To begin, I would like to acknowledge that I read this for a book club with the near certainty that I wouldn't enjoy it. By chapter five, I knew it wasn't for me, but I kept going. There were points in this book where I wondered if this was actually a masterful satire of dark romantasy as a genre, but if it was, it was so poorly written that it wouldn't have worked for me in that capacity either. To be clear, this is a review for haters.

I truly don't know why this had anything to do with Greek mythology. Now, I read the original Percy Jackson series, but Greek gods were never really a thing I was into as a kid. Good news: you don't have to be into it to understand this book, because it seems like the author took most of the mythos and threw it in the garbage! Why did it have to be this way? I guess the author just needed some names for her characters and this was easier than thinking any up?

I also very much dislike the way the author writes and formats her prose. I needed there to be an editor, I needed there to be someone who said "hey, maybe we should slow down with the line breaks, they're not really adding emphasis anymore" or "I'm taking parentheticals and italics away from you for a little bit" to the author. The narrative is constantly interrupting itself so that we can read Alexis' sarcastic quips or get her self-deprecating thoughts.

Speaking of Alexis, she's a character that was difficult to sit with. She's written to be so pathetic that it almost becomes comical - she lives in a cardboard box. Come on. In some ways, I can see where she would be a compelling protagonist - disabled, easily read as neurodivergent, using humor to get through her trauma. But it never comes together into a satisfying character - her disability rarely seems to impact her, she's never able to talk back in moments where it would make pivotal sense to do so (only when there are jokes to be made), and even when there were times that I found her internal dialogue nearing funny, the joke would then proceed to be played to death until it was no longer funny. She's also just inconsistent - she would come across as rather conservative when it came to judging others (calling Spartans slutty, for instance), but then her own thoughts never really aligned with that? She mentions her pastor pretty frequently at the beginning and her religion or lack thereof should have felt integrated into the character, but it was only ever used to, of course, crack a joke.

None of the MMCs make any real sense - for the most part, they actively dislike Alexis, physically harm her, denigrate her constantly, and yet... They're all obsessed with her? We never get to see how that obsession come to be, especially with Achilles and Patro, who just do a complete 180 for reasons that are still unknown to me - maybe book 2 would make it make sense, but I'm not reading that. They're all obsessed with her, and yet not a single one of these men can ask her any questions?? They're mean to the point of it being nonsensical. They keep taunting her for being an "abandoned mutt", and yet get mad at her over things that they assumed she must have known about. How can she be an abandoned mutt and also knowledgeable enough to play the system!? How can they be relying on her to get them a promotion, but also they don't help her at all? Why do they act like she purposefully hid her homelessness and scars as a personal slight to them? They care enough to be murderous over what happened to her, but they never cared enough to ask in the first place?? Why?? (The answer is misogyny: they only care about Alexis as an extensions of themselves.) These men don't even come across as darkly charming or alluring in any way. There is just no magnetism, no chemistry there. If you have to write a side character who keeps insisting to the protagonist, "that was so hot, that guy is so into you", you should probably rework your romances so that the reader can get that impression without having to be told.

Anyway, past the beginning of the book, the plot becomes loosely strung together. "Time" and "the world" warp constantly, moving us from one set piece of the plot to the next. Surely there were other ways for the author to describe the passage of time and Alexis' deteriorating mental state. It just feels lazy and also like an excuse to have Alexis in a vulnerable state for a good portion of the book. Also, any world-building that the reader needs is usually just info-dumped in large chunks of text. It's a good thing Alexis had to go to class or how else would we have learned anything about the world?

Finally, I would just like to say how much I absolutely hate the way the word "mutt" is used in the book. I'm probably projecting somewhat here, but it's so fucking hateful. Like, I'd get it if "mutts" was used derogatorily, but it seems to be the actual official term for demigods/half-bloods. Like, it's how they're labeled in the family tree in the front of the book. But it's also used derogatorily and it feels very strange to have the word act in both capacities.

OH AND!!! The beginning of the book and audiobook both have a short list of content warnings. The book then directs you to the author's website for a "full list". Just to be safe, I went to check them and you know what? I couldn't find them anywhere. I have checked the website multiple times to see if I'm just missing something, but nope! There is no full list! I don't know if it was there and just got lost with a website redesign or if it just never existed. Either way, it's really appalling given that I would argue the ballroom scene develops into nonconsensual touching and that is not on the short list of CWs given at the front of the book. I get that authors aren't required to provide CWs and that there are other resources available to find that information. My frustration is specifically that the book points the reader to something that doesn't exist while asking you to "please take care of yourself". It's embarrassing.

Would not recommend this book. It actively put me in a bad mood.

What I liked most about this book is that beneath all the dystopian chaos and mecha mayhem, it’s really a story about choice. Who gets to decide what you are? How much should your past define you? And what happens when you finally get the freedom to decide for yourself?

I went into this expecting a sci-fi adventure, and it delivered exactly that. But I loved how much heart was tucked underneath all the chaos. The themes of personhood, autonomy, purpose, responsibility, and identity ended up being what stayed with me most.

The story does such an interesting job of questioning whether we are defined by what we were created or expected to be, or by what we choose once we have the freedom to make those choices for ourselves. I especially loved watching those ideas unfold through the relationships between the characters. The found family aspect gave all of those bigger philosophical questions something really emotional underneath them.

The flashbacks worked really well for me too. They gradually piece together how this world became what it is, showing how climate disasters, pandemics, political instability, misinformation, displacement, corruption, and greed can compound until everything starts to fracture. And honestly, some of it felt way too familiar.

I also really loved the dry humor throughout. There were so many moments where things were objectively horrifying and someone would respond with the most casually deadpan observation imaginable. 😂 It gave the story breathing room without taking away from the seriousness of what was happening.

My biggest complaint is the ending. I can see why it ended the way it did, and I don’t necessarily think it needed some huge, drawn-out finale. I just wanted a little more. After so much setup, I wanted the payoff to feel a bit more proportional to everything the story had been building toward. It worked, but I was left wanting, more.

Still, I really loved the characters, the questions this book left me sitting with, and the unexpected tenderness at the center of it all. And apparently I have developed strong attachments to a certain extremely opinionated dog and a wonderful 7 foot ex war-mech.