The Athana Chronicles #1
“Why all the focus on me? What do they think I can do to help Athana?”
Claire Wild
This book is not my usual reading material, but the author asked me to review it, so I gave it a go. This book is a solid YA modern fantasy novel focusing on Greek mythology. It does include some of my least favorite YA tropes, a few typos, and inaccurate information, but for a YA novel, it’s an engaging read.
Claire is a seventeen-year-old who gets drawn unexpectedly into a hidden world populated by creatures and people from greek mythology. She unfortunately, falls into the trope of being a damsel in distress that has no clue that she’s different from everyone else. Unlike many YA heroines, Claire takes the initiative to improve herself without prompting after eavesdropping on someone criticizing her. She is also smart enough not to take everything at face value when she finds herself in a new world and is willing to question other people’s motives.
The second trope is one that I find creepy in most instances. That is the young heroine falling for a centuries-old guy that reciprocates her attraction. This book isn’t nearly as bad as others I’ve read, but her crush still doesn’t tell her to wait when he starts to return her feelings. They’re both immortal, and she’s still seventeen and maturing. Let her grow into herself before you start putting the romantic moves on her. Ugh.
My other issues are minor. With the emphasis on Greek mythology, it’s surprising that Athens is misspelled multiple times. The author also doesn’t know the difference between a bow and a crossbow. It makes for a very awkward scene where they are using a bow and arrows but calling it a crossbow which functions very differently.
As annoying and distracting as these issues are, they don’t detract much from the intriguing world of Athana, which is populated by immortals. While this book only fleshes out a couple of types, there is a variety of immortals that could come into play in future books. A sorceress and a demi-god are the first to be introduced, but Greek mythology offers up many more types of immortal.
If you are a fan of YA fantasy, this book is worth checking out.
