GODDESS GIRLS 26

Aha, I did it! I am officially fully caught up with Goddess Girls for the first time in too many years. 

I am so happy to say that Persephone's long-awaited third starring role was amazing. Persephone has been my fave since the beginning and it has been far too long for her to sit on the sidelines. Her first book, the second in the series, came out in April 2010, over TEN years ago. Then while the other 3 first four girls got their second books right away throughout 2011, she was bumped until book 11...all the way in 2013. Athena and Aphrodite both got their third books in 2014, but we all had to wait 6 more years to see Persephone again. I hope Artemis gets her third next year. I hate that they're only doing one book a year now. 

Persephone's newest book is delightful. I loved spending time with her and Hades again. Right away we're introduced to Minthe, the naiad who guards the River Cocytus. The Cocytus is the river of wailing and lamentation, so it's not exactly a happy place. Minthe in the original myth was a nymph of the Cocytus so that's straight out of the myth. In the book, she has a simple crush on Hades, but in the myth, she was his lover before Persephone. 

Persephone's on a bit of an introspective journey, as she struggles with being sassy to bullies and then feeling guilty about it and then with her jealous feelings springing from watching Minthe crush on Hades. The lesson she learns by the end is that sometimes you see only what you're looking for and not what's actually there. 

The students are put together in a class competition and Persephone is on a team with Poseidon, Hades, Antheia (the wreath goddess, Iris's BFF) and Makhai, the slightly less bullying half of Kydoimos and Makhai. She's sad when Poseidon and Hades are pulled from her team, having helped come up with two of the clues. I'm not sure what the point of this was. If you're doing such a big event, you don't plan two of the clues after you've told the class the event is the next day. You approach those students privately and plan ahead of time, then don't put them on a team at all. The boys were allowed to pick their replacements and Poseidon suggested visiting mortals Theseus and Pirithous.

I'm going to pause a minute and talk about these two. There was definitely a missed opportunity here. In the previous book, Clotho takes part in the Goddess Girls version of the Calydonian Boar Hunt. Theseus is on Atalanta's team, too. Pirithous was also there in the myth, so I wish there'd been mention of him at least in the crowd. He could have made a comment about the two centaurs Meleager chose for his team, because mythic Pirithous was the husband at the wedding gone wrong that became the Centauromachy. Then mythic Pirithous and Theseus both find themselves widowed so they decide to carry off daughters of Zeus. Theseus picks Helen, while Pirithous is after Persephone. This is worked into the GG book as him having a crush on Persephone and near the end, he tries to get her to leave the Underworld with him instead of staying with Hades. In the myth, Hades traps them on their seats and they're stuck in the Underworld until Heracles comes to the rescue, but he only saves Theseus. So this book contains both the myths of Minthe and Pirithous and Theseus in the Underworld. 

So back to the competition. Persephone realizes as the day goes by that someone having a crush on you is really annoying, so she realizes Hades may not know what to do about Minthe. She also sees a nicer side of Makhai and then later on, also Kydoimos. These two have been bullies for so long that it's nice to round out their characters a bit. That's the whole learning to not just see what you're expecting part of the book. 

Pirithous is so desperate to win that he hacks the scroll-gadgets (yep, GG has finally come up with a way to have cell phones...sort of) and cheats. Athena being Athena figures things out and her team is the only one to also get to the Underworld, which is the final location. 

Antheia and Persephone have a run in with Minthe and honestly, I don't blame her for being upset, because the two goddesses did really go on about what a horrible place her river is. But she attacked Antheia and Persephone turned her into mint to save Antheia. 

So that happened and she's wondering how to tell Hades when they learn from Makhai that Theseus and Pirithous have, against Hades warning, snuck into the Underworld. This is when they're stuck on the bench of forgetfulness or whatever it was called. Something like that because it was near the Lethe. True to myth, Heracles (from Athena's team) has to come save them, but unlike the myth, he does save both. 

After this is resolved, Hades and Persephone go restore Minthe and Persephone forgives her, now seeing how desperately unhappy the naiad is. She even figures out a new home for her: guarding the fountain at MOA so she won't be so lonely. And her crush on Hades is no longer an issue, because she and Kydoimos take a liking to each other. 

All of this is handled much better in the book. I'm just rambling. I think it's one of the stronger GG books for sure.