A sapphic retelling of the Trojan War, in which Cassandra’s curse is cast by a petty Apollo who wants sex, and an enemies-to-lovers romance between Cassandra and Helen.

I really enjoyed this. It’s a well-written story and I enjoyed the first-person perspective of the two protagonists. It builds well towards its conclusion – a lot of stuff that becomes relevant later is established early and builds towards the end. Apollo’s curses on Cassandra, the gods forcing a narrative on Troy, how the story eventually deviates from the conventional myth.

The book has modern sensibilities, but retrofits them in a thoughtful way. It discusses consent, rape culture, and asexuality (Cassandra is implied to be ace) – but never uses those words explicitly. They fit into the narrative, and don’t stand out as twenty-first century terminology or ideas shoved into Greek myth.

While in the bookshop, I saw two books by the same author – about Persephone and Pandora – and on the strength of this book, I’ll check those out as well.

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