Book Review: Promise of Shadows

Hey readers! Can you believe TBF is this month? After all of the incredible books I've read and loved this year I'm beyond excited for the big event. For my last book review of the year I read the wonderful Promise of Shadows by Justina Ireland.

Zephyr Mourning has never been very good at being a Harpy. She’d rather watch reality TV than learn forty-seven ways to kill a man, and she pretty much sucks at wielding magic. Zephyr was ready for a future pretending to be a normal human instead of a half-god assassin. But all that changes when her sister is murdered—and she uses a forbidden dark power to save herself from the same fate.

Zephyr is on the run from a punishment worse than death when an unexpected reunion with a childhood friend (a surprisingly HOT friend) changes everything. Because it seems like Zephyr might just be the Nyx, a dark goddess made flesh that is prophesied to change the power balance. For hundreds of years the half-gods have lived in fear, and Zephyr is supposed to change that. But how is she supposed to save everyone when she can’t even save herself?

I've loved mythology novels ever since I read Percy Jackson as a small second grader, but I did not know what I was in for going into this novel. Promise of Shadows is a whole new realm of retelling. Much bleaker, much more gritty, but in that, much more accurate to the darkness of the original myths. Ireland's portrayal of the Ætheral were more unforgiving and terrifying than any of the Greek Gods I've read in the past, which is incredible. And so even though appearances of the Ætheral were occasional, I loved reading their scenes as well as all those in all of the other mythological places I've known for so long from the main setting of Tartarus, to places like the harsh River Styx.

But my other favorite part of this novel was the characters. The entire cast of characters was diverse, well written, and even the secondary characters were important and played their own parts to the story. Zephyr is the kind of protagonist I've been wanting to read about for so long. She's a heroine who is deeply flawed, and who acknowledges that fact, which is a breath of fresh air compared to some of the other protagonists I've read about. She remains rational and uses the skills she has for all the novel, even when standing face to face with the grim Hades.

In the end, from the incredible world-building to the authentic yet still fierce main character, this novel was a ride. 
Make sure to check out Promise of Shadows and go see Justina this month at TBF!

-Claire

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