Lovestruck by Kate Watson

Abstract

Reviewed by: Lovestruck by Kate Watson Kate Quealy-Gainer, Assistant Editor Watson, Kate Lovestruck. Flux, 2019 [352p] Paper ed. ISBN 978-1-63583-030-9 $14.99 E-book ed. ISBN 978-1-63583-031-6 $9.99 Reviewed from galleys Ad Gr. 7-10 Mythical matchmaker in training Kali (short for Kalixta) has had little interest in her duties as an Erote, making people fall in love via well-aimed arrows, ever since [End Page 319] the “Thunderclap,” a pairing assignment that went disastrously wrong. When the sixteen-year-old (in immortal years) accidentally pricks herself and falls in love with a mortal, she’s even more angry at what she considers to be a pretty lousy destiny, and her fury trumps her fatalism as she decides to defy her supposed future; the Oracle tells her it is possible but she’s got to fulfill three difficult tasks. Watson offers a deep dive into Greek mythology, drawing on a range of stories familiar and lesser known and casting a variety of gods, goddesses, and demigods as secondary characters, but Kali’s irreverent narration makes this more of an entertaining riff than a lesson on Greek mythology. Kali herself is a firecracker, funny, bold, and defiant, but even she can’t fill in some of the major holes in the plot, especially when the revelation at the end throws all the rules to the side and upends the entire premise. There’s still plenty of cheeky fun to be had here, and Kali’s happy ending—a life with a mortal love averted and a new romance with a fellow divine being—is well deserved. Copyright © 2019 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois