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PANDORA GETS JEALOUS by Carolyn Hennesy

PANDORA GETS JEALOUS

by Carolyn Hennesy

Pub Date: Jan. 1st, 2008
ISBN: 978-1-59990-196-1
Publisher: Bloomsbury

In the first episode in a chick-lit hero-tale series dubbed “Mythic Misadventures,” 13-year-old Pandora Atheneus Andromaeche Helena—Pandy, for short—“borrows” the fateful box from her father Prometheus for a school project, then is charged by Zeus to recapture the seven escaped evils—or else. Assisted (ably or otherwise) by her trusty dog Dido, two friends (one with, literally, two left feet) and several sympathetic Greek gods, she starts off by going after Jealousy, which has taken up residence in nearby Delphi. Flavoring her ancient-world setting with such modern tropes as school cliques, incipient zits and parenting issues, Hennesy also populates it with a mix of mortals, immortals, demigods and monsters at least loosely based on those from myth (an annotated cast list is appended). The result is a tale that starts out light but takes on more serious notes as Pandy sees the widespread catastrophe she’s caused and courageously shoulders the responsibility for making things right again. Deed done at last, Pandy and sidekicks head off to Alexandria to tackle Vanity. It won’t be hard to sell this to Rick Riordan fans, though it reads a little younger. (Fantasy. 11-13)