A different type of historical fiction for me, retellings of seven female figures from ancient Greece. Through seven short stories, we get to see what a more modern version of their lives could have looked like correlating to their legends. I enjoyed the Medea retelling in Paris around 1902 that included some scenes from the Moulin Rouge. Another interesting story was a 17th-century Penelope accused of being a witch. Then there was Dido as a 12th Century nun… I liked the author’s note in which she talks about her choice to give the women a chance to live. The audiobook narrator was great.

*Provided an ALC (advance listening copy) audiobook from the publisher for review. All opinions are my own.

This is a fine audiobook. I like the retellings and that some are in the current day and some are not. The FMC that starts the story is not well written, and areas of the story do drag. But overall it’s a likeable book and if you hold a lot of knowledge about Greek mythology this will speak to you.

I’ve really enjoyed this book (for the most part)
I’m heavily immersed in this period of mythology as I guess are a lot of people right now following on from the Song of Achilles Circe and of course the Netflix Kaos series, so Ive found it hard to understand this book outside of those parallel creative offerings.
As a result I’ve already determined to listen to this book again, perhaps story by story instead of in a long chain as I did last weekend.
I think knowing the stories as I do, I may well have glossed over or not paid as much attention as I should have so it’s going to have a second run.
From this first listen, though, I feel that Madea is the most thought out story its certainly the most enjoyable mix of the tale combining a much more subdued, perhaps misunderstood version of medea in the heady Parisian arts scene of the late 19th century. Having said that it was Sapphos relationship with her cat that hooked me in the first story so maybe that one is a joint first! Last thought is the story of Penelope in Elizabethan England which felt laboured and irritated me in a way, even though the writing is generally good. Maybe it’ll hit home better in the second listen.
All in all it’s a good read A good narrator, and you don’t need to be familiar with the stories to enjoy them

Hazel Atkinson’s “Dark Harvest” offers a refreshing take on classic Greek myths, reimagining the stories of iconic women in modern and historical settings. This collection of short stories showcases Atkinson’s ability to breathe new life into these ancient tales, while maintaining their core themes and characters. One of the most striking aspects of the book is Atkinson’s decision to keep the original names of the characters. This serves as a clear reminder that these are retellings, not entirely new stories. Additionally, her use of language echoes the original myths, particularly Sappho’s poetry, adding a layer of authenticity.

The narrator’s talent for accents and distinct character voices brings the characters to life, making the listener feel immersed in their worlds. Atkinson’s author’s note at the end provides valuable insights into the adapting nature of myth and its oral tradition. Atkinson’s feminist approach and the narrator’s skillful performance make this audiobook a worthwhile listen for fans of mythological retellings and female-led stories.

Special thanks to NetGalley, Bolinda Audio, and the editorial team for giving me the opportunity to review the ARC in audiobook format and to you, my reader, for taking the time to read this honest personal book review.

If you are interested in other of my book reviews, make sure to follow me on GoodReads! #DarkHarvest #NetGalley #LifeLongLearning

4.75* rounded up

This was such an interesting and unique set of tales, Atkinson really captured the humanity of these ancient women and brought their reality into more modern settings. It really highlighted how universal and timeless these stories are and how much we can still gain from them. I really enjoyed her choice to keep the characters' names the same despite the modern/non greek settings, it made it very clear that these were updated retellings of these myths rather than tales simply inspired by the myths.

Atkinson's language was beautiful throughout, having read a few of the these myths in translation and Sappho's poetry, it was lovely to see her use of some of the turns of phrase from the source material in the stories, particularly Sappho's as her remaining work is so fragmentary. Though is was clear the same person wrote all the tales, Atkinson was able to create a strong sense of unique self in all of these women's voices.

Getting to listen to this in audio format was really lovely, it felt like it connected me to the oral traditions many of these myths would have started out in. The narrator was able to do several accents very well and the character's voices were distinct from eachother. It was a great listen.

Finally I also really liked the Author's note at the end. I enjoyed Atkinson's point about the adapting nature of myth and it's oral past.

