It should lowkey be illegal for grown men to write stories from the perspectives of "quirky" and "different" teenage girls. Especially ones that break the fourth wall to emphasize their quirkiness. Just to protect my own sanity.

In all seriousness, I'm quite confused about the audience for this short story. The collection this is a part of does not seem to be marketed towards younger audiences, but Grossman seems to be tonally attempting to appeal to a crowd of 11-13 year olds. And as an adult, I'm not really interested in what reads like a setup to the most generic, chosen one à la early 2000's middle grade story.

The Persephone metaphor (?) was also incredibly underutilized and perhaps even misutilized, and was definitely misleading as a title. Definitely more dystopian superhero vibes than a fantasy short story.

CW: death of father (past), grief, violence, kidnapping