Dark Of The Moon by Tracy Barrett

Goodreads Description: "Ariadne is destined to become a goddess of the moon. She leads a lonely life, filled with hours of rigorous training by stern priestesses. Her former friends no longer dare to look at her, much less speak to her. All that she has left are her mother and her beloved, misshapen brother Asterion, who must be held captive below the palace for his own safety.

So when a ship arrives one spring day, bearing a tribute of slaves from Athens, Ariadne sneaks out to meet it. These newcomers don’t know the ways of Krete; perhaps they won’t be afraid of a girl who will someday be a powerful goddess. And indeed she meets Theseus, the son of the king of Athens. Ariadne finds herself drawn to the newcomer, and soon they form a friendship—one that could perhaps become something more.

Yet Theseus is doomed to die as an offering to the Minotaur, that monster beneath the palace—unless he can kill the beast first. And that "monster" is Ariadne’s brother . . ."

My Review: Hmmm. This book is sort of hard to review. For starters, I can tell you that I absolutely LOVE Greek mythology. So when I realized that this book was a retelling of the Minotaur's story, I was like, Yeah! Bring it on! And after having read it...here's my opinion. If you're expecting another cliche YA paranormal romance, DON'T pick up this book. Also, if you're expecting a humorous and exciting Percy Jackson-esq adventure, DON'T pick up this book. Dark of the Moon was a very unique spin on the Minotaur's story, but it was also written in an adult, realistic way. The way Barrett re-imagined the Minotaur's story was quite frankly impressive---she put a TOTALLY new spin on it! However...she failed in the aspect where she didn't really EXPLAIN her new spin. I mean, I got the gist of it---but the world she created was very intricate, and she didn't do a very good job making it easy to understand for the readers. It was like she half-expected you to know all the basic facts of their customs and traditions, and that she was just continuing off from there. And I'm actually REALLY good at Greek mythology! But I didn't know ANY of this. (I actually don't even know if it's fact, or she made it all up.) That was my first complaint. My second complaint was the writing. I felt like the plot was interesting ENOUGH...but Barrett didn't do a good job keeping her readers hooked! Her writing was okay, but it sometimes came out really chaotic and random and sort of...flat. You didn't really care about the characters or anything, because half the time you had no idea what was going on. I read it and it was okay, but it's not the kind of book I'd ever re-read. I feel like Barrett had a good idea going, but she relayed it all wrong. Not enough clarity on the rituals and religion of the people of Krete, and not enough depth in the writing. But the CONCEPT she had was pretty fascinating, I'll admit (if you can understand it...).

Cover: The cover is nice! Sort of different from all the other YA books out there---it doesn't feature some gorgeous girl in a Greek goddess dress (which it totally could have). I like the curling red designs and the stone background---and the font of the title! It's unique, and sort of art-y. 

Overall Grade: C-