Of Death & Desires
A Dark Fates Novel
Picking up after a novel set two thousand years prior, T. C. Kraven’s Of Death & Desires doesn’t miss a beat in continuing the star-crossed story of Hades and Persephone.
After a multimillennial search, Persephone is found in 1990s New Orleans with no memory of who she is. Held apart by a curse, Hades watches as she struggles to navigate this unfamiliar world, pushing her away for her own protection. Other gods and demigods are willing and able to assist her, though their powers waned as the mortal world turned to other altars; they have taken on other names and assimilated into the human world.
As Persephone goes in search of the life she can’t remember, she finds herself inexorably drawn to cold, brooding Hades despite his feigned indifference. True love will not be denied—and is not easy. A power stirs within the streets of New Orleans, ancient and hungry, and the lovers and their found family need to rely on more than their dwindling powers to stop it from devouring them all.
The riotous 1990s blend with the moody, gothic atmosphere of New Orleans, creating a world both nostalgic and imagined—the perfect contradiction for a modern(ish) retelling of the Hades and Persephone myth. A trolley jostling down Canal Street and gnarled magnolia trees seem frozen in a bygone time; a nod to the Gorgonknots, a punk rock band fronted by Medusa, draws the book back to the present. The clash of history and modernity serves as the ideal backdrop for this tale of ancient immortals struggling to find their footing in a world that forgot them.
In this second series installment, the events of the opening novel are revisited with enough depth to dive right into a nostalgic, spicy retelling of the myth of Hades and Persephone.
Reviewed by
Danielle Ballantyne
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