Gods mingle with the mortals, and not heeding their warnings could lead to quick danger being mere men, Odysseus and his crew often make hasty errors in judgment and must face challenging consequences. Following Odysseus’s journey to return home to his beloved wife, Penelope, readers are transported into a world that easily combines the realistic and the fantastic. Hinds adds another magnificent adaptation to his oeuvre ( King Lear, 2009, etc.) with this stunning graphic retelling of Homer’s epic.

It’s all been done, better. (Supernatural romance. Some readers will enjoy it, especially those with little experience in the genre. Emotions, romances and dramatic situations turn on and off with the sudden intensity of a melodramatic silent movie from the 19-teens, a scenario also called to mind by much of the dialogue. Place names typically include y’s or double f’s or both, as in “Wyldcliffe Abbey School for Young Ladies,” the novel’s setting. Gothic conventions continue as riders gallop wildly across the moors, ghosts appear when summoned and every kiss equals an out-of-body experience. Havoc includes, in the most imaginative portion of the book, tempting Sarah into mysterious caves where gnomelike underground rock creatures can capture her and hold her forever. The main bad witch, thought vanquished in the previous installment, returns to wreak havoc. This book focuses on Sarah, a part-gypsy–turned-lady student and member of the good witches’ coven, who struggles to keep the group together when best friend Evie tries to bow out. With good and evil witches’ covens, an ancient Stonehenge-like circle, a magically sealed attic room, an abbey turned school and romance both natural and supernatural, the author does her best to include every convention of the genre. This third book in Shield’s continuing supernatural series ( Immortal, 2009, etc.) can feed the needs only of those who crave 100-percent full gothic fiction.

Immortal book gillian shields