Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Medusa by Jessie Burton - ADVISABLE

Medusa by Jessie Burton, 209 pages. Bloomsbury YA (Bloomsbury), 2022. $20.

Language: PG (1 swear, 0 “f”); Mature Content: PG13; Violence: PG

BUYING ADVISORY: HS - ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

Medusa (18yo) lives on a deserted island with her sisters after the shame of everything that happened in their village. Four years have passed, and now a boy is on her island. Does Medusa dare call out to him, or does she stay safe and scared in her cave?

Burton tells the story of how Medusa came to have a head full of snakes, but, more importantly, she tells the story of Medusa’s struggle to love herself. The reflective quality of Medusa’s story, as she recounts her experiences to readers, captivates and invites personal reflection on topics of fate and self-identity. Gill’s sketched style of illustrations supports the reflective tone and is beautiful in its own right – I could hang some of those pictures on my wall and never tire of looking at them. The mature content rating is for partial nudity and implied rape.

Reviewer: Carolina Herdegen

No comments: