Loved the set-up. Thought the characterization was patchy. Maybe it was just hard for me to accept the accelerated arc that was necessitated by Alcestis' being only 3 days in the underworld. ( )

Beutner takes Greek mythology and turns it on its head. It is no small feat to retool a myth and turn Euripides's male-centered drama into a lesbian love story. This is the story of Alcestis, the woman who sacrificed her own life to save her husband’s. Her outward loyalty knows no limits, beginning with faking the end of her virginity on her wedding night when, like some men with a secret lover, Admetus can’t perform. But internally, Alcestis is no ordinary woman. She is a mortal with many complex personalities: as a dutiful daughter, a sacrificing wife, a ever-loving sister, a sheltered princess, and the passionate lover of a goddess.
Once Alcestis volunteers her life and she is in the underworld, she observes a place in a state of constantly shimmering and shifting allusion. It is difficult, but Alcestis begins a three-day search for her beloved sister who died at ten years old. Every time she inquires about Hippothoe she is met with strange riddles in place of replies as if to protect her from an unknown horror. No one wants to clearly say what has become of Hippothoe. Alcestis perseveres boldly for she is not afraid of the underworld, nor the gods who rule there. She will not take no for an answer. In the meantime, she says yes when she is seduced by, and ultimately falls in love with, Persephone. Alcestis seems to grow larger than life as her sexuality becomes more fluid and not as easily defined. When she is "rescued" and brought back to the living Alcestis is forever changed. ( )

Started out great, giving Alcestis' backstory while growing up and was good through her marriage, but I lost her when we got to Hades and her adventures there. I skimmed most of it set in Hades, then finished up. Her dealings with Persephone were not believable and made me uncomfortable. I enjoyed most the author's comments at the back. Cover misled me; such an atmospheric cover made me eager to read the story. ( )

A curious book, beautifully written with elegant prose and a very vivid visual sense of the scenes being described, which nevertheless feels rather empty at times. There was much I liked about it: the evocation of the archaic social world of Greece; the description of the haunting, shifting quality of the underworld (tricky to pull off well but which Beutner managed with Dantesque flair); and the nuanced handling of relationships between the characters, particularly Alcestis and her sister, and then between Alcestis and Admetus. I also liked the way that Beutner made the gods real in a simple, matter-of-fact way that made them seem like a natural part of life.

The take on Hades and Persephone was intriguing and I wished we'd seen a little more of it: Persephone, capricious, dazzling and captivating, is far from being a victim here. She's rather different from the mental image I'd always had of her, as was the quiet, eerie, watchful Hades. Beutner's take on what happens to Alcestis is unusual, cleverly subverting the myth of the woman who sacrifices herself through love for her husband. However Alcestis is a slightly uneven character: she doesn't really come into her own until she enters the underworld; and then in a not entirely convincing way... I couldn't quite settle her character in my mind, though I found her engaging and sympathetic - but her spark into self-awareness wasn't completely convincing considering her placid acceptance of a rather miserable fate earlier in the book.

As I said, it's a curious synthesis. When I began the book, I thought it was going to be a straightforward four stars, but it wasn't, quite. And yet, for all that, the writing is beautiful - even if the characterisation isn't always rock-solid - and it's a really interesting, haunting reworking of a familiar story. I liked it a lot - but there was something not quite fully-formed at its heart. Still one of the most convincing attempts to rework a Greek myth into fiction, and certainly worth picking up if you enjoy historical fiction set in the ancient world. ( )

Here's a review I wrote at Lambda...
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