![]() ![]() There is a tremendous amount of graphic sex in this book. It’s set up as a temporary agreement, a convenience for both characters, but of course it turns into much more than that, as they fall in love with each other. Her being with Hades will infuriate Zeus (which both Hades and Persephone want), and maybe cause him to do something unfortunate that will undermine his power. The two of them make a deal: she’ll stay with Hades (Zeus and his people can’t cross the River Styx without permission, due to a treaty made long before) until she’s old enough to claim her trust fund and then she can leave the realm altogether. In this version, Persephone is running away from Zeus (to whom she’s been engaged by her mother without her knowledge) and runs straight into Hades’ realm, and into Hades’ arms. It feels right that both Persephone and Hades would have a grudge against Zeus and a desire to avenge their wrongs on him. It makes sense that this Zeus would have killed Hades’ parents, forcing the current Hades into the role when he was only a boy. So it feels right to have Zeus be the ruler of the realm, and for him to have (reportedly) killed his first three wives before turning his attention to Persephone. As anyone familiar with Greek mythology knows, Zeus’ behavior in general is hardly moral (the concept of “consent” is one unfamiliar to him), and if ordinary people behaved the way Zeus does, they’d end up in jail at least. There’s definitely something to be said for making Zeus the heavy here. ![]() Demeter, the grieving mother who would do anything for her daughter in the myth, becomes a much more complicated (and interesting) character here, a woman who’s very aware of the political currents around her and who isn’t above using her daughters to achieve her goals. However, Robert switches things up by making Zeus the bad guy and Hades a romantic hero. The bad guy in this story is usually Hades, kidnapping the innocent Persephone and hiding her away from her mother, Demeter, until finally Zeus forces Hades to give Persephone back for half the year (spring and summer), though she returns to the underworld half the year (fall and winter). When you’re doing a revision of an older, classic story, the question is, how are you going to update it? What elements are you going to leave more or less in place and what elements are you going to change? Roberts sets the book in a more or less modern world, isolated from our world, which is like Olympus without actually being Olympus, and the Thirteen, the rulers of this realm, who take on the names (and attributes) of Greek gods and goddesses, aren’t exactly supernatural (let alone gods), but have an inordinate amount of power in their respective realms. How many other Greek myths inspired a whole series of mysteries (the Eleusinian Mysteries) and a cult, not to mention a recent Broadway musical ( Hadestown, which incorporated not only the story of Hades and Persephone, but also the story of Orpheus and Eurydice)? And now that myth has been reimagined in Katee Robert’s Neon Gods, an intriguing and sexy version of the story. There’s something about the story of Hades and Persephone from Greek mythology that just catches people’s interest. ![]()
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