Title: Stone Blind
Author: Natalie Haynes
Publisher: Mantle
Publication Date: 2022
CONTENT WARNING: Stone Blind contains scenes of sexual assault.
Stone Blind by Natalie Haynes is a historical fiction, retelling the story of the Ancient Greek figures Medusa and Perseus.
Told from multiple perspectives, Stone Blind begins with Medusa’s fully gorgon sisters Sthenno and Euryale as they try to raise their almost human looking younger sister. The story then switches to show how the warrior Perseus and the goddess Athene came to be born – both of whom play important roles in Medusa’s future. Playing out as described in Greek Mythology, the story shows Athene unfairly curse Medusa after the young gorgon is attacked by Poseidon and a determined Perseus come to claim her head in order to save his mother from an evil king.
As someone who enjoys Greek Mythology I found this book an easy and quick read while still being informative. Of all the books I’ve read by Natalie Haynes Stone Blind appeared the most accurate in terms of established mythology. Any author embellishments seemed to come in the form of chapter perspectives rather than changes to the story – for example my favourite chapter was told from the point of view of snakes on Medusa’s head, with each snake having its own voice and opinions.
Despite my enjoyment of reading the book as a whole I do believe it has one very big flaw which stems from how this book is advertised. The sub-heading on the front cover declares Stone Blind to be ‘Medusa’s Story’. This is supported by the blurb which clearly indicates Medusa to be the protagonist of the book. The problem is that Medusa herself barely features in the story.
In a book with multiple narrators I was surprised by how few chapters belong to Medusa – with Athene, Perseus, even Andromeda (a princess who only enters the story halfway through) getting more page time than our central character. While their stories do all connected and weave together, I wish the book had spent more time with Medusa rather than the plot threads happening around her.
This leads onto another disappointment I had with the story – its characters. Now, as Stone Blind is a Greek myth retelling, it could be argued that the problem with the characters lies within the original mythology rather than Haynes’ writing.
Let’s examine the four most prominent characters – Medusa, Perseus, Athene, and Andromeda.
I found Medusa and Andromeda to both be very passive characters. That’s not to say they are not tragic and sympathetic characters as both women are punished by the gods due to the actions of another but I never felt they took an active role in their own stories. Rather Medusa and Andromeda are characters that things happen to rather than characters who decide to make things happen.
Next is Perseus. The book repeatedly breaks the fourth wall to tell us how unheroic a person Perseus is. While this aspect felt a bit overdone it is also true. Perseus’ success is entirely dependant on the gods and other beings more powerful than him helping him out on his quest. This means that, even as an antagonist, he is a hard character to enjoy because he can’t progress the story forward by himself.
Then there is Athene, the true villain of the story. All powerful, uncaring and utterly cruel, the goddess is the character most responsible for driving the plot forward. She is a deliberately unlikeable character but, like Perseus, she never quite crosses over into the ‘villain you love to hate’ category. The result is an unfeeling narrator that I couldn’t connect to.
In conclusion I feel Stone Blind is a very informative retelling that offers a wide range of perspectives on Greek mythology, which I enjoyed, but equally it is a story that also fails in its goal to properly highlight and celebrate its main character. This is just my personal opinion but I wish the novel had either been advertised differently to showcase its multiple perspective format or been written as a dual narrative only with Medusa and Perseus unknowingly rushing towards their ill-fated meeting.
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