Sweetbitter Song by Rosie Hewlett
512 pages | published by Sourcebooks Landmark
⭐⭐⭐⭐
The Set Up: Melantho is a young slave when she first meets the Spartan princess Penelope. The two girls form a powerful bond, one that the court quickly tears apart. Years later their paths cross again in Ithaca, when Melantho is sent to serve Penelope and her new husband, Odysseus. As war pulls the men of Ithaca away, the women left behind navigate power, loyalty, and survival within the palace walls.
This was such an interesting retelling, and one that ended up being much more emotional than I expected. I haven’t read anything about Odysseus since high school, so I went into this without a strong sense of where it was headed, which made the experience even more engaging.
The characters were really fascinating here. The story spans about thirty years, so we get to see a huge amount of growth in both Melantho and Penelope. My heart broke for Melantho again and again. The unfairness of the life she was born into is impossible to ignore, and the way it shapes her outlook on the world is really powerful. Penelope was such an interesting character to follow. Her mind is always working, quietly pulling the strings behind the scenes and trying to make the best of whatever situation she’s been given.
The atmosphere of this book is definitely heavy. There’s a lot of tragedy here and the characters face some incredibly painful circumstances along the way. It’s a sad story overall, but there is still a thread of hope running through it, especially in the final moments.
“She was the air, the sky, the ground, the breath in my lungs, the blood in my veins. She was my beginning and my end. She was everything.”
I did enjoy the writing for the most part, but the dialogue sometimes felt a little too modern for the setting. Every now and then it pulled me out of the story because it didn’t quite match the tone of the historical and mythological world.
Plot-wise, I really liked the concept of exploring what was happening in Ithaca while Odysseus was away at war. It’s a clever angle for a retelling. I did think there were a few sections involving Melantho and her brother that felt a bit repetitive to me. It sometimes felt like the story was revisiting the same emotional beats without adding much.
All in all, I did really enjoy this book. It’s a beautiful love story, but one that’s deeply tinged with sadness and tension.
Thank you to Netgalley & Sourcebooks Landmark for the advanced eBook copy!
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