October 1, 2018
A sapphic interpretation of the Greek legend of Atalanta.Beautiful, blonde-haired Atalanta, a girl raised by hunters, develops a reputation as one of the fastest runners in Greece. She invokes the wrath of the goddess Artemis for allegedly slaying her Calydonian boar in a hunt; however, the truth is that it was one of Artemis' own huntresses, half-Greek, half-Ethiopian Kahina, who slew the boar on an impulse to save Atalanta when it attacked. Banished by Artemis on a mission to the kingdom of Arkadia, Kahina is bitter to discover the king of Arkadia returning home with none other than Atalanta, his long-lost daughter, whom he intends to marry off to a wealthy suitor to save his kingdom from financial ruin. Atalanta, for complicated reasons, has no desire to marry and, together with Kahina, devises a plan to keep her suitors at bay: She challenges them to best her in a footrace for the privilege of her hand in marriage. As their intertwined story unfolds in dual narratives, both young women must confront their growing feelings for one another along with capricious gods and dangerous men from their respective pasts. This ostensibly star-crossed debut never quite evokes credible romantic tension nor the setting or flavor of ancient Greece, with dialogue frequently defaulting to modern colloquialisms.A reinterpretation of Greek mythology that reads more like generic fantasy. (author's note) (Fantasy. 14-18)
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