I would like to thank Bolinda Audio, NetGalley and Hazel Atkinson for the free audiobook, it was a really excellent listen and a unique perspective at a time when there are a lot of Greek myth retellings being made.

I loved this collection of short stories.

The audio book was great. I enjoyed the fact that you really did feel in the time and moment with each character.

My favourite of the stories were Dido and Penelope, as I have previously studied these and they have a place in my heart.

I learnt about other Greek women that I’d previously not known or known little about which spurred on a great Wikipedia spiral.

The narrating was perfect and it makes you feel more connected to the characters. You can imagine yourself in the room with them.

Such an interesting take on the retelling of classic literature genre. Short stories make for nice bitesize chunks and this works well. some stories were more appealing than others, but this probably reflects my personal taste in settings rather than the quality of the story.

This was such a fun and unique listen. I’m generally not a fan of short stories. I didn’t realize that was the style of the book when I requested it. But being familiar with Greek myths made it easy to follow along with the modern day retellings. What a refreshing take! Highly recommend the narration as well.
*Thanks to Bolinda Audio and NetGalley for the audiobook copy.

I struggled to get into this at first. While I knew before starting the audiobook that it would be a mixture of old and new, the beginning didn't engage me.

However, I felt I was being unfair, so I've given it another go and it's actually pretty good. It's not my usual genre, but it well written and the narration is excellent.

I think the concept is a great one and would recommend to fans of retellings and female led stories. I also appreciated the LGBTQIA+ rep.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the ALC

This book was PHENOMINAL! Going in I was a bit skeptical about the concept of putting women from Greek mythology in different settings, but Hazel Atkinson has done a brilliant job marrying the myths we know with disparate time periods. For me, the standouts were Sappho (a modern woman teaching poetry) and Canace (wild west incest?!). This is a book I want on my bookself, because I'm going to want to revisit these women time and time again.

Thank You for the opportunity to Dark Harvest by Hazel Atkinson.

I really loved this collection of stories set in the modern day but taking inspiration from Ovid's Heroines. I'm a sucker for Greek Mythology so this was extra special. I liked this so much that I want to read Heroides now.

So, go for it.

A wonderful set of stories remaking Greek myths from a feminist perspective. Each story shifts in time and across history but retains key elements of the original stories. This is wonderfully narrated and I found it utterly immersive. Medea struts through the streets of fin de siecle Paris, Dido haunts the wars between Stephen and Matilda, Penelope negotiates Tudor politics and all the stories are flawlessly executed and so alive. I loved this.

Dark Harvest is a collection of short stories that reimagine the women from Greek and Roman mythology. I missed the mythology phase that it seems every other gay person I've met went through in middle school so I don't have a lot of context for these stories (besides Sappho, of course). Even so, I enjoyed each of these stories! The writing is descriptive, visual, and evokes a lot of feeling. I am not usually one for short story collections because I want my stories to be just a bit more fleshed out but each of these stories painted vivid images of the characters involved and told the perfect amount of story. I highly highly recommend this to people who know more about Dido, Helen, Penelop, etc and even to those who don't!

5 out of 5 stars

Thank you to Netgalley and Bolinda Audio for allowing me to listen to an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

This collection of short stories is a retelling of poems based on Saffo, Dido, Helen, Medea and Penelope. These are all set in modern times but feel just as timely. My personal favorite was Helen of Troy's story. Narrated beautifully by Sofia Engstrand I could feel each characters voice clearly.

I loved this version of greek mythology. An absolute refreshing new take on these womens stories. Hazel takes the women from history and give them a modern view that makes their experiences more relatable.

A collection of short stories about women that shows a feminist perspective on stories set in different imes and places, but based upon Greek mythology. For example, Sappho is not the female poet who loved other women, and lived on Lesbos, but a modern version who breaks out of the confines of academia and a relationship that is going nowhere, with a man who does not listen. I enjoyed the feminist perspective and the stories. I would recommend the book highly.

