Those Fatal Flowers

• Author: Shannon Ives
• Genre: Historical Fantasy/Mythology Retelling
• Publication Date: January 21, 2025
• Publisher: Dell

Thank you to NetGalley and Dell for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Greco-Roman mythology and the mystery of the vanished Roanoke colony collide in this epic adventure filled with sapphic longing and female rage—a debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint, and Natalie Haynes.

Before, Scopuli. It has been centuries since Thelia made the mistake that cost her the woman she loved—Proserpina, the goddess of spring. As the handmaidens charged with protecting Proserpina when she was kidnapped, Thelia and her sisters are banished to the island of Scopuli and cursed to live as sirens—winged half-woman, half-bird creatures. In luring sailors to their deaths with an irresistible song, the sisters hope to gain favor from the gods who could free them. But then ships stop coming, and Thelia fears a fate worse than the Underworld. Just as time begins to run out, a voice emerges, Proserpina’s voice, and what she asks of Thelia will spark a dangerous quest for their freedom.

Now, Roanoke. Thelia can’t bear to reflect on her last moments in Scopuli. After weeks drifting at sea alone, Thelia’s renewed human body—a result of her last devastating sacrifice on Scopuli—is close to death. Luckily, an unfamiliar island appears on the horizon: Roanoke. Posing as a princess arriving on a sailboat filled with riches, Thelia infiltrates the small English colony. It doesn’t take long for her to realize that this place is dangerous, especially for women. As she grows closer to a beautiful settler who mysteriously resembles her former love, Thelia formulates a plan to save her sisters and enact revenge on the violent men she’s come to despise. But is she willing to go back to Scopuli and face the consequences of her past decisions? And will Proserpina forgive her for all that she’s done?

Told in alternating timelines, Those Fatal Flowers is a powerful, passionate, and wildly cathartic love letter to femininity and the monstrous power within us all.

I’m not really familiar with this part of Greek mythology, so I went into reading this with an open mind and a curiosity about how the author was going to incorporate Thelia into the colony of Roanoke. However, these kind of retellings are sometimes hit or miss for me, and while this wasn’t a bad read, there were some things about it that lowered my rating.

Starting with the things I liked, I was really interested in what life was like at the Roanoke colony and how a being from Greek mythology would integrate. As expected, Thelia struggled to fit in to society on Roanoke. She wasn’t at all familiar with the Christian religion, and it didn’t help that she came from a society that was accepting of LGBTQ+ people into one where women are repressed and queer people were oppressed. I thought that Ives did a great job of expressing Thelia’s thoughts as she gradually learns about this society where she ended up. 

I wasn’t a fan of the dual timelines. I was much more invested in the Roanoke timeline as opposed to the flashbacks to her loss of Proserpina and life on Scopuli. I was also confused about what the sisters were cursed to be: at times, they were made out to be sirens, who could lure sailors with their call; but at others, they sounded like the harpies of mythology. Besides being unsure of the creatures the sisters were, it felt like a lot of the flashback to Scopuli chapters could have been omitted since they didn’t do much to further the plot of the story aside from a few important reveals. 

Granted, I’m not overly familiar with Colonial America, but the story does give a warning about the effects of colonialism, so I already knew there would be some element of structural racism or violence. The characters in both timelines lived on an island, but that’s really all they have in common for the most part. In the Scopuli narrative, readers are given insight into the events that led to Thelia and her sisters taking control over their femininity and their power. There is a marked difference between their empowerment and the disempowerment of women of Roanoke under British rule. 

I didn’t feel a strong connection to the bond between Thelia and Cora. It felt too much like insta-love, although I guess that’s how I might feel too if I saw someone that looked exactly like my lost love. Maybe it’s because she came from a period of time where the gods performed miracles, but the queer romance, while appreciated, didn’t quite come across as strongly to my emotions.

In the beginning of the book, the author does give trigger warnings. But one area that wasn’t listed, and wasn’t addressed in the book at all is the Roanoke colony being part of the genocide of Indigenous peoples. The violence and massacre of the Indigenous peoples surrounding the colony felt very insensitive to me. Native people weren’t ever depicted as anything other than violent savages in need of the civilizing effects of colonization, while the “civilized” members of Roanoke colony had no problem behaving in a savage manner. I would have liked to see at least one positive depiction of an Indigenous person in the story.

Overall, I had high hopes for this one, and it didn’t quite meet those expectations. It wound up being an okay read, but I really wasn’t overly invested in any aspect of the story. I was especially intrigued by the choice to use the Roman names for gods instead of the more familiar Persephone/Demeter story. I also found myself wondering why Demeter left her daughter in the charge of three young girls instead of someone who could actually protect her, but I did like the idea that Proserpina had chosen to stay in the Underworld, taking charge of her own fate. You might find this one a good fit if you: like historical fiction, are curious about the colony of Roanoke, love mythology retellings, and are all for a sapphic romance.

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