Beauty's Daughter: The Story of Hermione and Helen of Troy

Well, gee. Carolyn Meyer has done it again! Despite mixed reviews, I thought "Beauty's Daughter" was outstanding. It's the "untold story" of Helen of Troy's daughter, Hermione. I thought the author's approach was very clever, using the point of view of the daughter of the most beautiful woman of the ancient world. Meyer makes the classic Greek mythology come alive. Her grandmother is Leda, who consorts with the God Zeus in the form of a swan and gives birth to Helen, or maybe she's hatched from an egg? Gods and Goddesses come down to earth and interfere with the humans, but it's just part of daily life to Hermione. Then, she stows away on a ship filled with prostitutes travelling with the army to Troy to fetch her mother, but the Trojan war lasts ten years, and she literally grows up in a battle camp. It's an amazing adventure and a clever approach to the classic myths.

Meh. I'm really into mythology and fairy tales and overall it's alright. Some of the mythology was wrong which drove me nuts, and it just seemed like a vague overview like a teenage girl giving a summary of the Iliad. "And then Achilles died. We were sad. The horse was built. Oh look we won". I just wish it was more in depth. But overall it was alright.

**In the interest of full disclosure, I have also written a novel about Hermione and Helen. That fact has no bearing on this review.I confess, I was torn about writing about a review for this book. Since Ms. Meyer announced back in Spring 2012 that she was writing about Hermione and Helen, I have been looking forward to reading it. However, I am unsure about how to approach the review. Do I write as a fellow author and risk alienating Ms. Meyer or her many fans? Do I write as an enthusiast of the Late Bronze Age Aegean, which is the setting of the book? Do I write as a former English teacher? I believe the middle option, as a lover of the Mycenaean period and the Greek myths, is the most objective approach, and that was how I chose to read the book.Any novel set in the 13th century B.C. and dealing with the Greek myths is going to pose a problem. There is so much backstory modern readers aren't likely to know that any author is going to have to break from the action to explain certain things. That's okay as long as the action and character development don't suffer. I had trouble connecting with Hermione in the first chapters because of this. She did not leap from the page (or Kindle screen, in my case) for me. Nor did any of the other characters. Hermione does too much telling, and not enough showing. This problem persists through the first two parts of the book. Only in the third, covering the post-Trojan War period, where Ms. Meyer had greater freedom to use her imagination in describing Heremione's escape from Phthia, does the narration come alive.Helen made me shake my head. I suppose the natural inclination of most authors and readers (and filmmakers, too, I guess) is to portray Helen as a vain, selfish, empty-headed sexpot. I admit to being rather tired of that interpretation, though I understand that this might just be how Hermione perceives her mother.History is full of sluts, but this is the woman whose face is said to have launched a thousand ships. Maybe her abduction was just a pretext for a Mycenaean invasion of Troy, I don't know, but Ms. Meyer's Helen completely lacks the charisma that would make men fight over her. We are told that Aphrodite cast a spell over Helen and Paris (and the entire Spartan citadel, to boot). Does the interference of the gods mean Helen bears no responsibility for her actions? I recall Helen in the Iliad as being much more complicated, alternately seductive, tempestuous, and remorseful. I would have liked to see that Helen here.Another thing about that mist: it's never explained how Hermione is immune to its effects.Perhaps the main problem I had with the book was that I never bought the idea of Hermione being present at Troy. There's absolutely no way Menelaus or Agamemnon would have risked Hermione's virtue or health by allowing her to stay in the Greek camp. She was, after all, Menelaus and Helen's only remaining child, and heiress to the kingdom of Sparta. She would have been shipped straight back to Mycenae (where, in fact, she actually spent the duration of the war with her aunt Clytemnestra). Yet Menelaus isn't even angry when he discovers her in the camp.Hermione is very matter-of-fact about life in the camp. We don't see her being afraid of rape, disease, starvation (the Greeks were regularly short of rations, I imagine), or a Trojan raid, in which she herself might end up like Astynome (Chryseis) or Hippodameia (Briseis), and abused. I'm not sure whether Ms. Meyer's editor was hovering over the manuscript with a virtual red pen to censor any objectionable material, but since instances of prostitution and rape do occur, I'm guessing these details were simply neglected.I've noticed in a few other books that it's become commonplace to make Hermione and Orestes closer in age than the Classical sources state, with Orestes being older. According to Classical playwrights, Hermione was seven years older than Orestes, and he was about two when the Trojan War started, and no older than 12 when Agamemnon was murdered. He never went to Troy. In fact, in the Iliad, Agamemnon tells Odysseus to tell Achilles that he will make Achilles his son-in-law, as dear to him as his young son Orestes, then growing up at Mycenae "in abundant prosperity." Orestes had to wait seven years (presumably until he reached manhood) to take his revenge on Clytemnestra and Aegisthus.The murder of that pair and Orestes's pollution felt somewhat whitewashed, at least in terms of the way Hermione reacts. The madness part the author conveys nicely, but the pollution part, not so much. Blood guilt was a very big deal in the ancient world. Hermione shouldn't even be looking at Orestes for fear of being tainted, much less talking to or touching him. I do understand, however, why Ms. Meyer chose not to mention the double curse on Orestes (and Hermione, too) by means of his descent from the House of Atreus. The Atreidai were the ultimate Greek dysfunctional family, and I think the more taboo aspects of the curse would frighten younger readers.I did appreciate that Ms. Meyers read and incorporated bits and pieces of various Classical plays and the Homeric epics into the novel. I just wish there had been more character development and more detail. I don't know what kind of deadline the author was working under (and I know from her blog posts that she had one), but I feel the book would have benefited from more time and effort.Readers who are intrigued by Hermione, Orestes, the Trojan War, and other related topics should check out Adele Geras's novel "Troy," Margaret George's "Helen of Troy," and Eric Shanower's graphic novel series "Age of Bronze."

Bought it for my daughter for Christmas and she could not put it down. She read it in a day.

Not what I expected from one of my top five authors. I am not into this type of fantasy at all.

Rating: 3Writing this makes me sad. I got so excited when I saw this at the bookstore. The cover was beautiful and when I saw it was about greek mythology I knew I had to have it. Sadly it left me feeling like: mehhThis book is a retelling of the classic story of Helen of Troy. It goes over all the main points of the story, but it is told from the point of view of Hermione. This book was interesting to me because I enjoy the mythology in it, but I did have a major problem with it. The book was flat. There’s really no other way put it. A lot of the scenes that were meant to be emotional didn’t make me feel anything. I feel like the author focused on following the plot of the original story that she forgot to add emotions and feelings to it. This was a disappointment because all the characters had so much potential, but they felt glossed over. There was no character development, which is a big no for me.The book encompasses a long period of time and normally that’s not a problem but in this case, it just didn’t work out.I have to give it to the author, she really did some major research. This is one of the reasons why I gave it a 3.Overall, this book was not for me, but we all have different opinions. If you’re interested in reading this book go for it. Just don’t spend money on it. Try checking it out from the library or borrowing it from a friend.