THE AFTERMYTH

Can Penelope survive her first, disaster-ridden months at Anaximander’s Academy, where graduates earn gifts from their Greek god patrons?

In this series opener, 13-year-old Penelope Weaver and her twin brother, Paris, eagerly anticipate joining Anaximander’s intellectual and well-ordered Athena Hall, like their parents before them. But the moment they reach the school grounds in western Massachusetts, Penelope—and no one else—ricochets from one supernatural adventure to another, ruining all her plans. To her and her family’s horror, she ends up being assigned to the cheerfully chaotic Aphrodite Hall. More disasters follow. Penelope’s muse is rude and useless, her 12 assigned labors make no sense, Paris (who’s in Athena Hall) grows distant and unsupportive, their parents are disappointed, and her terrifying adventures keep derailing her education. She’s ready to give up and leave—but her roommate, Fifi, becomes a supportive friend, and the Aphrodites prove much nicer and more fun than the Athenas. Maybe if Penelope soldiers on, the chaos might start to make sense? Anaximander’s provides a creatively imagined and well-described setting for the hapless, sympathetic, and resilient Penelope’s adventures. Her evolution from an uber-controlled “Athena girl” into someone more flexible who learns what true friends are is believable and gratifying. While her adventures are compulsively readable, many story elements remain frustratingly lacking in context. The secondary characters lack depth; Fifi reads Black, and her characterization evokes the Black best friend trope. Penelope’s family is cued white.

Exciting, if largely unexplained, adventures fill this Greek mythology–inspired boarding school fantasy.