The worst book I have ever read - "Stone Blind"

Madie's Margins

I love Greek Mythology, and I love how it still inspires people to make art. However, maybe some ideas should have stayed in the notes app, because “Stone Blind” by Natalie Haynes is so bad it’s upsetting.

“Stone Blind” is supposed to be a feminist retelling of one of my favorite myths, that of Medusa. I love her story; I love to talk about it; and I love to see it interpreted in different ways. I also love feminist literature. There is a very favorable “Lessons in Chemistry” review on the horizon. However, the spirit of this book became increasingly distanced from both mythology and feminism with every page turned. The only female rage in this book was my own, and it’s time to talk about it.

I’ve hated this book for years, although I only just read through its entirety. The first time I picked it up, I made it only halfway before I quit. But lately, I’ve been thinking and wondering if maybe I was exaggerating. It couldn’t possibly be as bad as I remembered.

It was worse.

This review will contain spoilers because I have no respect for this book and don’t think any of you should read it anyways.

First and foremost, this book has a character problem. You would think a book about Medusa would actually be about Medusa, and she wouldn’t be reduced to a minor character in her own story – but here we are. If I had to pick a protagonist, I would have to pick Athena, which is a whole other problem.

In this narrative, Athena is reduced to a petulant ditz, and she behaves with an air of stupidity that really bothers me; she is supposed to be the goddess of wisdom. I understand the Greek gods were petty and irritable, but there is no complexity offered to poor Athena until the last few pages, and even then, she isn’t done justice.

The most likable character in the whole book was Perseus, despite the narrator repeatedly stopping the story to tell me that Perseus is bad and evil and a man, and I’m not allowed to like him or have sympathy for him or be impressed by him ever. Also, we are supposed to think his motivation for going on a quest is stupid, even though the quest is to stop his mother from being ripped away from her adoptive father and forced into marriage with a king who will become bored with her in a few weeks. This poor woman is likely going to end up in the king's brothel if Perseus doesn’t intervene, but no, he’s actually being selfish, because at least his mom wouldn’t have to sweep for a few weeks. And then, Perseus has to go on a murder spree so that there’s a valid reason to hate him, but it all just feels so forced.

“Stone Blind” also has a POV problem, because what do you mean we have a chapter from the perspective of a raven that has no relation to the characters, and another from Medusa’s snakes? Aside from the ridiculous, there are just too many perspectives, bogging down the whole story and drawing attention further away from poor Medusa.

There’s also a feminism problem. This statement is generous because the book isn’t even feminist. It doesn’t empower its women, and even worse, it strips them of their agency. Medusa has very little agency throughout the story. She does not drive the plot at all and instead is pushed around by the circumstances around her. Even at the turn, when her head is chopped off in her sleep and gains its own sentience, it still doesn’t showcase agency even though it should have the ability to. The head doesn’t ever look away or close its eyes–which it states that it could–instead going along with Perseus despite its clear hatred of him. All we get to signify that Medusa’s head is ‘feminist’ now is that it hates men, and hating men isn’t feminist.

This story also features several assaults and rapes, and none of them are handled particularly well. All these encounters boiled down to “he assaulted me, which was sad, but moving on.” Last time I checked the DSM-5, experiencing sexual violence is a serious trauma, and I know all these women wouldn’t just be fine in a few days and not think about it again. Where is the psychology, Haynes? Why is there no acknowledgment of the lasting effects of an assault?

Finally, the story has an ending problem. There is little that bothers me more than when a bad story scrapes together a sad ending. The end of this story made me feel something other than fury and disappointment, which just angered me again because it wasn’t earned. The story ends with Athena affixing Medusa’s head to her breastplate and accidentally petrifying one of her priestesses. She asks Medusa’s head to turn her back, but she obviously can’t. Athena keeps arguing, when Medusa’s head informs her that a century has passed since the priestess died. Athena hadn’t noticed. She opens up to the head about her insecurities and a desire she can’t define, like homesickness for a place she has never been. Medusa’s head tells Athena she can only send her to one place and won’t be able to bring her back. Athena agrees, and Medusa turns her into stone. This is the origin story for one of the Athena statues we still have today.

I did not see that coming, and I don’t know how I feel about Athena essentially committing suicide. But I feel something, and that little something is more than “Stone Blind” deserves.

Don’t read this book. It has no redeeming qualities, and it isn’t even fun. It just makes you want to kill it with fire.