Lit on Fire

I, Medusa by Ayana Gray

• Elizabeth Hahn and Peter Whetzel • Season 1 • Episode 1

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A legend everyone thinks they know becomes a story many of us needed. We take a fresh, unflinching look at Ayana Gray’s I Medusa and follow the arc from girl to survivor, from pawn to priestess, and from silence to a voice strong enough to call out gods and men alike. What happens when a culture trains a young woman to be ignorant—and then blames her for not knowing? That question drives our conversation through the book’s most searing themes: grooming disguised as romance, consent ignored when power feels threatened, and the way institutions will defend their image over their people.

We start with the home that failed Medusa—an abusive father, a checked-out mother, and immortal sisters who choose not to prepare their mortal sibling for the world. In Athens, trials set by Athena reveal a rare moral clarity: compassion as courage, justice as action, and service as strength. Yet when Poseidon exerts status and familiarity to breach Medusa’s boundaries, the reckoning lands where it always seems to—on the woman. We challenge Athena’s role as “wisdom” within a patriarchal order, unpack how victim-blaming survives by flattening nuance, and trace how Gray turns Perseus into a footnote to keep the spotlight on the woman, not the weapon.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to Lit on Fire, the podcast where literature meets controversy, where banned books, silenced voices, and dangerous ideas refuse to stay quiet. From classrooms to courtrooms, novels to news cycles, we explore how stories challenge power, expose injustice, and ignite social change. So if you're ready to question, to argue, to feel uncomfortable, and to think deeper, you're in the right place.

SPEAKER_00:

I'm Peter Wetzel.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm Elizabeth Hahn.

SPEAKER_00:

And this is Lit on Fire. Hello again. In today's episode, we'll be discussing the novel I Medusa by Ayana Gray. In the novel I'm Medusa, Ayana Gray manages to pull details from the numerous retellings of the Greek myth of Medusa to create her own unique version of events. Instead of focusing on her tragic transformation and ultimately tragic end, Gray instead weaves a tale of a young, mortal woman, a child of gods, and raised alongside her immortal sisters. She earns the attention and the favor of the goddess Athena and is taken from the only home that she has ever known to the great city of Athens, where she becomes an acolyte and ultimately a priestess in the Temple of Athena. Gray's book paints a picture of Medusa as a person of clear potential, of compassion, and a strong sense of justice. When she gains the attention of the sea god Poseidon, the course of her life is tragically and irrevocably altered. But through her tragedy, she reclaims her strength and finds a purpose.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, Peter, moment of truth. What is your rating for this book?

SPEAKER_00:

I'm gonna give it a solid four. I'm gonna give it a solid four out of five. Um, overall, I really enjoyed this story. I love that it focuses on who Medusa was as a human being, her potential as a young woman, and uh her journey uh through life instead of just what we usually focus on, which is her monstrous transformation and then ultimately her tragic death. So I thought that was brilliant, and I really, I really felt like Ayana Gray humanized her for me and and and made then her story ultimately so much more unfair and tragic and unjust.

SPEAKER_01:

And I agree. I worried a little bit about reading this. I also gave it a four because there were certain things that ended up bothering me a little bit along the way that I know we'll get to. Um, but I did really love this. It did humanize her, it did make her first a girl and then a young woman, and then, you know, this very this victim, and then not a victim, but it took her through this whole process where she was able to finally take power in the end, but you you saw that whole journey of hers. I have to admit to you, like I was a little worried reading this book would be like watching the Titanic. Like, I honestly never want to watch that movie again because you know how it ends. It's also epically too long, but you know, you know how it ends, and and you're like, I just don't know that I want to experience that tragedy. I mean, let Jack on the door. But anyway, um, if I go to that, then you know, I was worried I would read this book and I wouldn't be able to make it through because I'm like, she's gonna get raped, she's gonna get raped, she's gonna, you know, turn into Medusa. It's so unfair, and that I'd be fixated on that. But her story did really draw me in.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And and I like that the Ionic Reggae treated, you know, the ultimate ending as sort of a throwaway. She just sort of tacks it on eight. And yes, we know this happens, but that's not what's important. What's important is the person, you know, and not the monster and not the ultimate fate.

