The Palace of Eros

While we all know the story of Psyche and Eros, we as readers may not realise the full impact that there story had on others. A beautiful story about the power of autonomy.

For me, the mark of a good book is one that I don’t want to put down - and The Palace of Eros by Caro De Robertis was absolutely that. This is the tale of Psyche and Eros, but it’s also the tale of what happens around them - the other lives they touch, and how their stories and interwoven in to the tales of other people, other women, other gods.

As a huge fan of Madeline Miller I was SO excited to read this – and I wasn’t disappointed. This novel is heart-wrenching, hard-hitting, beautifully written, sumptuous, poetic, romantic, and (because Eros is the goddess of desire) utterly scorching in places.

I loved how the author switched between Eros and Psyche’s point of view in this novel, and I personally loved the switch between first person (Psyche) and third person (Eros) as I think that mirrored the distance between Psyche and Eros in the novel, the gap between humans and mortals, and was a perfect mirror to the darkness that conceals and veils their relationship from the prying eyes of vengeful gods (like Zeus! Gosh that was an amazing subplot).

A gorgeous retelling, and one I will no doubt read again!

A big thank you to the author, Netgalley, HarperFiction and Borough Press for my advanced e-copy.

My thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for my free digital ARC of The Palace of Eros, out in the UK in August! Cantoras is one of my all time favourites and so I had high hopes for this one - which I’m glad to say were met!! I did think this was going to be a perfect, no notes read (the first half was for me), and while it wasn’t flawless, it’s still in my top reads for the year so far and is just such a gorgeous depiction of desire, love and gender fluidity.
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I’m not at all familiar with Greek mythology, which may be a benefit to me - it meant I could just appreciate this story of Eros and Psyche as it was, without comparisons to the original. In Caro de Robertis’ version, Eros is a nonbinary deity (using various pronouns throughout) and as you may expect in a novel about the goddess of desire, it gets spicy 👀 But it was like, flowery spice - the prose is absolutely gorgeous, all honey and silk and the like. Nothing is generally stated in simple terms but that doesn’t stop the spice.
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Psyche whisked away from a miserable life being subjected to male desire constantly, apparently bringing shame to her family despite them encouraging the lecherous mens’ behaviour. Aphrodite grows jealous of this mortal woman drawing attention from her, and sends Eros to sort it out. But Eros falls instead, devising a plan to whisk Psyche away to a palace built just for them.
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In a way my feelings about the book mirrored Psyche’s journey - enraptured at first, but slowly beginning to want more. Eros’ palace promises freedom - all the food and sex and painting and weaving Psyche could desire - but that freedom has its limits, both physical and metaphorical. I want to stress that I did not lose interest, but once the problems started to occur, I was a tad less mesmerised by the story. However, still a lot of good stuff going on, particularly around gender and power and the way women are expected to be passive and shallow, but Psyche realising that she has the capacity to be anything she wants to be. I obviously also loved Eros being nonbinary, refusing to exist in one box or another, as others would prefer, but to exist completely without boundaries.
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I have seen some other reviewers comment on whether the attitudes of other Greek gods towards Eros was ‘accurate’ in terms of that society, but here my obliviousness about Greek mythology plays in my favour, as such details did not detract from my enjoyment of the story at all.
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Overall, stunning prose, incredible chemistry, gorgeous characters, just a beauty of a retelling!

The Palace of Eros by Caro De Roberts

This is one of my favourite reads so far in 2024! I picked this book up because I love stories surrounding Greek Gods and mythology, but this turned out to be so much more than that.

The author sensitively explores many difficult topics; such as gender fluidity, sexism, female desire, jealousy, female sexual shame, gender roles, toxic family relations and many more. These topics were all hard hitting but definitely all added up to make this a story I certainly will not forget for a very long time. There most definitely needs to be trigger warnings for sexual assault, but the author handles these harrowing subjects with overwhelming empathy and sensitivity. This book gives off a very feminist vibe which I really loved; the author clearly is trying to leave a clear message in the reader's mind about the importance of consent, trust and honesty.

De Roberts writes beautifully captivating characters and I thoroughly enjoyed the way we were able to get inside each character's head from a really psychologically informed approach. In particular, watching Psyche's story at the beginning and seeing her experience such terrible trauma's was terrifying but incredibly well written. Being able to dive into Psyche's head and see her spiralling thoughts, her shame, her helplessness and her inner rage was so fascinating, raw and honest. The same can be said for Eros and the underlying storyline between her and Zeus, and the very scary incidents that occur between the two of them. Eros' struggle between family loyalty and following her heart was interesting and difficult to read as, we as readers, could see the toxicity surrounding Eros, her mother (Aphrodite) and the other Gods. I adored the sapphic romance between Eros and Psyche, and also really appreciated the way the author explored gender fluidity through Eros. The author also explored the topic of sexism and gender roles through Psyche's parents, and also through the sisters, who are condemned to miserable lives simply to protect the family honour/image and because the father wishes it. The characters were stunningly crafted, but each of them carried a terrible trauma of some sort with them, which made for a very sad but psychologically fascinating read.

Overall, I adored this book. Caro De Roberts writing is exquisite, and this book makes really hard-hitting critiques about society, prejudices and stereotypes which the many readers can relate to or sympathise with. The story is beautifully sad, but also an incredibly sapphic love story where two women come together against all the odds and threaten the downfall of the Gods just so they can be together without judgement. Uhhh! I cannot tell you how much I loved this, there will never be enough words to describe how much I enjoyed the experience of reading this (and believe me there were many tears involved).

I rated this 5 out of 5 stars. Thank you so much to Netgalley and Caro De Roberts for the ARC