HER DARK WINGS

A fresh take on the Persephone and Hades myth told through the eyes of a modern teen girl.

Seventeen-year-old Corey has grown up on the Island, where Greek gods and their mythology pervade the community’s culture and serve as their religion. Corey feels most at home when spending time with her friends and family and working in her garden. When Corey’s boyfriend, Alistair, unexpectedly leaves her for her best friend, Bree, Corey is certain they’ll now be enemies for life. But on the night of Thesmophoria, the Island’s ancient annual celebration, Bree drowns in the lake. While Corey grapples with confusion—a combination of her ongoing hatred for Bree, mixed with the shock of sudden grief and nagging guilt—she finds herself pulled into the world of the Greek gods she’s grown up with. She’s dragged through the river Styx into the Underworld, where she joins Hades and other familiar figures, including Hermes and the Furies. This is an enjoyable interpretation of the story of Persephone and Hades with plentiful nods to perennially popular figures and tales from Greek mythology. While the plot occasionally drags and the worldbuilding is a little fuzzy, Salisbury realistically captures the tension, anxiety, and rage of a teenager who’s been betrayed by people she trusted against the backdrop of a darkly atmospheric setting. Main characters read white; there is some racial diversity among secondary characters.

Original and compelling.