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." Shortly thereafter, Bree's body is found in the lake "flirting with the weeds." When Corey learns the boy she kissed is Hades himself, she realizes her desperate wishing may have caused Bree's death. Though Corey would like 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.
Her Dark Wings is a feisty, compelling modern-day retelling of the Persephone myth. Melinda 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