Woman of Destiny - Michele Amitrani - ★★★★.¾

AUTHOR: Michele Amitrani

SERIES: Rebels of Olympus, #1

GENRE: Greek Myth Retelling

PUBLICATION DATE: November 1, 2021

RATING: 4.75 stars.

What new ways can I search to tell you the magic of Michele Amitrani’s writing? I’m a huge fan, so all you will find here is a ton of gushing praise for his latest retelling. This time, he brings to us the story of the much-maligned Pandora.

You might have heard the tale of Pandora’s Box. When Pandora, the wife of the Titan Epimetheus, opened the jar gifted to her by Zeus in spite of the All-Father’s express warning against it, she brought into the human world every possible evil. The only saving grace was that she also released hope to the world. This story is the Greek myth explanation for why there is evil in the world.

Whenever I’ve read this tale in the past, each rendition portrayed Pandora as a gullible woman who couldn’t control her curiosity and with her actions, changed the destiny of humankind. But this book is different; it springs from the Amitrani imagination, remember? What makes his retellings special to me is that he presents the supposedly divine in a very human manner. Rather than focussing only on the ego and power of the Gods, he sketches them with mortal emotions, thereby layering their characters with various sentiments and vulnerabilities. What also helps is that he narrates the tales from a previously unseen perspective. Be it his retelling of Persephone or Medusa or Prometheus or Calliope, every work of his made me question what I knew about these legendary characters before and view them in a whole new way. This work is no exception. Far from being portrayed as naïve or impulsive, Pandora comes across as a disturbed but strong character who does her best to resist her fate. You won’t be able to stop yourself from rooting for her.

While you don’t need to know the original myths to read Amitrani’s work, having some familiarity with them will certainly help you appreciate his retellings a lot more because there are so many subtle flourishes (not necessarily connected to the main characters) he inserts in his stories that might escape your notice otherwise. For instance, in this story, he makes a passing reference to how Hephaestus (Zeus’ son and Pandora’s creator) drags one leg while walking. The reason isn’t revealed, and you’ll not understand why he is limping unless you know the story of how Zeus punished Hephaestus off Mount Olympus in one of his rages. Knowing this isn’t important to Pandora’s tale, but it adds a greater authenticity and charm to the story. Such intricate detailing is what makes me appreciate the author’s work even more.

In short, this story is as amazing as all his other Greek myth retellings. My favourite of his works so far has been “Bringer of Fire”, which is ironically about Pandora’s brother-in-law, the Titan Prometheus. But I think this book will share the top rank now onwards as my favourite Michele Amitrani work.

I received a complimentary copy of this book from the author at my request and these are my honest thoughts about it.