SPEAKER_01:

Aaron Powell Right. And I did like that. For anyone who is worried, you're worried about reading a book where Medusa is obviously going to meet this tragic end. That really is a side note, a footnote to this entire entire story, because certainly it happens, but it's not really given any place in the story itself. It is it is about her journey and her finding herself along the way.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

So one of the things that I know bothered me was the level of imposed ignorance Medusa was subject to as a child and as a young woman. We see that she is so unknowing of what it is to be a woman, of what it would be to be with a man. You know, even when she's afraid for her sister at the beginning, she really doesn't have any knowledge of what that looks like. Right. And she's an absolute darkness, which really allows her to be open to the manipulation that ultimately comes.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. And before we go too far into the details of the book, it's important for our listeners to know that we are going to talk about the entire book. So if you have not read it, you may hear some spoilers. So we just want to make sure you're aware up front.

SPEAKER_01:

Spoiler alert.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, spoiler alert. So yeah, getting into that, yeah, absolutely. I thought that was really an interesting choice by Gray to just sort of juxpose those two conflicting personality traits where she is so obviously so clever, so obviously so intelligent and so much potential. And so much potential, and yet so, so naive and ignorant in this huge gaps in what she knows and what she doesn't know. And that's ultimately what sets her up, you know, for failure.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And I think that was a good thing in the realm of things that we love about this book. I think that was a good thing to put in there because it kind of alludes to the ignorance young women have been kept in for so long during different periods of our society and in different circumstances and different contexts that women have often been kept ignorant, and that makes us all the more vulnerable. And so they really did, she really did work this into the story, and I thought that was great.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. Because the more you empower a woman, the safer she is.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Knowledge is power. Exactly. And in this case, she's denied that. So one of the things we liked, I know, was getting to know her parents, her sisters, and kind of seeing that whole dynamic. And that does play into the ignorance part because her father is so controlling, and her mother is spending more time drinking glasses of wine and feeling sorry for herself than she is actually parenting her daughter.

SPEAKER_00:

Right, exactly. Yeah, and avoiding her husband's abuse.

SPEAKER_01:

And avoiding her husband's abuse because he is indeed abusive. So all of that plays into the neglect Medusa experiences, but she does have support too.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, absolutely. I mean, her true parents are her two sisters, her two older sisters, who are so much more knowledgeable and worldly wise and free-spirited, and yet they choose not to impart any of that onto their baby sister.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And do you think that's because they are immortal and she's mortal? Because that's the part of this story, is that her parents may now be lesser gods, but they are gods. And her sisters gained that immortality, but when she was born, she didn't. So is that where the ignorance stems from?

SPEAKER_00:

I think so, yeah. I I I think I think the fact that she is so much weaker than them, they just they just never felt they needed to empower her to be able to do anything because they just took her for Like they were always gonna take care of her. That they were always gonna take care of her, or or finally unload her to some husband, and she'll just find out the way you find out.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And ultimately, when she's sent away to the temple to Athens, when Hermes comes to collect her after she has impressed Athena, you know, she's a political pawn for her father. She's a political pawn, so they aren't concerned about what's going to happen to her. So there is no her mother doesn't sit her down and say, Well, now that you're going to Athens, you know, you need to know this, this, and this. Her sisters don't do that. She is simply transported at her father's enthused because now he can make connections with the Olympians.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Her mother almost, as bitter as she is, came across to me as now you're gonna find out the hard way.

SPEAKER_01:

Almost vindictive.

SPEAKER_00:

What the world is really like for women. And and yeah, because she's so miserable herself. Yeah, that's basically the last thing she says to her is she doesn't protect her from it.

SPEAKER_01:

She almost, you know, now you're going to be like me.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, you gotta understand what it is to be me. She's yeah, exactly.

