A Touch of Darkness is a retelling of the Greek story of Hades, the God of the Dead, and Persephone, the Goddess of Spring. Persephone had been hidden from the world by her mother, Demeter, but eventually convinced her to let her live a more mortal life in New Athens, where she’s attending college. Her best friend Lexa convinces her to go to a local club, Nevernight, to celebrate getting an internship at New Athens News. Nevernight is a luxury night club owned by Hades, who uses the club to make bargains with mortals who willingly enter into these games. Persephone plays a few rounds of poker with Hades (but she doesn’t know it’s him until the game is over) and loses, so she must fulfill a bargain with him or spend eternity in the Underworld. She has six months to create life in the Underworld. In the process, they come to understand one another and fall in love. But not without some obstacles to their love…namely Demeter, Aphrodite, and Hades’ personal assistant, Minthe.
Were we familiar with the characters of Persephone and Hades and their stories before reading this? What popular romance tropes did we recognize in the story? How did this novel overthrow the misogynistic and patriarchal undertones of Greek mythology? Join us as we discuss these questions and more in episode 24 of our spoiler-filled podcast.
Questions: The questions discussed in this episode were pulled from previous romance episodes we’ve done and from our discussion on Circe.
Great music huh?! The music for the intro and outro are segments from a song titled "Busy City" by TrackTribe, which was accessed through the YouTube audio library.
Coming up next: Our 2022 Reading Wrap-Up
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