Read the full review at Witchmag's Boekenplank
I liked the concept of this book. However I wasn’t exactly thrilled with how it’s executed. While reading the book I felt that I was holding an unpolished gem. That could have shone like the brightest star, if only someone had taken the effort to polish it. Unfortunately, the story was unable to shine and throughout I only got glimpses of what great book this could have been. Such a shame…
As I said, I thought the concept was pretty interesting. I love my mythology, especially the Greek one and I absolutely love retellings. It’s great to read a well-known story from a different point of view. It makes you think twice about the original one and discover lots and lots of little details you’ve never seem to notice. Like this story, with the nine muses. Although I knew they existed, I’ve never really paid attention to them. Except when I had to learn about the for my exams (and quickly forgot everything afterwards. It WAS boring…) So I liked refreshing my memory and read about them in a not so stern and I-have-to-remember-it-later book.
I was also happy with the powers. Every muse has a different one. But there seemed to be no reason behind which muse had which powers. As if they were given at random. Each muse was given a “sphere of influence” wouldn’t it be logical if that muse had powers that matched that sphere of influence?
That was the highlight of the story for me. The rest was full of dirt and grime and I had a hard time finishing it. Mostly because of how the girls reacted emotionally. Some things just aren’t possible. Or happen way too fast to make it believable. For example, I can’t believe it’s possible that someone, who’s been pushing people away for years, who build up a massive wall to keep people out, can change in a heartbeat. That’s not how human emotions work. It’s a process that can take quite some time and isn’t fixed with one big fight. This is one of the many examples I could give you where the feelings where not in line with what was happening. And don’t let me get started about the romance in this book!
Then we have the girls, the nine muses. We experience the story though the eyes of Callie, who isn’t exactly the best protagonist out there. She’s unable to make life or death decisions, unable to open her mouth (even when her boyfriend is taken by her “friend”), behaves like a little child who is not able to see the consequences and is capable of ditching her BFF in a heartbeat. Just because she doesn’t have powers… Not someone you’d be able to love, don’t you think? And she stays this way the entire story. There’s no character development at all…
And that was just the tip of the iceberg with things that I didn’t like. But I’ll stop here to spare you guys my ranting.
Conclusion
1 HEART. The only thing I liked was the concept with the muses. It was very refreshing to read about them, since most books only focus on the “big and well-known” gods. However I didn’t like how it was executed. The book didn’t feel credible at all. There’s also a protagonist that I just couldn’t stand, with nada character development and use of human emotions in the most strangest and unbelievable ways. I hope you’ll now understand my low rating for this one.
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