SPEAKER_01:

Exactly. So when she goes to Athens, I love a lot of the classic mythological stuff that takes place. I love the challenges for the acolytes, the tests that they have to face. It was very epic in nature, kind of that hero's quest, that journey that Medusa's on, and she's trying to prove herself. I love that. I love the tests that Athena poses for her acolytes. If you love mythology, this gives you all those things where you see the Greek gods and you see these kind of hurdles that this young woman is going through, jumping over in order to gain her position as a priestess. My favorite time being the last test when Athena appears in disguise, which is such a classic Greek mythology trope, appears in disguise as a woman who needs help, and Medusa is the only athlete who has the compassion to help her and already has that streak of justice within her that causes her to reach out and automatically seek to protect that woman, which you know just made my heart clinch.

SPEAKER_00:

That was really a it was a really beautiful journey, and I really felt like it was so uh important for us to see her, to get to know her that way, because we learn so much about who she is in that in that process, how she makes friends, how she makes enemies, and how she not just interacts with the challenges that she faces with the temple, but how she interacts with the city in general, in the the the people that she meets and helps, and and the way she operates as priestess as well.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

Brings in this energy and this this genuineness to uh to her purpose.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And that is one of her strengths, and it it clashes a little bit for me with the idea that she was kept so ignorant and you know, denied knowledge and ultimately really disregarded by her father. But I guess it falls into that buildup that her sisters always gave her that she gains this confidence. But I didn't expect her to be quite as confident as she was when she shows up at the temple. Do you understand what I mean? Like there was she was so disregarded and kind of, I don't know, she she was nervous about what was going to happen, and then suddenly she kind of falls in. Not that she doesn't have her moments, but she really does seize that moment to be independent from her family. So maybe that's really where that strength comes from.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, we argue in the detail that she is an avid reader. That's she gets she any any book that she gets her hands on, so she she's taught herself several languages. She's clearly a very intelligent self-learning. Too bad she'd never read any book about sex.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. That wasn't in the library.

SPEAKER_00:

That was coincidental, yeah, absolutely convenient or inconvenient. But um, and so her her ability to navigate the test didn't really come across as as too successful, too quick to me. I think everybody was underestimating her potential. And I think that I think Athena saw that. That was what she ended up loving about her.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Right, ironically. Because she loves that about her, and she loves the fact that she is justice driven, but then, you know, when she experiences the ultimate injustice, Athena is not there to support her. She is instead there to punish her. And to me, there's so much going on there. But yeah, it is what Athena Myers, and I am glad that she goes in there and she seizes this opportunity that's been given to her to make something of herself and to find her own purpose. When we get into the scene, you knew what was coming when she and Apollonia sneak out and go out in the town to enjoy the celebration that's going on at that time. You know what's coming, that something bad is going to happen. And I found myself frustrated with Medusa in that moment, but her response to everything and her lack of awareness of the danger goes back to that ignorance that she'd already been kept in, that she'd always been kept in. So ends up leading her into a situation, this initial time, where her friend is the one that faces the consequences.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. She leaves her alone to fend for herself and she is sexually assaulted. And then we see right away Athena's attitude towards It's a foreshadowing. It's a foreshadowing, right, because Athena blames Apollonius and expels her from the temple.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And Medusa's completely blindsided. Blindsided by that. And here's where her ignorance sort of becomes an important aspect of her personality is the fact that her ignorance is why she automatically is compassionate and she has a strong sense of justice because she hasn't been brainwashed like the other women have, like Athena has by the Patriarchal Society. She she uh she doesn't think that way.

SPEAKER_01:

She has that outrage, she has that, you know, I have to protect my friend, she didn't do anything wrong. Why are you angry at her? Why are you expelling her from the temple? We need to take care of her. Right. Because she you're right, because she has not experienced that. In all her reading and everything else, she's gained all this knowledge of places she went on things she hadn't seen, she missed the sex ed. And then, you know, she misses all that um inundation of societal expectations. And certainly since her father doesn't pay attention to her, except for seeing her mother abuse, she really is outside of that realm as well. Right. So she goes in with this very clean heart and very black and white sense of justice. Yeah. I really saw that, enjoyed that. The Apollonia thing was certainly a foreshadowing for what was going to happen to her. And in that way, Medusa should have known the response Athena was gonna have on one level. But I guess the question, you know, that Ionagray poses to a certain extent are who are the people that are most culpable for what happens to Medusa? What are your thoughts?

