One of the things I respected about this story was that it didn’t hedge about the fact that Zeus is totally a rapist. Add a queer romance in and I basically can’t throw my money at you fast enough. I love it even more when these retellings give the story a spin that removes the previously problematic elements. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: I love well-done retellings of fairy tales and old myths. Spoilers and a trigger warning for discussion of rape after the jump. She offers Persephone sanctuary in her land of the dead, so the young goddess may escape her Olympian destiny.īut Persephone finds more than freedom in the underworld. In truth, Hades is the goddess of the underworld, and no friend of Zeus. Zeus calls Hades “lord” of the dead as a joke. But when Persephone meets the enigmatic Hades, she experiences something new: choice. She lives on the green earth with her mother, Demeter, growing up beneath the ever-watchful eyes of the gods and goddesses on Mount Olympus.

Persephone has everything a daughter of Zeus could want-except for freedom. The Dark Wife by Sarah Diemer takes the original tale of abduction and imprisonment and reimagines it as a consensual lesbian romance. The Greek story of Hades and Persephone, while oft-romanticized, is one of those stories that has many issues from a feminist perspective. Most of those books are still waiting to be read in my bedroom, but I did read one immediately because I was so taken with the premise. Proud, too sharp and straight.A while back, armed with a staggering number of Barnes and Noble gift cards, I took to Google looking for recommendations of good queer YA lit to buy. She wasn’tīeautiful-the lines of her jaw, her nose, were too Liquid, as she cocked her head, as she gazed down at Her back, night-colored curls that shone, smooth and Her eyes were black, every part of them, her The female Hades is an austerely beautiful, black-eyed woman whose name has been slandered by the selfish Zeus.

Hemingway she’s not, but her lush descriptions of the heroines and their fantastic surroundings are pure pleasure to read. She weaves poetic metaphors and elegant turns of phrase into a readable and fast-moving story. The Dark Wife takes the best bits of the mythology of Ancient Greece, queers it and serves it up as a lyrically-crafted fairytale. Diemer’s writing style is a pleasure onto itself to read. But it’s a true boon to those of us who love mythology and mysticism but are frustrated with the lack of truly inspiring and multifaceted female heroines in these genres. That isn’t to say that The Dark Wife isn’t enjoyable to more general audiences- it’s an enjoyable story in and of itself.

The dark wife by sarah diemer