MUSE SQUAD 1

 
I think this was an Amazon suggestion for me and boy, was it a good one. 

I'm a sucker for anything Greek myth-based so of course this is right up my alley. 

The main idea is that the power of the muses lives on throughout different women. Each woman has different abilities based on the muse she represents and all nine aren't always active at the same time. They're mortal, so they can die, and it can be a while before the next muse awakens her powers, something that usually happens during a time of dire need. 

Our main character is Calliope, called Callie, an eleven-year-old Cuban-American girl from Miami. She represents, duh, Calliope, the muse of epic poetry. Calliope is supposed to be the oldest and most powerful, so Callie's ability is to create heroes, people who discover how to be their best selves basically. Every muse inspires, but she REALLY inspires. 

The other members of the "junior muses" or Muse Squad are:

Thalia, the redhead from London, who represents Thalia, the muse of comedy. She's the comic relief and her powers are mostly used to make people laugh or act silly as a distraction, but she could easily make you laugh yourself into an asylum if she had to. 

Nia, a science-obsessed black girl from Chicago, who represents Urania, the muse of astronomy. She's more general science here, though Nia is really into NASA and space. 

Mela, the cat-obsessed, bird-hating, country music-loving girl from New Delhi. She represents Melpomene, the muse of tragedy, so she and Thalia are an amusing pair. Mela's powers are the most terrifying, because she brings tragic moments into people's minds and cripples them with grief. (She's my favorite.)

The older muses are led by Clio (representing Clio, muse of history), who works at the Victoria & Albert Museum that the muses use as a headquarters. Their HQ is always in a museum with magical entry points for each girl to travel to from her hometown. Then there's Etoro (love poetry), who's an old woman from Nigeria, and Paola from Colombia, who represents Polyhymnia (sacred poetry). The remaining two are college-age. Tomiko is from Tokyo and she's representing Terpsichore (dance) while Elnaz from Istanbul is Euterpe (she's supposed to be flutes and lyric poetry, but they're using "music" for the book).

The four younger girls are tasked with protecting a Fated One from the sirens, who are three shapeshifters that love to cause chaos and sow doubt. The mission has a lot of ups and downs, but as you can imagine, it does end successfully. All the problems are solved in typical middle-grade dramatic action style. Yeah, I'm being very vague to avoid spoilers. 

I really enjoyed this. I liked a lot of the characters and it's got good diversity. The vast majority of the characters aren't white, which is really nice. Thalia might be the only one actually. And maybe Clio? I can't remember if Clio's ever really described that thoroughly. There are a lot of Hispanic characters from many different countries and a couple Haitians, too. I'm not sure I've ever read a book of this type with one Haitian character much less two. 

My only real nitpick is the same problem I have with a lot of these. I love Harry Potter and Percy Jackson and all that, but I do get tired of children being given extraordinary power and being stronger than the adults. Why is an eleven-year-old girl made into the strongest muse? Why couldn't they all have equal power levels? I feel like that would make more sense instead of falling into the pattern of The New Kid Is Really Strong and Saves the Day. 

It's a minor nitpick though. Really it is. I'm looking forward to a sequel.