3 novels based on Greek mythology out in 2023
I’m sure we’ve all noticed that novels based on Greek mythology have been having a ‘moment’ for… oh…. the last DECADE (Madeline Miller’s The Song of Achilles was first published in September 2021!) and it doesn’t look like things are slowing down yet. I’m certainly happy to see the retellings keep coming – I think there is a reason that these stories have survived so long and continue to be told and retold and loved by new generations of readers. Today I thought I’d share a little preview of three new novels based on Greek mythology that have caught my eye and are being published in 2023.
Three Greek myth novels to look out for in 2023
The Heroines by Laura Shepperson
In Athens, crowds flock to witness the most shocking trial of the ancient world. The royal family is mired in scandal. Phaedra, young bride of King Theseus, has accused her stepson, Hippolytus of rape.
He’s a prince, a talented horseman, a promising noble with his whole life ahead of him. She’s a young and neglected wife, the youngest in a long line of Cretan women with less than savoury reputations.
The men of Athens must determine the truth. Who is guilty, and who is innocent?
But the women know truth is a slippery thing. After all, this is the age of heroes and the age of monsters. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard.
Until now.
Laura Shepperson’s The Heroines is out 31 January from Hachette (Sphere).
Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati
Wife. Mother. Fighter. Conspirator. Queen. CLYTEMNESTRA.
This is the story of a daughter betrayed by her father. Who watches her sister be destroyed by violence and rape. Whose child is sacrificed to ensure her family’s power. Who fights as fiercely as any warrior. Who falls in love with her husband’s enemy. Who is hungry for otherworldly retribution against both men and gods…
This is Clytemnestra, the most notorious heroine of the Ancient World. Know her name.
Condemned by Homer and the Greek poets as a sexually faithless, deceitful, murderous woman, Clytemnestra’s voice is obscured by the spiteful judgement of history. A judgement that refuses to see her strength and her cunning, her grief and her rage. Costanza Cosati’s dazzling debut isn’t just a retelling of the consequences of war on women – it is about how women fought their own wars. Because Clytemnestra understood something that the others didn’t:
If power isn’t given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
Costanza Casati’s Clytemnestra is out 4 April from Penguin.
Atalanta by Jennifer Saint
When a daughter is born to the King of Arcadia, she brings only disappointment.
Left exposed on a mountainside, the defenceless infant Atalanta is left to the mercy of a passing mother bear and raised alongside the cubs under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis.
Swearing that she will prove her worth alongside the famed heroes of Greece, Atalanta leaves her forest to join Jason’s band of Argonauts. But can she carve out her own place in the legends in a world made for men?
Jennifer Saint’s Atalanta is out 11 April from Hachette (Wildfire).
***
Aaaah don’t those all look fabulous? I have to admit I’m especially excited about Jennifer Saint’s Atalanta, as I have loved both her previous books – Ariadne (my review is here) and Elecktra (my review here).
Let me know in the comments if you have any of these on your radar for 2023, or if you have a favourite myth retelling I should check out!
xo Bron
You May Also Like
Friday Favourites :: 20 May
Q&A with Aussie Indie Fantasy Author R.K. Hart