First off, I liked Aphrodite as the narrator and her comments regarding some of the men, like Menelaus. I disliked Menelaus this entire book and loved how Penelope was able to handle herself throughout Menelaus taking over the palace and everything else that was happening. Her character really shown, and I love how it was repeated that the women of Ithaca ran the island while all the men were gone at war, so why shouldn't they still be badass after the war? House of Odysseus has absolutely blown me away. I read Ithaca last year and thoroughly enjoyed it but I felt like it suffered from two things: slow pacing and a disconnect from the main characters of the story. When I requested this I didn't know it was book 2 in a series, so I read Ithaca before diving into this ARC. I was worried about House of Odysseus because Ithaca was a slow, slow read for me, but I am pleasantly surprised at how much I enjoyed House of Odysseus! Because the characters and story is already set up, it was easy to follow.

I know very little about killing, That is the men’s business. But it is the women who come to dress and wail at the corpses when the killing is done, no?" With its well-written, fluid and elegant prose, even pacing throughout the novel, and themes of feminism, survival and loyalty Claire North’s Ithaca is an engaging read that I would recommend to fans of Greek Mythology and those fond of feminist retellings. I eagerly look forward to reading the next two books in this trilogy. This may be the most actively feminist of the spate of recent Greek myth retellings. The Silence of the Girls and A Thousand Ships offered a feminist perspective, but Ithaca gives Penelope and the women of Ithaca real agency, even as they weaponize their veils and mourning customs, steal every advantage of silence, sex, gossip, and the appearance of meekness, and get away with, well, murder because men can't actually wrap their heads around women as capable and intelligent beings.If you liked the political maneuvering in the Game of Thrones series; if you chafe at the way that Greek mythology couldn’t pass even a modified a Bechdel test; if the inner lives of women are interesting to you; if you love a “good for her” story with an denoument that feels absolutely earned and yet somehow still in some ways surprising; I recommend this book whole heartedly.

I was a huge fan of Claire North’s first book in the The Songs of Penelope Series. This is my bag, retelling of the ancient Greek epics. North is keeping this to a trilogy, which I think is perfect, long enough to really dig into the details, yet not so long and dragged out that the reader will lose interest. My one main complaint about this book was that the narration by Hera was sometimes very annoying and the writing bothered me at times. I really struggled with how to rate this, as the writing sometimes felt very subpar, but I enjoyed the story quite a lot despite it. For a woman to contemplate her own beauty is vanity, superficial pride, shallow beyond contempt, the sign of a mindless slut. Of course for a woman to be anything less than beautiful is for her to be ugly, or in the best case invisible and without merit, and that is also unacceptable, but still, but still. The most a woman born without socially acceptable perfection can do is worry about these things in secret, rather than be caught trying.”This isn't a bad book, yes hard to read and follow, and yes there are a lot of names and people who seem their existence wasn't necessary, but it is a GOOD story, not perfect, though I like to read the next book. On the isle of Ithaca, queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband Odysseus sailed to war with Troy and never came home. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace—a peace that is shattered by the return of Orestes, King of Mycenae, and his sister Elektra. There’s a tone and flavor to the writing style that is so smart and clever and witty. It both left me laughing out loud and also slowing down to reread passages that were emotionally beautiful.

I enjoyed The House of Odysseus even more than Ithaca, so of course I’m eagerly anticipating the final book in this amazing trilogy. Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom.

Complete this captcha to connect to Foyles

Listen to my voice: I who have been stripped of honour, of power and of that fire that should be mine, I who have nothing to lose that the poets have not already taken from me, only I will tell you the truth. I, who part the veil of time, will tell those stories that only the women tell. So follow me to the western isles, to the halls of Odysseus, and listen.” I who have nothing to lose that the poets have not already taken from me, only I will tell you the truth. I, who part the veil of time, will tell those stories that only the women tell. So follow me to the western isles, to the halls of Odysseus, and listen." This is a new Penelope story from Hera's perspective, Mostly Hera's perspective! The story starts eighteen years after Odysseus sailed from Ithaca, eight years after Troy fell.