Shelf Awareness--Her Dark Wings

YA Review: Her Dark Wings

Her Dark Wings by Melinda Salisbury (Delacorte Press, 336p., ages 13-up, 9780593705582, December 12, 2023)

Her Dark Wings is a fierce and fanciful tale wherein a spurned young woman's accidental interaction with Hades causes a mythically sized shift in her life as well as massive changes in the Underworld.

Corey Allaway has been betrayed. It's always been "Bree-and-Corey, Corey-and-Bree," but the summer they're 17, Bree cuts Corey out of the picture and takes up with Corey's ex-boyfriend, Ali. Corey, hurt, humiliated, and extremely angry, kisses a "random" boy at a bacchanal to honor Demeter while wishing with her "whole heart" that Bree would be "dragged to the Underworld and left there to rot." When shortly thereafter, Bree's body is found in the lake "flirting with the weeds," Corey feels confused, outraged, and completely without closure.

Then Corey looks "over [her] left shoulder, out to the west." This, legend says, is a way to catch a glimpse of the Underworld. Not only does Corey see into that forbidden place, but she also observes Bree's shade with "impossible, awful" Hades himself. The king of the Underworld sends messenger-god Hermes to warn Corey to forget she's seen the afterlife but, when Corey learns the "random" boy she kissed is Hades himself, she realizes her desperate wishing may have caused Bree's death. Though Corey would like nothing more than to be left alone to process her feelings, she is dragged to the Underworld, where three winged Furies want her to join them in their "inhumane" punishment of "guilty" shades. Corey, who is still furious with Bree, must fight to keep her anger in check, as she struggles to keep from becoming a monster.

Her Dark Wings is a feisty, compelling modern-day retelling of the Persephone myth. Melinda Salisbury's riveting plot may serve as an excellent entry point for readers not overly familiar with the Greek pantheon: Hades, Hermes, the Furies, the Boatman, and Hecate all populate these pages and stealthily impact the humans they encounter. Salisbury (The Sin Eater's Daughter series) smoothly shifts between Corey's unlikely, god-filled present and her recollections of the lies and betrayals she suffered at the hands of her two exes. These deceptions continue to shape her future as she navigates harsh and unforgiving landscapes in the Underworld. There are gods and magic, yes, but above all looms the question of what it means to be human. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.