how the story will end without going into it. For a good entertaining read, with a little bit of mythical adventure thrown in, don't miss this novel.

She has a very powerful grasp of the English language, so keep your dictionary handy. Also, a slight knowledge of conversational Spanish will help you get through the first half of the book.

[Suzan · Rating 2 out of 5]

There was some absolutely beautiful writing stored within the pages of this book but it just doesn't make it to my list of great or even close to great books. Maybe with some time she will develop some more maturity in her writing. Some interesting images of Mexico, Texas, and Japan. The Mexico segment of the book was far too graphicaly violent for me. The characters almost got to where you cared about them but just fell short of the mark. Interesting idea to take a myth and turn it into a current day story but I really believe the Lightening Thief was a better book.... Just because a book has high level vocabulary, does not make it a great book. Sorry but no kudos here.

[Sue Reichert · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book had the promise of being a great page turner- something you could really sink your teeth into- if the author developed the storylines a lot more. There were a few separate stories (Mexico, the health issue, Japan, burglary, family) but it seemed the author skimmed the surface of each just to get the book done. By the end of the book, the author had lost his affliction, his family, his friends, his girlfriend(s)- not by designs of the author, but more that the author had forgotten about them in the push to finish.

It had great promise of being a meaty summer read or even two or three separate books but it fell flat.

[Nicki Markus · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was OK. I had thought the premise and base for the story interesting and it was written well enough but I felt that it lacked a spark of excitement that I had been waiting for.