Chloe Clever has had it rough: her father left her family a few years ago, she’s plagued with hallucinations of the scariest kind and she’s her high school’s resident freak.
By the second chapter we know why: Chloe is the Oracle of Delphi, and the voices she hears and visions she sees are real. She’s saved in the nick of time from certain death at the hands of an evil Ker by the children of... Apollo. Turns out the god of prophecy has some very good reasons to want to protect the Oracle, but Chloe learns very quickly that the gods don’t do anything for free.
The first people to warn her about the gods? Their demigod children, who may have been blessed with some of their immortal parent’s power, but are all varying degrees of dispensable. Even Strafford Law, the most powerful of Apollo’s children, is ultimately just a tool of his father’s. Chloe, however, quickly sees him very differently.
Chloe’s task is to figure out The Prophecy of the Most Beautiful, and even The Knowledge bestowed (or forced?) upon her by Apollo isn’t enough on its own. In fairness, though, having to fight off attacks and encountering people literally falling from the sky is a huge distraction. But even before she does solve it, it’s clear that Olympus has bigger issues simmering, and Apollo, Strafford and Chloe are destined to play a huge part in what’s going down. So, evidently, might her family, but that’s a story for the next book.
As a longtime mythology fangirl, I love that Jones begins to tie up some “unfinished business” the original stories left us dangling with. Not to give anything away, but Roberto Calasso would definitely approve of the way she’s doing it. Also, Jones drops hints several times that Chloe’s previous life may not have been everything she thought it was, but my jaw still dropped when we realized just how different it really was. I cannot wait to see how the twist with her family plays out. Finally, I enjoyed the character Strafford; I’m very curious now to uncover why he needs to redeem himself- and how he’s going to do it.
Recommended for mythology fans.
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