Following the release of her critically acclaimed graphic novel for young adults, MEDUSA, Jessie Burton returns with a novel of the same name and story. This time, her electrifying, candescent prose takes the place of images. Readers go beyond the myth and the monster to meet the girl behind the legend.

It has been four years since Medusa and her sisters, Stheno and Euryale, set foot on the rocky, desolate island they now call home. The goddess Athena, in a fit of rage and jealousy, transformed the three innocent girls into Gorgons, with Stheno and Euryale sporting wings and Athena bedecked with her famous head of snakes. The Medusa of lore is known for killing men with a single look, but in Burton’s retelling, the girl herself speaks, asking, “If I told you that I’d killed a man with a glance, would you wait to hear the rest? The why, the how, what happened next?” Luckily for readers, Burton doesn’t wait to hear the answer, choosing instead to dive right in.

"A gorgeously written, keenly observed and downright powerful retelling, MEDUSA strips away the misogyny, fear and hatred that have kept Medusa’s myth alive for so long and delivers something much better: the truth."

When we meet Medusa, she has grown accustomed to her snakes, naming them and calling out their various personality traits, not to mention the ways their spirits mirror hers. But even so, she still carries the shame of her curse and disfigurement, along with the weight of Athena’s parting words: “Woe betide any man fool enough to look upon you!” Medusa and her sisters don't know what this means, but they do know that the only place they feel safe is their lonely island. Lonely, that is, until a small boat reaches shore, and a beautiful boy jumps out with his dog.

In the coming days, Medusa makes friends with the boy, who calls himself Perseus and says that he is on a mission from the king of his home. Noticing his malnourished figure, Medusa supplies him with cooked meals and companionship as long as he promises never to approach her cave and look upon her. While her sisters fly the skies and hunt for food each day, Medusa and Perseus strike up a close, intimate friendship. They have yet to lay eyes on one another (or so Perseus thinks, for Medusa has certainly seen him), removing all social conventions from their interactions. Instead of behaving properly or attempting to court one another, the two young lovers only have conversation to go on, so they tell each other everything, including (slowly) the truth about Medusa.

In gripping, haunting, crystalline prose, Burton lays bare the injustices of being a woman --- particularly a beautiful one. Medusa tells her story with great pain, beginning from the time she learned she was beautiful, continuing through her realization that beauty is power (and the loss of it also is a loss of power), and her dealings with Poseidon, a greedy, lecherous god who stalked and threatened her until she was forced to give in. I won’t unpack the entire mythology of Medusa here, but it is important to note that Burton gets right to the heart of Medusa’s pain and, most surprisingly (but probably not to most women), her shame --- all for being a person with a face deemed more symmetrical than most.

I read Burton’s graphic novel last year and was captivated by her striking prose and the truly gobsmacking art. This version, written entirely in text and aimed at adults, is no different, though she has been given much more freedom here with her text. She is able to write not just dialogue or stage directions, but full, agonizingly beautiful prose. Each sentence is crystalline and clear, but no less poignant or haunting. It is clear that Burton carries some sort of adoration or fixation for Medusa, and after reading both books, it is easy to see why she feels so drawn to her…and impossible not to be drawn in yourself.

A gorgeously written, keenly observed and downright powerful retelling, MEDUSA strips away the misogyny, fear and hatred that have kept Medusa’s myth alive for so long and delivers something much better: the truth.