Destined by Jessie Harrell

   

     Destined by Jessie Harrell
          Kindle Edition: $2.99
          Paperback Edition: $9.99 (new)
          Length: 370 pages
          Reading Level: YA
          Destined on Amazon (opens in a new window)


The long and short of it: Psyche is chosen by Aphrodite to be her ceremonial daughter, as Helen of Troy once was. To avoid previous mistakes (cough, Helen, cough) Aphrodite arranges a marriage between her "daughter" Psyche and her son, Eros (known as Cupid in Roman myth). Naturally, they hate each other. Psyche refuses the marriage, as does Eros. Aphrodite is insulted, and leaves Psyche to her own devices. She then tells Eros that, for the slight, he is to use his arrows to make Psyche fall in love with someone wretched. He has a much harder time with his task than he thought he was, as he manages to rationalize each potential terrible husband away. Eventually he makes a decision, and approaches Psyche, where he finds her sobbing on a bench after being passed over for marriage in favor of her sister. He whispers her name to his arrow, preparing to shoot, and then he scratches himself with the tip, thus cursing himself.

What follows is the turbulent story of how they try to get their "happily ever after," all the while evading Aphrodite, suitors, jealous sisters, and numerous other obstacles.


Destined is a YA romance-type debut novel by author Jessie Harrell. It's a bit different from most things I'll be reviewing on the blog, so I figured it would be a good introduction to everything. In this novel, the reader is given a modern re-imagining of the Greek tale of Eros and Psyche. Eros and Psyche on Wikipedia (opens in a new window)

Unlike many other Greek re-tellings or re-imaginings or anything else, Harrell attempts to keep the subject matter current, yet true to its roots by keeping the timeline the same, but updating the language style. So, while the characters are, in fact, living in Ancient Greece, the language is like that of any other modern novel. This can be either a blessing or curse, depending on personal opinion. It adds an element of depth and intrigue to the story, however, there is also the risk of the reader losing immersion in the story by some anachronistic phrases.

For the record, I love Greek mythology. I'm a nerd, and I feel that our life could be much more entertaining, if not interesting, if we still gave credence to these beliefs. So I went into this story, strangely enough NOT knowing the source material, but accepting this story as a reasonable telling of events.

As with any other reboot, re-telling, re-imagining, whatever you want to call it, there are bound to be discrepancies between the original source. And there are. Most of them can be easily ignored, such as the number of sisters, the nature of curses, etc. I did not find these to be problematic, largely because, again, I was unfamiliar with the source text. I did, however, have a problem with the mix of Greek and Roman names for various deities. They are all fairly solidly Greek, but I was confused when the goddess Ceres was mentioned. This is because Ceres is the Roman name. Had Harrell used the Greek variation, Demeter, I would have been more familiar. This seems such a small thing, but as someone who is familiar with much Greco-Roman mythology, it is a point of contention. For me, anyway.

The manuscript itself is very clean, with few grammatical errors. The dialog is...interesting. At times it seems typical of a mythology-styled novel. It isn't chock full of "thy" or "thou" or any of that craziness, but the grammar is very proper, and contractions are few and far between. Other times, though, particularly with Psyche and her friend Alexa, the dialog is strikingly modern. As mentioned earlier, while I applaud the attempt of Harrell to inject something contemporary into an old tale, when juxtaposed with the proper, borderline archaic language, it can be a little jarring.

The narration style is interesting, as it switches between first and third person with regularity. When the narrative follows Psyche, it is in a first person perspective, so the modern dialog  fits in rather seamlessly. Conversely, when Eros is the "narrator" the tone becomes that of a limited omniscient third person. Each chapter is prefaced by the name of the character being followed, and they switch as frequently as every other chapter. This difference in narrative style is extremely helpful in the event that one overlooks the chapter heading, as it offers a distinct difference. I, of course, would never skip such a thing. (cough)

Overall, Destined is a quick, fun, quirky read that can be, dare I say it, educational and informative, given the appearances of multiple deities. While I don't see this novel being on the NY Times bestsellers list anytime soon, it is still a valiant debut by Harrell. There is clearly a wealth of talent here, and I look forward to reading future works by this author.

If you like Greek mythology at all, in any way shape or form, give this book a read, and think about how interesting our lives could be if we attributed a different deity to each aspect of daily life.

-Kayla