Grade 8 Up-Dusa, 16, dreams of snakes: horrible and beautiful dreams of multicolored, raging reptiles that cause her to have seizures. Conventional doctors are unable to explain her ailment, and Dusa and her mother despair until doctor sisters Teno and Yali Gordon claim that they can cure her. Once at their clinic on an idyllic Greek isle, Dusa gradually becomes suspicious of the two women. Why is she the only patient? What is the story behind the sullen servant boy, Perse? Why has communication with her mother been cut off? As she undergoes hypnosis and other "treatments," the teen's fears increase. When she discovers another patient in a tower room, Dusa learns of the Gordons' sinister plan. Not humans, but legendary Gorgons, they seek out adolescent girls who are snake dreamers, hoping to communicate with their dead sister, Medusa, locate her severed head, and reunite it with her bodyAthus resurrecting Medusa's terrible power of changing people to stone. Combining the elements of fantasy and thriller, Galloway creates an intriguing expansion of a classical tale into contemporary times, a thought-provoking meeting of myth and modern science. Implausible moments abound, but if readers can accept the premise they will find Dusa to be a game, sturdy heroine. There is plenty of nicely built suspense, lots of detail about exotic and mysterious Greece, and a neat subversion of the classic myth when it is revealed that Medusa is no villainess, but a kind and loving victim of persecution. A gripping and entertaining read.
Jennifer A. Fakolt, Carson City Public Library, NV
Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Kirkus Reviews
Galloway (Truly Grim Tales, 1995) revisits the Greek myth of Medusa, the Gorgon with the head of snakes, in a page-turning, occasionally convoluted, contemporary fantasy. When there seems to be no reasonable medical explanation for her continued disturbing dreams of snakes, Dusa is whisked off to Greece by herself, to undergo special treatment at the clinic of the mysterious Gordon sisters, Yali and Teno. When she arrives, all other patients have disappeared, and only the strange boy Perse remains. The slow story soon escalates with Dusa's discovery of the jar that contains the head of Medusa, the very thing the power-hungry Gordon sisters have been searching for, in hopes of reuniting their sister with her body. Dusa doubts their evil intentions, their ability to shift shapes, their real identity (the Gorgons) until she discovers one of their former patients hidden in an attic room. Not without loss, Dusa comes face to face with Medusa in the mirror, confronting her demons and managing an escape. Dusa's adventure is about recognizing and accepting one's own inner strength; aspects of the original myth are murky at times, and readers who have grown up with an image of Medusa as hideous monster may have to make a leap to fathom how ``victim and killer come together.'' Nevertheless, even if some of the symbolism is lost on readers, and certain threads of the myth dangle, Dusa is a credible character all the way through her independent, triumphant finale. (Fiction. 12-14) -- Copyright ©1998, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
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