Medusa (Myth of Monsters #1)
by Katherine Marsh (Author)
From National Book Award finalist Katherine Marsh: Percy Jackson meets Wednesday Addams in this fantastical adventure about Ava, who attends a boarding school for the descendants of Greek monsters and uncovers a terrible secret that could change the world forever.
Ava Baldwin has always tried to keep her anger in check, just like her mom taught her. But when know-it-all classmate Owen King tries to speak over her yet again, Ava explodes . . . and Owen freezes, becoming totally unresponsive. Although Owen recovers, Ava's parents whisk her off to her mother's alma mater, the Accademia del Forte, a mysterious international boarding school in Venice. There, Ava and her brother, Jax, discover that the Olympian gods founded the Accademia to teach the descendants of mythological monsters how to control their emotions and their powers and become functioning, well-adjusted members of society.
But not everything at the Accademia is as it seems. After her friend Fia is almost expelled for challenging a teacher, Ava realizes the school is hiding a dangerous secret. To uncover the truth, Ava and her new friends embark on an adventure that could change the way they view history, mythology--and themselves--forever...or end their lives.
One of Kirkus's most anticipated books of 2024!
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Kirkus
A fast-paced adventure offering a fresh, feminist take on popular themes.
ALA/Booklist
Award-winning Marsh’s contribution to the magical-boarding-school genre focuses on the importance of questioning authority and owning your own story.
Publishers Weekly
Using the Medusa mythos as a framework, Marsh (The Lost Year) crafts a unique and distinctly feminist fantasy series launch set in a contemporary world. When confronting a bully, seventh grader Ava Baldwin somehow freezes him in place. Within days, she's whisked away to Accademia del Forte in Venice, Italy, a boarding school her mother also attended. Things take a turn for the bizarre when headmaster Mr. O'Ryan reveals himself to be the mythic hunter Orion and announces that Greek gods are real--and that all the students at the academy are descended from monsters of myth. Though Ava seems to flourish at the academy, she's haunted by her mother's distraught silence upon Ava's departure. As Ava's new best friend, Irish-born Fia, defiantly questions the school's male-focused dogma, Ava considers both what it means to be a monster and the school's true intentions. By exploring the patriarchal origins often present in Greek mythology, Marsh evokes powerful analogies about how girls and women can be taught to fear the world and themselves via a take-charge, intelligent heroine and her compassionate first-person voice. Ava is described as having golden-brown skin. Ages 8-12. Agent: Alex Glass, Glass Literary. (Feb.)
Copyright 2023 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.
Review quotes
"A unique and distinctly feminist fantasy series launch set in a contemporary world. Marsh evokes powerful analogies about how girls and women can be taught to fear the world and themselves via a take-charge, intelligent heroine and her compassionate first-person voice." — Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"A fast-paced adventure offering a fresh, feminist take on popular themes." — Kirkus Reviews
JUV013000 - Juvenile Fiction | Family | General
JUV022020 - Juvenile Fiction | Legends, Myths, & Fables | Greek & Roman
JUV030050 - Juvenile Fiction | People & Places | Europe
JUV052000 - Juvenile Fiction | Monsters
Boarding schools
Monsters
Mythology
Gods
Gorgons (Greek mythology)
Medusa
Boarding schoosls
