I gave this a 3.75, but I'll round it to a 4 on here :)

(so let’s pretend I wrote this review in February when I read it pls teehee) I’m rating this a 4.89. Let me start out by saying Ms. Bayron is like my fave author so there was no way she was getting less than 4 stars lmaooo I AM biased and I have a lot that I enjoyed about this dualogy, but let me get some qualms out of the way first! I did enjoy the first one more than the second. I want to try not to spoil in this review, so let me just say that this was an adventure book. If you’ve read Poisoned Heart then you know that we’re searching for something. Well, the gang has to research, travel, and the whole shebang in order to try and fulfill their goal. I’m realizing that 1. I’m not an adventure reader and 2. I’m not as passionate about the non-magical parts of Greek mythology lol. On the first point, one thing I really loved about the first book was the town. It was still a little adventerous, but every new adventure was a different house and figure of this mysterious little town. In this book, the research was deeper and the scope of their journey was much wider. While I’m very impressed and want to give miss Bayron her ABSOLUTE flowers for focusing on a lesser known part of Greek mythology and tying it into Black American history to create a really fruitful and immersive fantasy world, I found myself growing away from the little town and history of it that I loved. We got deeper into Hecate, Madea, and Jason who were originally in Olympus/Greece/that area and therefore further away from this super cool setting that drew me in. No shade, but idk if I would’ve read it if the first book was advertised as the Odyssey-esque mission that this book became. I will say though, the actual journey was only toward the latter half of the book. The research I talked about was the first half. That brings me to my second point. I like mythology but I’m not too big on human history and geography. This lore of this story follows the intersection between human intervention in the gods’ affairs. The classic but still super interesting ‘hubris is the downfall of man’ story we’ve heard before. Still, as the god bloodline dilutes in their human descendants, the mythology just starts to sound like normal history and geography LOL I’m not trying to be a hater. I know that there is a rise of anti-intellectualism in the literature space and I think it’s super freakin’ cool the amount care and research Bayron put into this. It just started to feel like less like entertainment sometimes. HOWEVER, I have a counterargument to my own argument and that is the fantastic main character, Briseis. Briseis is the perfect main character for this type of story because she is well-versed only on the general retellings of Greek mythology. While her aunt and Marie go on about potential theories and leads, Bri is always the audience’s girl to ask “okay and who is that?” “What is that suppposed to be?” and “is that in the Disney movie version?” LOL. While I still am less interested in some historical parts, I did appreciate being apart of the conversation and having non-general knowledge explained in a way that didn’t make me feel dumb. Another thing I love about Briseis is how realistic she is. She makes dumb mistakes because she’s a teenager, but there aren’t any moments I can think about where I genuinely went “why would she do that?” She is a realitsic little girl, who makes understandable choices and doesn’t just eff up for the sake of the plot and gets explained away as “well she’s a teen!” Her mistakes make her human, not a plot device and I think that Bayron does that well across all her books. Idk if I can say the same about Mo, who I was very irritated with throughout most of the book; but I think she’s going through special circumstances, so there’s not a single person in her situation who would react rationally. I can’t fault Mo or her author for certain things, because there really is no “realistic” reaction to what she goes through. It was just frustrating to read her MO-ments (bdum tss). On the topic of Mo though, her and the other adult characters bring up another plus about this book. The banter is so oldhead, specifically Black American oldhead and I love it. I love gen x and millenial banter when it’s given to those chaarcters. The way they speak is so nostalgic and endearing instead of cringe, and it’s another testament to the thought and care Bayron put into the story-- little things that may not seem to matter but add so much to the people who notice. I also wanna touch on the queerness of this book. I sometimes joke that every straight couple dies (no spoiler) but I think it might be true LMAO. Is there any straight person who doesn’t start the book with a dead love interest?? Everyone in this book and this town in gay and I love it. I’m not a fan of coming out books (not that there’s anything wrong with them) and I love how this book is just unapologetically queer as much as it is black. Too many books about marginalized ppl are made for those who aren’t, as a way to educate them. That’s great and all, but marginalized people deserve things for themselves too. We deserve to be fantasy and romance characters with depth and purpose other than just teaching others about our struggles. And if you thought I was finishing off my black history month book without mentioning its blackness, you must’ve gotten kidnapped and trapped in time by Hecate herself, because this is THE black history month book. All of what I said previously applies. This book makes me so happy to be a Black American girl, growing up in the world of fantasy. I love books like this in YA spaces because it heals the child in me who wanted to be witch, fairy, vampire, and demi-god too. All the beautiful black and queer things I mentioned before shine even brighter, through an authentic story like this. You can tell this was a book made to celebrate black people, by black people, for black people.