SPEAKER_00:

Aaron Powell Well, I mean, ultimately, the uh the first culpability goes to Poseidon, of course, to the victimizing.

SPEAKER_01:

We don't like Poseidon.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely. But but also the culture as a whole is is definitely culpable. It's it's what leads um her to become so sheltered and ignorant and and her sisters to are who are also culpable for keeping her ignorant and not sharing you know the useful knowledge that she needed in order to protect herself, uh, they're also culpable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, and that goes back to the culture in the society, and that's not a society or culture that's exclusive to ancient Greek culture. You know, we certainly have kept women in the dark forever, you know, especially in certain periods of our time. I think of the Victorian era. I don't know if anyone watches Bridgerton, but in the beginning, the first season, I remember that moment coming up because her mother, it's Daphne, right? Her Daphne's mother cannot tell her, doesn't want to tell her what's going to happen on the wedding night, and leaves her in this ignorant state. And regardless of the fact that there is like this romantic thing there, how awful is that to walk in and have absolutely no knowledge of what's going to happen? So we have done that to young woman, women for a long time. And even now, when most of us have more knowledge, you know, it's still this forbidden thing on some level. There's still this shroud around it of things that we can discuss, things that are discussed from mothers to daughters, and then things that are kind of left hanging out there, especially depending on the family and the religious affiliation or any of those other things that you come from as a young woman. But that was just, there's just so much going on there.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And what about Athena? What about Athena's culpability and all this?

SPEAKER_01:

Well, and that I guess that segues really well because she was the one that had to teach Medusa about sex. Like she knows how innocent, ignorant, in the wake of what happened to Apollonia, Athena brings her in to talk to her about why Apollonia could not stay because she was no longer a chaste young woman. And Medusa doesn't understand. And so Athena has to tell her. So Athena knows, and she knows what happens to young women, and yet it's the young woman's responsibility to keep herself safe. Those questions that she asks. And so, you know, when that happens to Medusa, it's the same thing. This is your fault. You did this, and in that way, Athena is distinctly a member of the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_00:

Absolutely, yeah. Yeah. And do you think Athena really ever really cared about Medusa?

SPEAKER_01:

I don't know. That's a question that's hanging out there for me because she seems to like why take the time to bring her in after Apollonia is dismissed and actually talk to her and then take the time to explain things to her. To me, there was that was almost a maternal moment. But in the end, I think Athena cares more about securing her own position amongst the Olympians. Because as a woman, she's already on the lower side, even though she is certainly, by most accounts, hailed as the greatest goddess, you know, in in Greek mythology, or the most powerful goddess being both of wisdom and of war, of handling, you know, those aspects of justice often. So she has a lot of power when we see her apt in different myths. But when we see her in that scene with Poseidon and Zeus before Medusa gets punished, we realize how fragile her position actually is. So I think in the end, there may have been moments of, you know, maternal feelings, big sister feelings, I don't know, you know, menti-mentor feelings. But Athena is definitely going to throw all of that away in the wake of herself being embarrassed and her integrity being violated or threatened in front of her father and her uncle.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Because I really feel it's more of a mentime mentor relationship. Because her immediate reaction to seeing Medusa with Poseidon is to Poseidon, why do you always have to take what is mine?

