He felt he’d met a mind here, and the body was irrelevant.

An interesting little novella that takes place on ancient Crete, blending mythology and a bit of fantasy. Kikeru is the child of a priestess who discovers a plot by the Greeks to attack their island. With the help of Rusa (a handsome fisherman who he starts falling for), Rusa's daughter and Kikeru's mother, they concoct a plan to deal with the invaders. The romance was really sweet, though not really a huge part of the story. I like how Kikeru became more comfortable with navigating his gender; different pronouns are used at different times, and it never gets confusing. The plot was a little lacklustre, but the reveals at the end made up for it.

Pretty unique; glad I gave it a try.

Content warnings:

Spoiler

attempted rape, misgendering

.

3.5 Stars

Despite a few (small) reservations, Labyrinth by Alex Beecroft was a wonderful historical romance with a genderqueer flavor. It was a story well-told, with lovely character development, and some clever twists on the traditional mythology of ancient Crete and the story of the Minotaur.

Let me get those reservations out of the way first. I found the age gap between Kikeru and Rusa a bit creepy, especially knowing that Rusa has a daughter older than Kikeru. It is not entirely unrealistic given the time period in question, but it did make me a tad uncomfortable. Also, the gender pronouns are all over the place, which is largely excused by the fact that Kikeru has not made a decision, but I felt they should have been more consistent with Kikeru's expression within scene.

Now, with that out of the way, on to what I loved. Like I said earlier, the characters are absolutely lovely. Kikeru's age and shifting gender is portrayed perfectly, and even though some readers might find the internal doubts a little tiresome after a while, I think they are essential to the story. You do not just suddenly clarify all your gender doubts because you have found love. It would have been easy to push the story in that direction, but it also would have been wrong.

Rusa is a fantastic character as well, a man of strength and compassion who may not understand everything that is going on, but who loves all Kikeru's facets. Kikeru's mother, Maja, is largely a plot-driven character, but Rusa’s daughter, Jadikira, is a fun character who contrasts well with Kikeru.

While Beecroft does liberties with the mythology, and it felt like there was a little too much overlap of cultures, I did enjoy how it shapes the story, and it made for an entirely satisfying conclusion.


As reviewed by Sally at Bending the Bookshelf

2.5 stars. I wanted to like this a lot more than I did, but ultimately it didn't manage to engage me at all.

The writing style is very unique and took some time getting used to. The story seems a bit disconnected while at the same time being very straightforward.
I like that it's a fairly new (at least in my experience) to the Minotaur mythos, and the mythology and science aspects were nicely combined and implemented.
Also, aro & ace representation!!!!

First let me say that this is a valiant effort. The concept is kind of cool, as well. What is the legend of the Minotaur, the Bull that walks like a man, and lives in a labyrinth was real, so to speak. And that the legend of Icarous and Daedalus, who escaped from Crete and the Labyrinth.

And, what if one of the main characters in the story was a transgender youth who had to choose which gender he wanted to be, and was having trouble because he had fallen in love with a man.

So, we have all that going on, and throw in the Greeks planning to take over the kingdom, and you would think you would have a spellbinding story.

Unfortunately, it took me a whole week to read this because it didn't make me wonder what was going to happen. And oh my, Kikeru, the protagonist, moans on and on about how in love with Rusa he is, but he is not sure if he should choose to be a man or a woman.

And I get that. I get that he would have this problem. But, it went on through the whole book, as it probably should, but I grew bored of it.

And this might make me sound like someone who doesn't sympathize with transgendered people, and how hard it would have been to be that in ancient Crete. And yes, I do. I just want there to be more to the book than that.

So, I am giving this book three stars for a good effort. It appears to be well researched, or at least well built. It just wasn't really rip-roaring until perhaps the last two chapters.


Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.

This was fascinating. It's an interesting historical about a genderqueer Minoan that offers a neat take on ancient history and mythology. Bonus points for that alone. I wanted to like this more than I actually did and I wish I could rate it higher. It's a cool idea and I was looking forward to this, but I wanted more depth and character development and emotion. It's likeable and interesting and so very different and I enjoyed it, but I wanted more.

This historical fantasy had an interesting premise, but it seemed like an unfinished project. For one, it was way too short, more a novella or a short story, and that was no way enough to properly explore the either the setting or the story.

Kikeru, a priestess's child in ancient Crete is conflicted about his gender. But even as he struggles between being a man and marrying a woman, or being a woman and dedicating himself to the temple, he finds himself flung headlong into a Greek conspiracy to overthrow Crete--and also in love.

A gender-fluid teenager in ancient civilization was enough to make me want to read the book, but it was disappointing overall. The attraction between Rusa and Kikeru was all telling without showing, and especially given their age difference, it was very difficult to find it believable. I did like Kikeru's gender confuison and the fact that there was no real resolution to that in the span of the story, however.

(Review copy from NetGalley)