I, Medusa
Medusa — Meddy to the sisters and friends who know her best — is the mortal daughter of ancient sea gods, a girl who has never quite belonged among her immortal family on their remote island. When the goddess Athena invites her to Athens to train as one of her priestesses, she seizes the chance at a life of her own choosing. In the city she flourishes, weathering the cruelty of the other acolytes and finding her feet among them — until Poseidon turns his attention on her. What follows is not justice but punishment: her locs are remade into serpents for a crime committed against her, and she and her sisters Euryale and Stheno are cast out as monsters.
Ayana Gray's adult debut is a villain origin story told in four movements — Mortal, Maiden, Mistress, Monster — reclaiming one of Greek mythology's most enduring monsters as a young Black woman who refuses to stay a victim. It follows Medusa from a sheltered girlhood to the moment she becomes a vigilante, determined to write her own ending. A New York Times bestseller.
Called Meddy by those closest to her. The mortal daughter of two ancient sea gods, raised on a remote island; she trains as one of Athena's priestesses in Athens before being transformed into a Gorgon and becoming a vigilante.
The goddess who recruits Medusa to Athens to train as a priestess, and who later punishes her for a crime committed against her rather than by her.
The Olympian sea god whose pursuit of Medusa in Athena's temple sets the transformation in motion.
One of Medusa's two immortal elder sisters, whose arranged betrothal to a cruel demigod opens the novel's conflict.
Medusa's other immortal elder sister, cast out and transformed alongside her.
It is adult fiction. Random House publishes it as Ayana Gray's adult debut — she is best known for the young adult Beasts of Prey trilogy, which is why the two are often confused. Reviewers have noted it reads accessibly, but it is categorised and marketed as adult, and it carries adult content including sexual assault.
No. I, Medusa is a standalone novel and is not connected to Gray's Beasts of Prey trilogy, which is a separate young adult fantasy series set in a different world. You can start here.