The Last Song of Penelope

AUTHOR: Claire North

SERIES: The Songs of Penelope #3

GENRE: Mythology, Fantasy

AGE: Adult

BLURB:

Following the critically acclaimed Ithaca and House of Odysseus comes the final novel in Claire North’s Songs of Penelope trilogy – an exquisite, gripping tale that breathes life into ancient myth. This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before.

Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . .

A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors – but Penelope recognises in him something her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero. By returning to the island in disguise, he is not merely plotting his revenge against the suitors – vengeance that will spark a civil war – but he’s testing the loyalty of his queen. Has she been faithful to him all these years? And how much blood is Odysseus willing to shed to be sure?

The song of Penelope is ending, and the song of Odysseus must ring through Ithaca’s halls. But first, Penelope must use all her cunning to win a war for the fate of the island and keep her family alive, whatever the cost . . .

Review

Thank you to orbit for a final copy of this book.

First off, I have been eagerly awaiting to see how this book series was going to end and how it was going to tie back into the original myth because Claire does such a fantastic job of both sticking to the original myth but also adding her own twists and flair to the woman’s stories.

I am very happy to say I absolutely adored how she took Penelope’s story and made it far more in depth and interesting than the Odyssey actually made it. One thing I really loved about this book was how it was told from a goddess’s point of view and as if she was the one helping to write the story or write the song that would eventually be sung.

There were a lot of amazing parts in this book and there are just too many to list, mostly because some of them are just better read. I honestly really don’t know what else to say because this book left me with a lot of feelings and emotions and this is definitely one I think I would love to reread and annotate. Actually, I would love to do that to the whole series because I feel like there’s messaging in this book that is done both subtly and very well that sometimes you can miss if you’re not paying attention.

I highly recommend this series to anyone who loves Greek mythology and feels that the woman in these stories were mistreated or misunderstood and should have had larger parts to play.


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