Calypso's Odyssey / Anna Ellison / Book Review
CALYPSO'S ODYSSEY
Callie Quinn has spent her whole life on Catalina Island, and some days it feels like she'll never escape. Now that she's graduated high school, and without any college prospects on the horizon, her days are spent helping her father with the rundown beachside inn that is her inheritance. This is her life, now and forever: customer service, smiling through the bad Yelp reviews, and watching friends drift away to bigger and better things.
Until one stormy evening, while working the late shift at the inn, something changes. Until she meets him.
It isn't exactly a meet-cute. The storm overturned Odie's sailboat. She's the one who drags him from the waves and gives him a place to shelter for the night... or the week... or the month. He's secretive, reserved, and desperate to disappear from a life he won't tell her anything about. But she understands wanting more than your lot in life, and she's willing to give him space here on Catalina Island. Even if that means risking her own heart, risking dreaming too big about a future that could never be.
Until one stormy evening, while working the late shift at the inn, something changes. Until she meets him.
It isn't exactly a meet-cute. The storm overturned Odie's sailboat. She's the one who drags him from the waves and gives him a place to shelter for the night... or the week... or the month. He's secretive, reserved, and desperate to disappear from a life he won't tell her anything about. But she understands wanting more than your lot in life, and she's willing to give him space here on Catalina Island. Even if that means risking her own heart, risking dreaming too big about a future that could never be.
THOUGHTS
Was this a good retelling of the Calypso/Odysseus story? No. Was this a good contemporary romance? Also no. Was this at least a fun seaside YA read? Alas, also no. But was it outright offensive? I mean, no...
Was this a good retelling of the Calypso/Odysseus story? No. Was this a good contemporary romance? Also no. Was this at least a fun seaside YA read? Alas, also no. But was it outright offensive? I mean, no...
PROS
| Beachside Beauty | This might be far from my favorite beach read out there, but I did really like the way Anna Ellison writes seaside life. This is definitely a book that embraces its island setting, and it is the type of setting that really makes you crave a chance to explore, from the kelp forests offshore to the hidden beaches haunted by the locals. |
| Rundown Reality | As fun as the beach vibes of the setting might be, Callie isn't really out here experiencing that side of Catalina Island. Instead, she's stuck in her family's rundown cliffside inn, working the front desk (and the reservations, and the kitchen, and the maid cart, and and and). That adds a nice contrast, a bit of tempered reality to an otherwise idyllic setting. And it's always nice to see some customer-service-worker rep in fiction. |
| Hopeful Hobby | It's also really nice to see a main character in a romance who has a hobby. It's nice that Callie has something going on in her life besides just her romantic prospects. She likes baking. She's learning to try new recipes and invent some of her own, and she's passionate about all of it. And, in her most vulnerable moments, she might just tell you she has a dream about where this hobby could lead... |
CONS
| The way this book writes teenage sexuality is... weird. I'm not opposed to some sexual content in YA. Teens are exploring and learning about themselves, after all, so it isn't entirely inappropriate for the market. But there are ways to write it that feel... weird. And this book definitely feels weird. It is a little too open-door, a little too inspired-by-spicyTok. The descriptions, the casualness about an underage girl taking a topless selfie, the emphasis on one friend wanting to "get naked with a guy" before heading off to college, all reads a little too adult (even if these things can and do happen to teens). It wasn't necessarily the what but the how of this writing that made it really uncomfortable to read and too much for the market. | Teenage Sexuality |
| Callie's father's inn isn't doing that well, and it hasn't been for a while. And there could have been a great sort of rallying cry around that here (because who doesn't love a community coming together to save something historic and/or family-owned?). We didn't get that. We didn't get anything at all here, no sense of pride or love for the family institution (or, conversely, disdain). We just get gross-and-kind-of-moldy until the characters give up, letting bygones be bygones. Which is... not great. | Giving Up |
| You know what I hate? When we forget about all of our friends because we met a guy. And you know what doesn't forgive this sin? Acknowledging (as a character and/or as an author) that you've done this... and then not do anything else about it. Not good. And "resolving" this drifting between friends in an epilogue without anything actually happening on the page for the readers to see? Even worse. Yeah, I didn't like it. It's badly done. | Not For-the-Girls |
Rating
⭐⭐
2/10
Fans of Marissa Meyer's Instant Karma might like this new beachside romance. Those who liked Melinda Salisbury's reimagining of Hades and Persephone in Her Dark Wings might like this new contemporary twist on a Greek classic.
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Details
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Note: I was provided with an ARC by the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. All opinions here are my own. |
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