I, Medusa

From New York Times bestselling author Ayana Gray comes a new kind of villain origin story, reimagining one of the most iconic monsters in Greek mythology as a provocative and powerful young heroine.

Meddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else’s story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents—both gods, albeit minor ones—she dreams of leaving her family’s island for a life of adventure and independence. When she gets tangled up in a scheme to save one of her sisters from the abusive man she''s engaged to marry, Meddy catches the eye of Athena, goddess of wisdom and war, who invites Meddy to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple. Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home: the cities, customs, and people she’s only ever read about.

From Athens’ colorful market streets to the clandestine chambers of Athena''s temple, Meddy is thrilled by all there is to see, learn, and experience. Despite how different she is from the other priestesses-in-training, who primarily come from wealthy Greek families, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena’s favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, a drunken night between girl and god ends in violence, and the course of Meddy’s promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered.

Her locs transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must adapt to her new life, embracing a new identity—not as a victim, but as a vigilante—and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth.

Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the cross currents between her heart’s deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.