RADIANT DARKNESS

A spunky Persephone retells her story lustfully enough to satisfy fans of Libba Bray and Stephenie Meyer. Persephone willingly leaves her vale with handsome Hades to find a surprisingly mundane Underworld—all it needs are a few feminine touches, like message boards and daily orientations for new arrivals. Unfortunately, she forgot to leave a note for her mother. This unremarkable retelling lays just enough groundwork for the sex, which is not actually depicted beyond “hot and hungry” kisses, unless you count the seduction (“I reach out to a stalk leaning toward me and run a finger across its bulging bud; it’s so ripe, the bud splits at my touch...I hold it out to him”) or the equally sublimated two-page pomegranate scene, in which its red juice splatters all over her chiton. This is no progressive Persephone—she falls for the first male she ever lays eyes on. But first-time author Whitman has a way with words, and readers will enjoy this—just as long as they don’t think too hard about it. (Fantasy. YA)