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Girl, Goddess, Queen by Bea FitzgeraldPublished by Sourcebooks Fire on September 2, 2025
Age Group & Genres: Fantasy, Retellings, Romance, Young Adult
Format: Physical
Source: Library
To hell with love, this goddess has other plans...
Thousands of years ago, the gods told a lie: how Persephone was a pawn in the politics of other gods. How Hades kidnapped Persephone to be his bride. How her mother, Demeter, was so distraught she caused the Earth to start dying.
The real story is much more interesting.
Persephone wasn't taken to hell: she jumped. There was no way she was going to be married off to some smug god more in love with himself than her.
Now all she has to do is convince the Underworld's annoyingly sexy, arrogant and frankly rude ruler, Hades, to fall in line with her plan. A plan that will shake Mount Olympus to its very core.
But consequences can be deadly, especially when you're already in hell . . .
A fierce, fresh and enormously fun YA fantasy re-imagining from a growing TikTok superstar.
Trigger & Content Warnings: misogyny, sexism, war, emotional abuse, rape culture and sexual assault
I adore retellings, especially from Greek mythology, so it was no surprise that I came across Girl, Goddess, Queen and had so much fun reading it. This book takes the well-known myth of Persephone being kidnapped by Hades and asks the question, “Well, what if Persephone jumped into the Underworld herself to get away from being forced into an unwanted marriage by her parents? What if she took things into her own hands instead?”
Girl, Goddess, Queen very much focuses on Persephone’s character development, and I really loved seeing this evolve over the course of the book. When the book starts, we meet her as the goddess Kore, growing up isolated on an island by her mother Demeter with only the local nymphs as her friends and companions. Growing up, she’s constantly told she needs to be more ladylike and do traditionally female hobbies – just overall keeping her head down and not make her father Zeus (or her future husband, as arranged by her parents) mad.
It always felt like the rules were shifting. I could never predict what wouldn’t be allowed until I got into trouble for it. Eventually it felt like anything that brought me joy was wrong.
She decides she’d rather nope out of an arranged marriage to any of the gods (because she feels it’s a trap even if she’s told she’ll be “protected” by being married) and decides to create flowers in honor of Hades before immediately crushing it to get his attention (go big or go home) and jumping into the Underworld to give herself time to come up with a better plan. Because if there’s anywhere her parents won’t check (at least for some time) or even think about checking until all other options are exhausted first, it would be the Underworld. Plus, Zeus would (probably) think more carefully before he causes problems with Hades since they’re both the Big Three without Poseidon getting himself involved.
Hades doesn’t like her immediately and wants her out of his space as soon as possible – she’s disturbing his peace, but he reluctantly accepts her into his home under Hestia’s protection. As Persephone carves out a life for herself in the Underworld, she finds the place isn’t too bad (in fact, it might even be better than Olympus – she’s certainly more free to roam around despite being warned against it), even if Hades sucks at his job. And she very much tells it to his face – she’s kind of iconic for this, though, if you ask me.
As time goes on and as Demeter and Zeus continue to look for her, she starts thriving: making plans to improve the Underworld, developing friendships with the dead, and learning more about Hades as he warms up to her. I’m personally not a fan of how she just waltzes in and starts making changes to Hades’s space. It felt like she was crossing boundaries as a guest even if Hades is like, “whatever, do what you want,”but looking back after reading, I feel like it made sense – not in the sense of it’s okay for her to do that, but in why Hades didn’t care what Persephone was doing. She’s definitely one to storm in, take charge of things, and challenge the system and I love that she has that confidence to do so and refuses to back down. We see this happen consistently throughout the entire book.
I don’t have time for fun. I’m a girl trying her best to survive in this world.
Hades has a pretty strong character development as well; I like how he’s not just this cruel and brooding character that he’s often depicted as – I wish I could go so much deeper into this, but I fear that’s giving too much away. But throughout Girl, Goddess, Queen, Fitzgerald examines how sexism affects everyone: in Hades’s personality as he opens up to Persephone, in Demeter’s relationship with Persephone (though if you want me to be honest, Demeter can go kick literal rocks), and how the other goddesses are affected as well.
I also really loved Persephone’s and Hades’s relationship and how healthy it was: they might have started out disliking each other, but it’s never to the point of being toxic, and they actually communicate with each other (though there’s some instances of miscommunication) rather than breaking apart. I also love how Hades acknowledges the nuance of Persephone’s relationship with her mother rather than simply telling her that she needs to cut off all contact or dismisses her feelings from the abuse she endured growing up. He recognizes that Demeter has her own unresolved traumas that very much affects Persephone in the decisions she’s made while also acknowledging that it was harmful, and I think that’s so important to discuss in abusive relationships sometimes.
“But people can have good intentions and still hurt other people, and you don’t need to feel guilty for being upset about it.”
Their banter with each other was entertaining to read, and I loved the side characters as well, especially Styx – she added such a fun dynamic with Hades and Persephone!
I did wish there were more moments with some of them, though, especially since they’re a huge part of Persephone’s new and thriving life. There are times in the book where it felt like it was dragging and long, too, so honestly if the book was maybe a hundred pages shorter I’d likely still feel the same way about the book. But every other aspect of the book was enjoyable enough that it was ultimately a minor issue for me; I overall had a grand time with this book, and I think it’ll be my current favorite Persephone and Hades reimagining.
Hannah has a penchant for chaos, which is probably how she ended up blogging since 2012. That, and she was probably too expressive for her parents to handle, so it had to go somewhere. She can be found occasionally at The Arts STL. If you’d like to fuel her boba addiction or just enjoy her posts and want to support her, stop by her KoFi or Buy Me a Coffee!