I can't say exactly why, but I get distracted with other series so easily and despite my excitement for the book, I got about 1/3 through and then it got buried in my book pile.
But with today's release of Medea the Enchantress, I knew Nyx had to be taken along with me on vacation and finally done some justice.
I finished the book last night and loved it. Nyx is a loner, a young girl who has a very important job that no one else can do and she has to do it every single day. She flips her cape open and brings the night across the sky while riding in her starry chariot. She wants friends, but can't really find the time or the courage to go introduce herself to more people.
So when she gets an invite from Athena and Artemis to visit Mount Olympus Academy, she jumps on the opportunity. While she's very nervous, because she's quite socially awkward and aware of it, she wants to talk up what she does and make others realize the night is very important and not something to be afraid of. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to her, the three Oneiroi (dream makers) have tagged along with her and are causing the others to have terrible nightmares.
Nyx wears black clothing, eyeliner and nail polish and purple lip gloss and eyeshadow. Her appearance is decidedly different from the other students at MOA. Some of them are taken aback by her, but others don't bat an eye. She makes one brief foray into experimenting with her look, encouraged by Aphrodite, but even that isn't too drastic (midnight blue eyeshadow, red lips and nails). But she doesn't like what she sees when she looks in the mirror. While beautiful, it isn't her. She decides to keep the look to fit in better, but that decision is almost immediately changed once she suffers a traumatic loss. After pulling herself together, she washes off the new makeup and puts her old back on. She realizes that she should be herself, no matter if others have opinions on that or not.
Nyx has two parakeets (how did she get them?) that she brings to MOA and one of them escapes. That's the loss that freaks her out. The other bird had been borrowed by Athena to help her new baby sister Hebe sleep better (and thus Zeus and Hera, too) and that has disastrous results that Zeus unfairly blames her for.
Nyx leaves MOA at his request and runs into Echidna, who traps her and her remaining bird. Her horse, Erebus, escapes. This part was a bit frustrating, because I feel like the goddess of night should have more powers and be able to escape a simple monster, but she's a young girl, so we'll just assume her powers aren't fully developed. Her being trapped is necessary to prove to the mortals and immortals alike how important night is. No one is getting rest now! It's day all the time and everything is confused.
Nyx finally escapes with the help of her birds (the lost one finds her) and her horse, who went to fetch Artemis and her dogs. She captures the Oneiroi and Hades takes them back to the Underworld. Zeus apologizes in his own way and all is well again.
Weeks later in the Underworld, Nyx is happy with her new friendships. She speaks with Eos, although their jobs require that to be brief, and writes with the MOA students. Her birds have had babies, one of which she gifted to Hebe, who's sleeping much better now.
I quite like Nyx as a character. She won't change who she is looks-wise, because she knows that's what she likes, but she was able to grow as a person and learn how to make and keep friends.
I'll be tackling Medea's book once I get home. I'm still here on vacation and the book is being held with my mail.
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