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

You have your own. This was mine. Medusa's a possession, she's a tool.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And she she is stolen from Athena, and that's where the true outrage comes from.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. I I want Athena's reaction to always be different. Right. Like when she finds them in the garden and and she sees all of that taking place, when she cries out to Poseidon, say, Why do you have to do these things? You did this to me. You know, I mean, she kind of does that thing. I want her then to realize that this is a Poseidon thing. Like he is the ultimate jerk. You know, he's the ultimate, you know, lecture. He's just, he's awful. He sleeps with everything he can sleep with, as do most of the gods, actually. But Poseidon is notorious for that. He already has a reputation. She sees what he just did. He is the person with the track record.

unknown:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

Whereas Medusa is the one she just had to teach about sex. So who was the one that should be punished as a result? And I don't know. Do you think when she goes in and she appeals to her father, do you think she hopes that Poseidon is the one that's going to be punished? Or do you think what happened to Medusa was always going to happen to Medusa?

SPEAKER_00:

I think it was always going to happen to Medusa. And I do think she also hoped Poseidon would get punished. But I I think I think Medusa's fately sealed.

SPEAKER_01:

To that extent, not just being dismissed like Apollonia, but punished by having her beauty stripped away from her.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes. I think so. Because it was much more personal to Athena. That's true.

SPEAKER_01:

So Athena is always having what sprung from Zeus's head. So she is always, she doesn't even really have a mother. Athena is distinctly separated. And I guess that completely nullifies my comments on any maternal behavior because I don't think Athena knows what that is. So Hera is the one that protects Hearth and home, which is also ironic because her home's constantly being violated by her husband's going out and finding everything. But, you know, Athena, I don't I think she's separated from that very much.

SPEAKER_00:

It's interesting you brought up the fact that she springs from Zeus's head because that really ultimately makes her Zeus's personification of wisdom. So she's she's the wisdom of the patriarchy.

SPEAKER_01:

True symbolism. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

She's the wisdom of the patriarchy, which is why she can do nothing but reinforce the status quo.

SPEAKER_01:

That's correct. She sprung from her father. Yeah. You think that would garner her a little bit more respect. And maybe he does respect her more than some of the other goddesses, or, you know, value her more than some of the other goddesses. But yeah, she does. She springs right from his brain. Yeah, I do think she's culpable. I do think there were so many times where she could have acted differently. And it does reveal again how selfishly motivated and narcissistic the Greek gods actually are. When we think of beings that are being worshipped and have this power, and why faith in the Greek gods ultimately fades, and so the Greek gods ultimately fade. Because the fewer people believe in them, you know, the less power that they have. And that was the only sense of justice I think I got in the end, is when the sisters, you know, remain immortal because they aren't technically gods after Medusa dies, and and they make note of the fact that Athena eventually fades away.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, and that to me is like a moment where yep, bye. You know. But yeah, Athena, Athena probably makes me very angry because of the position she was in to guide Medusa in a different direction. But ultimately, the person who's most culpable is definitely Poseidon. And the grooming that goes on there, the um manipulation that goes on. I mean, it's so classic and it's so visible in our world today. The just constant little bit pushes, pushes, pushes, and then he's, I'm gonna counsel you and I'm I'm gonna take care of you. And then, oh, I just find you so alluring. You know, and she's just gonna be able to do that.

SPEAKER_00:

And he rescues her from being attacked. I mean, right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so this young woman just is looking up. And then I think her father played into that as well because she said, you know, you're told in the book that her father says, you know, you need to make a good name for a family and you need to make connections where you can make connections. And so when she's noticed by Poseidon, it's like I've connected to an Olympian, like an Olympian is noticing me. Besides being chosen to go to the Temple of Athena, now Poseidon is talking to me, like he thinks I'm cool. You know, dad'll be happy.

SPEAKER_00:

Because her dad was once a god of the sea.

SPEAKER_01:

Right.

SPEAKER_00:

And so uh he he wants to garner favor with Poseidon, and so the fact that he can use her as a tool to do that is all is also sets her up.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, because it's it's like this dual patriarchal thing going on there. You've got the manipulation of her dad on one side and the manipulation of Poseidon on the other. And because she's never had positive attention from her father, because why should she? Because she's the mortal one, the strange one that sprung out mortal instead of immortal. So she never had that positive attention. Now she's important, and she's also important to Poseidon.

