Greek retelling meets london setting

 I've made it my mission to read all the big Greek retellings circulating around right now, partly to help me as I write my own fantasy novel with Greek inspirations, but also because they're incredibly cool and creative concepts. I've got to own up to the reading slump Throne of Glass put me in that I've been trying to escape for a month or so now. Acknowledging this makes my subpar review of this retelling I was really looking forward to make a little more sense -- or at least I think so. Essentially, I was looking for something to dazzle and wow me. My expectations were high and desperate, and this book was a little slower paced than what I was seeking. One of the coolest things about it is how it takes the concept of an ancient myth and places it in a rather unsuspecting setting -- London, 1799. The entire connection to Greek mythos and legend is approached through the perspectives of English antiquarians, specifically aspiring jeweler Dora Blake. Dora is short for Pandora (clever, I know), after her mother Helen's (yes, for that Helen) Greek heritage. Dora helps to run her late parents' antiquities shop, but is unfortunately stuck with a foul uncle who, dun dun dun, harbors many a deep dark secret. This brings me to my first complaint, so to speak: this uncle is a caricature of a villain. He's so "I'm the bad guy" that I started to wonder if he was a red herring and the real bad guy would make their appearance toward the end. Which brings me to another point: the mystery and intrigue of the actual pithos (aka Pandora's Box) in this story was hyped up only to fall flat. I expected the author to use the legend's detailing of curses and general bad stuff to her advantage more, but the most direct consequence for the pithos being opened is wounds that won't heal. I'll give the author props for her description, though -- I could both see and smell those festering wounds. Yuck. My other main complaint was how slow the plot moves and how, at least for me, it didn't really seem to move toward anything of real substance. The ending is happy in the generic sense of the phrase (I won't spoil it with descriptions here), but I expected some more real action to occur. I don't know a whole lot about the variations of the Pandora's Box tale (some of these variations are discussed by the characters which is helpful), but I can boil it down to saying that I just wanted more. I wanted more romance too, and I know that's my personal preference, but it's true. I'm all for a good slow burn, and this burn is certainly slow. But the delayed gratification didn't quite meet my expectations. Again, I wanted more, specifically more character development so that the believability of the couple's attraction isn't just based on miscommunication, stolen glances, and how pretty the heroine's eyes are. Sidenote: her eyes can be pretty and he can notice them! But to avoid shallowness and reader dissatisfaction, a little more is needed. Some more parallels between Dora Blake and the mythic Pandora herself could've been cool too... there's definitely some of that going on though. There's also one character secretly pining after another of the same sex (an obvious "no no" in 1799 London), but that subplot felt a little unnecessary since this character kind of just fizzles out of the story near the end.
I want to conclude this review by clearly saying there were parts of the book that really had me on the edge of my seat. More than anything else, the writing style is very lyrical and descriptive, which I prefer; I want to see all the details of the room, clothing, and stuff in the room. Wish me luck as I continue my Greek retelling journey! 



Some of my favorite quotes from Pandora:

"'She is...' He trails off, tries to put Pandora Blake into words."

"We, as human beings, can invariably be split into two types: those who believe in magic, and those who do not."

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