The Rape of Persephone, Monica Brillhart’s first (and award-winning) book to adapt the Homeric Hymn to Demeter, introduced readers to an alternate take on the story of Hades and Persephone. Set in the Bronze Age, the story features a cast of mortal characters, with one foot in the world of the gods. A MOTHER’S NATURE picks up where the first book left off: with Kore, the young daughter of Demeter, bruised and bleeding from the attentions of Hades. It’s a distressing start, and it’s meant to be. The young Kore is clearly of two minds: frightened by her choices, and thrilled by her rebellion. That thrill increases when she’s given the name Persephone, marking her as an adult and an individual. What follows is the tumultuous, difficult, strange romance of Persephone and Hades, colored with both modern observations and the arrival of further classical figures.
Persephone has two key concerns throughout A MOTHER’S NATURE, one of which is how Hades feels about her. The other is the doomed love of Orpheus and Eurydice. When the latter dies and the former petitions Hades to bring her back to life, Persephone decides to intervene. Her powers, as a young woman dedicated to the gods, are growing in ways no one anticipated. That power, equal parts dangerous and compassionate, will eventually ferry her fully into womanhood. And with that journey comes a confidence and agency that flips the script on the book’s (intentionally) troubling opening pages. Throughout Hades and Persephone’s story, Brillhart weaves further narratives: Demeter’s quest to bring her runaway daughter home, the trials of Heracles, and the shame of King Minos. These threads—plus the Furies, depicted as a wise tribe of ancients, Zeus as politically savvy (but still led by certain impulses), and other interpretations—weave together into a surprisingly believable story. The cleverness with which the author molds familiar myth into human drama is truly compelling. Her trilogy in progress was lauded as it began, and the high praise remains well-deserved on this second outing.
A MOTHER’S NATURE continues to expand a familiar myth into a surprisingly human tale of love, grief, and coming-of-age. Monica Brillhart’s take on Persephone shines with wit and desire, captivating everyone around her—including the reader.
~Kara Dennison for IndieReader