SPEAKER_00:

Exactly, yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

And there's a there's a in that type of society, there is this desire to please the men around you on some level. Again, not being raised to really recognize herself as valuable apart from some of these things that are chosen she's chosen for, or some of these opportunities that are presented to her.

SPEAKER_00:

I thought it was brilliant, though. I thought it was brilliant of Ionagray to not approach what happens to her, what a Poseidon does to her in the traditional way, which is he chases her and he ravages her. Right. Right. Uh instead, like you said, we get this long process of grooming and we understand that Medusa reciprocates feelings.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. Because why should she not? She's completely overwhelmed with his status. He's handsome, he makes her feel special, and no one has ever paid attention to her before in that way. And so she does. She's enamored of him. She is sexually aroused by him, something she's never experienced because she didn't know about it. Right. You know, so so she's and she can sense up to a point. Right. And she consents up to a point.

SPEAKER_00:

Until she doesn't.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, and that should be okay. Right. Yeah, because and I like that she said that because I think that even today, a lot of us aren't sure we can hold a man fully responsible if the woman just didn't say no right away.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

You know, that that that is that is a fallacy in our society.

SPEAKER_00:

There's some sort of shared guilt.

SPEAKER_01:

There's a shared guilt. And there is not a shared guilt in this circumstance. He groomed her, manipulated her, even if she reciprocated feelings. In that moment in the garden, she says, I can't do this. And he forces her at that moment. I mean, he does not listen to her, he does not take anything she says into account, and that's the point where it turns to rape. And you cannot sit there. Although I think some people reading this book would be tempted to, you cannot sit there and say, Oh, well, Medusa did this to herself. Right. And I would be lying if I didn't think to myself, oh girl, you are being stupid. Like, stop doing that. Like, don't be that that I was sitting there wanting to jump into the book and and slap her silly because she was being stupid. But no, she was just being a young woman who had no knowledge. Right. And was being overwhelmed, literally overwhelmed by this man who's this god who's thousands of years old, right? And he's slept with, well, we don't even want to know how many women are men or anything else that he slept with. You know, but but he has a widely experienced man who has all the power.

SPEAKER_00:

Right.

SPEAKER_01:

And so even if there's consent at certain points, when she says I can't in that moment, that is when he takes full advantage.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. And Gray really uses the entire book to engage in that conversation because in the very beginning, Medusa is almost raped by a certain person that she actually has to defend herself against and she accidentally kills. And that's what garners Athena's attention. But when she tells Athena what he almost did to her, Athena knows it was attempted rape. And so she is completely automatically on Medusa's side. But when it happens with Poseidon, even Athena then is like, well, you also participated. You know, she she lacks she has less compassion because it's not as black and white. And we also see a foreshadowing each other too, because when Apollonia is also raped, Athena says, you know, but she shouldn't have been in the city, shouldn't have been hanging out with those men, shouldn't have been drinking, what was she doing alone with them? Right. And there was all those typical victim-blaming, shared culpability arguments that you hear over and over and over again. And then we get them again, of course, when the discussion of what Poseidon and her behavior around him was. Right. Poseidon was like, oh no, she was the one who came after me and all that, you know.

SPEAKER_01:

Right, which is completely unbelievable.

SPEAKER_00:

Completely ignores the power difference. The power differential.

SPEAKER_01:

But anyone who believes that just willfully wants to believe that because it is unbelievable when he makes that statement. But it is accepted in that moment by Zeus and ultimately leads to Medusa's punishment. So this has created a lot of interesting discussion. Clearly, there are so many points, and we do have to emphasize we love this book. You know, like the four stars is a strong rating. Why did we all both give it minus one star? Like, what were the things that actually bothered you about this book?

SPEAKER_00:

There were two things that bothered me about the book. One was that I think she didn't need to throw in this extra detail that she keeps mentioning about how underdeveloped Medusa's body is and how all these men that fall after her are falling after her because she looks like a child. I don't think that we needed to make them more icky for us to hate them. Right. You know, it just kind of spread it too thin for me.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, I agree.

SPEAKER_00:

Uh obviously that's disgusting. But I'm just I just don't think that's a good thing.