Dark Harvest by Hazel Atkinson is such an excellent concept. Re-imagining the stories of Sappho and women from Greek mythology and placing them in different time periods sounds fantastic. Some of the stories were very good, while others were tedious.

My favorites were Medea, Canace, and Helen. The complete re-imaginings of Medea and Canace were intricately detailed and engrossing. Helen's story is the only one set in the character's own time period, but Atkinson still managed to breathe fresh life into her character. I would have loved full length novels of each one of them. I also liked Phaedra, though that was too short.

The other stories were pretty boring. Penelope was a particular disappointment given it's lack of originality in the re-imagining (Penelope took the place of an actual historical figure) and the length just made it drag on without anything interesting happening. The other stories were pretty forgettable.

Sofia Engstrand's narration was excellent. Her rendition of each story was completely unique.

I'm giving this 2.5 stars but rounding up to 3.

Thank you to Netgalley and Bolinda Audio for this audio ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you for providing me with an ARC copy of dark harvest. The concept of this book is really interesting, with a collection of stories and characters from Greek mythology but who take back control of their lives. I enjoyed each of the stories that were told although I would have liked a little bit more from some of the stories as some were quite similar in places although some stories were more detailed than others. I read a lot of Greek mythology so this was definitely interesting but not my usual style of book, however I did still enjoy it and I loved the concept and that some of these characters were able to reclaim their control and write their own history. Definitely worth a read (or listen) for those who enjoy mythology. I was able to fly through this quite quickly because of how it was formatted into short stories.


Narrator was excellent and engaging!

Many stories of women were written by poets and this novel retells the stories of Medea, Penelope, Saffo, Dido and Helen. Retold at different times in history showing just how relevant they are today.

Really enjoyed this well written and well narrated book (I listened to the audiobook). Strong female leads who want their endings to be different. Stories written by men and retold from a woman’s point of view. Excellent, enjoy.

This book of short stories was interesting.

It took some of the most popular women in Greek myths, retold their stories in different settings (some modern day, some not), and gave them much more agency than they originally had.

In theory, that should make for a fantastic book. But in reality, it was more average than awesome.

Mythological retellings have become hella popular over the last few years, to varying degrees of success.

Some of the stories in this book really were excellent -- i.e., Dido's and Medusa's. Others, though, were very solidly average -- i.e., Helen's, Sappho's, and Penelope's.

And there were a couple that I couldn't get into at all -- i.e., Phaedra's and Canace's.

As a result, I think a solid 3-star rating is a fair assessment. If you're into classic/mythological retellings, especially those with a feminist perspective, it's definitely worth the read. However, it isn't going anywhere near the top of the list of retellings like "The Song of Achilles." (That book is a masterpiece, though, so not many books would.)

I loved the narrator, though. She had a soothing, beautiful, and at times even sexy voice that just made me want to melt like butter. She needs to narrate more books, or maybe just read phone books aloud or something. I'd listen to her all day. The pacing was good, too. I listened at 2x speed, but that's pretty common for me, so I wouldn't say it was slow or draggy.

The one problem I had with it (and I noticed it most in Dido's story) was that it suddenly shifted scenes without warning. This might be a book problem, but I THINK it's more likely that it was a narration problem. In Dido's story, there's a scene (flashback/memory) where her brother comes into her room. Then, suddenly she's back in the present again, and then WHAM! We're back in the memory without any transition whatsoever.

I'm assuming maybe there were page breaks or something to indicate these shifts in the print version of the book. But there was NOTHING like that in the audio version. And yes, that includes a short break in audio that might indicate a scene shift. It was just the end of one sentence and the immediate beginning of another -- no pauses, no breaks, no nothing.

And again, I've not seen the print version of this book, so that might actually be how it's written -- with no breaks whatsoever. If that's the case, then that's on the author because there definitely needs to be something there to designate the shift.

But if there ARE breaks in the book, the narrator should have put a bit more space in there.

Either way, it was an interesting book that's worth the read if myth retellings are your thing. Thanks to Negalley and the publisher for providing me with an ARC for review purposes.