My Five Word TL:DR Review: Greek Mythology and Ancient Prophecies

I had a really good time with Daughter of Chaos.  For a debut novel the pacing is good, I liked the MC and the story moved forward constantly.

We start the story on Paxos where we meet Danae.  Danae’s father is a fisherman and their life is a simple one but full of love.  Until disaster strikes.  We follow Danae and her mother and sister as they attend a ceremony to the Gods.  Everyone is nervous, if the Gods are not happy sacrifices will be called for.  Anyway, the ceremony descends into chaos for reasons that I won’t go into and from here disaster strikes the family – again, sorry to be mysterious but I don’t want to give away spoilers.

Long story short, Danae finds herself being blamed for certain outcomes and has to flee the island.  With a little help from her father she becomes a stowaway, intent on reaching the Oracle of Delphi who she believes will help discover if she’s been cursed and this is really where Danae’s adventures begin linking her to many well known names from Greek mythology plus revealing her role in a prophecy that foresees the fall of the Gods.

What I really liked about this.  

Well, it has a refreshing simplicity to it.  The author doesn’t try to make this a real period piece with olde worlde talk and elaborate descriptions. Instead I felt like each section was brought easily to life on the page.  Naxos, small and simple, the families there quick to judge and shun others.  Everyone sits in fear of the Gods and their punishments.  Then Athens, a bustling city and port, merchants and nobles and more wealth and people than Danae has ever seen before.  Her own path takes her on a strange journey and we begin to see that fate is taking a strong interest in her journey.  The Gods can be very cruel and this novel certainly highlights some of their worse qualities.

We go on a real adventure with our MC.  She makes friends and is fortunate to receive a good deal of help along the way from some most unexpected places.  You could be forgiven for thinking that sometimes things fall into her lap a little too easily but at the same time I was happy to let things run their course without being too judgemental.  In fact I was genuinely curious at points about how Danae was ever going to get anywhere.  Disaster and bad luck trail her relentlessly.

I liked Danae, like I said, she has some good fortune where things fall in her lap but this is offset by a good deal of misfortune to balance things out.  I would say that the one thing that I did feel was Danae came over much more confident than I would have expected, particularly when it came to mixing with demi gods, princes and renowned heroes.  I think I expected her to be a little more timid in parts, although, at the same time she is playing a role and she was never scared to speak her mind even when on Naxos.  She, also sometimes seems very well spoken for a young girl who has led such a sheltered life on a small island – but, I was enjoying the story and this was only a tiny little niggle.

In a nutshell, I had a good time reading this.  The story is quite captivating, it’s fresh and told with a modern tone that makes it easy to get along with.  I enjoyed the inclusion of so many characters from Greek mythology and I’m genuinely curious to see how Danae’s tale pans out.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publishers, for which my thanks.  The above is my own opinion.

My rating 4 of 5 stars