It has been almost 6 months since our last Goddess Girls review!!! Steven has hopefully used his time off to become less crotchety and bitter. Pandora and Prometheus are two of my favorite myths so I was really excited to read this book!
Super sad that her bangs aren’t more obviously in the shape of question marks
Summary of Amazingness
By Patricia
So Pandora accidentally/on purpose opens this box belonging to loner Titan brothers, Epimetheus and Prometheus, and a bunch of colored bubbles pop out! But no one else can see them, and when they hit people around Mount Olympus Academy, they whisper words like “ditz”, “lazy”, or “vain” and dramatically change that person’s behavior! Usually in a super ironic way! Athena becomes an idiot, Artemis is obsessed with her appearance, Principal Zeus just wants to sleep all the time, Aphrodite rudely begins burping all her dialog, Medusa is greedy, Prometheus is a thief, Poseidon is a scaredy-cat, and Persephone has rage issues. Meanwhile, Prometheus accidentally sets fire to the world while trying to help mortals, whose fires have all gone out thanks to Zeus’ negligence. As punishment, Zeus makes him eat his least favorite food, liver, for every meal, and sets a magical eagle to watch him to make sure he does. Pandora finally saves the day by releasing the last bubble from the box, Hope, and recaptures all the “trouble bubbles”. Plus, she wins the science fair and gets to have lunch with Aristotle, Pythagoras, and Hippocrates! Wooo science!!
Who wouldn’t want to have lunch with this guy? And then do some… shirtless math? YOU GO PYTHAGORAS! WOO!
Faithfulness to Original Mythos
By Steven
First of all, being crotchety and bitter is kind of a one-way street—you don’t get less that way—so ignore any of the lies being told above. And in that spirit, let’s consider how Pandora the Curious stacks up against the source material. First, take a high-level look at points from this and from the original: Pandora and Epimetheus are a romantic item, the box comes to Epimetheus by way of Zeus, Pandora is responsible for the evils inside escaping. Surprisingly, when squinted at, this book meets all three criteria. Granted, ‘romantic item’ in the original was ‘man and wife’, the box and Pandora both represented a revenge scheme of the pantheon’s against Epimetheus and his brother rather than a slapstick accident of fate, and the box’s contents in the real story certainly never re-entered it once open. But overall, I’ll rate it ‘close enough.’ Bonus points for Prometheus’s parts in this version, attempting to bring fire to the mortals (more by accident than anything) and his liver punishment (much less gruesome than the original), though points taken on account of the latter one not involving Heracles. I mean come on, you guys, he’s already a character in the book. But then having him strangle the principal’s pet eagle would probably not fly well with the target tween audience, so perhaps it was better left undone. All in all, I’d rate this one more accurate than the last with plenty of amusing references along the way for the pedantically minded (like me).
Come on, Prometheus, no one likes eating liver. Stop overreacting like a big baby.
Tween Girl Life Lessons
By Patricia
1) Science=curiosity about the world! But use your powers wisely
2) People change, so it’s okay to change your crush
3) Save your homework for the last minute and then hurriedly scribble some rambling story about your personal life! You’ll win first prize!
Steven’s Favorites!
Character: Greed-Medusa. Unabashedly hilarious, in a misanthropic way. Which is my favorite kind.
Part: “Ares sported pj’s bearing the logo of a sword-making company in the Immortal Marketplace called Mighty Fighty.”
Thing I Learned: You can beat your severe ADD if you just try hard enough. Apparently. Also don’t open creepy boxes.
Girl was probably just looking for some clothes. She’s naked in like every picture
Patricia’s Favorites!!
Character: Pandora is actually pretty awesome, you guys. In other books she’s portrayed as kind of annoying in that she only speaks in questions, but here we see that she is 1) nice to everyone, even outcasts like the Titans or Medusa, 2) super intrepid, sneaking into Zeus’ office in the middle of the night like it ain’t no thing, and 3) really into science!! I really want her to have a spin-off series where she solves mysteries.
Part: Under the effects of the “greedy” bubble, Medusa changes her science project research question to just “GIVE ME MORE”. Medusa, you’re still my homegirl
Thing I Learned: If Zeus falls down on the job, every fire on Earth will go out and no one will be able to light more.
Next Time: Pheme the Gossip!!!
Previously:
Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6, Book 7, Book 8, Super Special