SPEAKER_01:

We didn't need pedophilia. No, she'd even been 30 years old and looked like an absolutely grown woman, the rape would still have been just as wrong.

SPEAKER_00:

But men are icky, we get it.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And but uh and that was fine. You know, but what really bothered me is that eventually she's reunited with Apollonia, spoiler, and they fall in love. And even after she's been turned into Medusa. Medusa.

SPEAKER_01:

As in the at the monster version of Medusa.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. Because she's got control over the whether or not she's turns people to stone. Correct. Yeah, it doesn't just happen. So she ends up falling in love with Apollonia and they end up in a relationship together, and then she just throws it away in the end. Right. To abandon her in the middle of this town where they they carved out this piece of happiness, and she goes back to the island. And I just felt like it was a contrived way for Iana Gray to get her back to the island so that ultimately Perseus could come there and we know what happens. Right. Yeah. It just didn't seem to make sense as far as everything she had done up to that point.

SPEAKER_01:

Right. And those were the same two things that bothered me. I don't need extra justification for the rape being wrong, any of the men's behavior being wrong. So they're just wrong. And then the loss of the relationship with Apollonia. I think, you know, it made sense in that Apollonia had this strong resistance to the idea of Medusa just continuing to kill these men. You know, she really struggled with that. She didn't like watching it. But that was become part of who Medusa was. It became part of who she was because her new purpose. And she had discovered that as her purpose. So I think there needed to be a more of an honest conversation about that. And yes, it did feel contrived. You know, Medusa has to flee back to the island because of what she's done as she goes after yet another man. And then she leaves Apollonia behind. And part of me feels like it's almost the same as when she leaves Apollonia at the party and Apollonia is raped. She leaves her there in that town where they've carved out happiness. But what kind of happiness is Apollonia going to have after she leaves? Those people are going to come looking for someone to blame.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's true.

SPEAKER_01:

And she's left there vulnerable while Medusa runs back to the island. And I don't know if she thinks she is saving her, but I'm not sure that Apollonia would have come to a great end at that point either. So I think that did really bother me because for me, Medusa had grown so much to that point that sure, she left Apollonia at the party because she was young and ignorant and just unaware of the consequences of that action. But she should be more aware of the consequences now.

SPEAKER_00:

Right. Right. Because it's made very, very clear that when Apollonia is expelled from the temple, she says, What is a woman like me going to be able to do except become a sex slave? Which is exactly what happens to her, right? It is. And she and Medusa rescues her from that. And they're safe together, but we just completely ignore the fact that now.

SPEAKER_01:

They're not just apart. Yeah, she's now through her back out to the wolves while she goes back. And again, it did feel contrived like it was the way to get her back to Perseus, which we already know is going to happen. And I do appreciate, I'm gonna come back with positive here. Iana Gray does not make the Perseus thing a big deal in the book.

SPEAKER_00:

No, like I said, it's a throwaway.

SPEAKER_01:

It is a total throwaway. Yes, it's like right there, right there at the end, and it's just basically narrated, and you don't see the action or anything else. It just happens, you know. And I appreciated that because I don't think that needs to be the primary, you know, purpose of the story. We all knew that was gonna happen, but let's focus on the story of the woman. Yeah. So what are we reading next time?

SPEAKER_00:

So next time we are going to be covering the novel Blood on Her Tongue by Johanna van Wien.

SPEAKER_01:

Awesome.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, is it a vampire story or is it a metaphor for mental health? We will discuss.

SPEAKER_01:

We will discuss that. I love the book, so I'm really looking forward to that conversation. So until then, keep reading, keep exploring literature on a deeper level, and we look forward to talking with you again soon.

SPEAKER_00:

Yes, and if you want more of my content, you can find me on TikTok as Peter Wetzel Reads.

SPEAKER_01:

And I'm also Mrs. Han Reads on TikTok because I'm a literature teacher. And I am working up a book talk right now, which you already have. Yes. All right, we'll see you next time. Thank you so much.