It was published by Picador in the UK and Holland in July 2014, and the USA in August 2014, with other translations to follow. Onto this island sails a young lad, Perseus, who is on a quest, also at the behest of his fickle elders. I think the writing wasn’t bad either - just kind of insufferable at times - which feels crappy to say.

It’s true of not just her own luminous, astute retellings, but also of Burton’s bracing and powerful Medusa.Medusa turned from misunderstood villain to manic pixie dream girl, and it was hard not to make it through every page without rolling my eyes. This book is talismanic to me, and it inspired me to keep going with the drafts of my debut, The Miniaturist. I envied them that confidence with such ferocity that my snakes turned to red-hot pokers spanning my skull. So because of the length alongside very little happening, Burton's story isn't really the retelling of Medusa I was hoping for.

Even when she stops taking to the waters to fish, Poseidon punishes her village with floods and storms. Burton's text and Lomenech Gill's art are a perfect match, offering a powerfully feminist, elegiac and original twist on this old story. Many of us will be familiar with the story of Perseus and his quest, but here the roles are reversed. I thought of what it might mean to have a boy admire you, not for how you looked, but for who you were.A friend that she begins to trust, and with the desire to shed the ‘ache of loneliness’, she opens up to him. In this fascinating reimagining of the myth of Medusa, author Jessie Burton presents us with a novel feminist twist to a character and story that has, for the most part, featured as one of Perseus’s heroic exploits. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added. She is much more than a monster whose head is a coveted prize for Perseus and the King who sent him on his quest. There were so many moments in this historical retelling that will resonate with women in the now, be they young and older.

Any images belonging to the author should be regarded in the same way as the previously mentioned written content and should not be used without permission. Having aimed to be "a successful stage actress", by the age of 28 she had stalled in this career, and "could see the writing on the wall - the dream to be the next Kate Winslet wasn’t going to happen. I distinctly remember the chill of Mrs Danvers, and it felt like the first proper grown-up book I’d read.It addresses the issues you would expect: the nature of beauty, love, attraction, victim blaming, being different, gender stereotyping and the trauma of sexual assault. Who we are, and why we are like that I do not think there is a soul this side of Mount Olympus who can effortlessly explain the twists and turns their life has taken, why they might prefer a fig cake over a honey one, why they fell in love with that man rather than his friend, why they cry at night, or cry at beauty, or cry for no reason at all.