Soul in Darkness by Wendy Higgins
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Wendy Higgin’s Soul In Darkness brings to life the greek tale of Psyche and Cupid. The tales originates from Apuleius’ novel series Metamorphoses from the second-century. It follows a young princess whose beauty leaves men awestruck. It escalates to the point where they begin to forget about the goddess Venus, and worship Psyche instead. This angers the goddess and she sends her son, Cupid, to make her fall in love with the vilest of men as punishment for taking her offerings. But Cupid falls in love with her. Kidnapping her away under the pretense that she’s married a monster who only visits her at night, Cupid tries to prove to his mother that Psyche can love him. Venus agrees to the tell under the circumstances that Psyche mustn’t lay eyes on him until she has verbally confessed her love. When Psyche lights a candle while Cupid is sleeping and lays eyes on him, Venus puts her through a series of trials in which no mortal has ever been able to complete. Completely each task, Psyche is granted eternal life from Jupiter and lives happily ever after.

What I love most about adaptions of these tales is the character development. The original tales are very one dimensional so to see a version of it so well developed is exciting. For instance, in Higgin’s version, Psyche may be extremely beautiful but she doesn’t see it. She isn’t vain or stuck up. She’s a kind soul who always happy. Another example is the development of her sisters. In the original tale, they are mentioned briefly as her sisters with no further content. But in Higgin’s version, her sisters are named and their relationship is explained. Her eldest sister is whom Psyche is closest with, while to middle sister suffers from severe envy and jealousy towards Psyche and is very cruel to her despite Psyche’s attempts of kindness.

In part two of the book, we’re given a glance into Cupid’s mind and perspective of the tale which gives us insight on the irrationality of the Gods. Higgin’s portrayed the Goddess’s jealousy and vanity so very well. I absolutely hated Venus. She was a spoiled brat who you couldn’t rationalize with. She saw Psyche as a threat no matter what and wanted her to pay for something that ultimately wasn’t her fault. I wanted to scream!

This is a book that will leave you with withdrawals. After reading the last page, I sat there for a few minutes more and just took it all in. It had such a happy ending and was just so incredibly well-written. I want to read it all over again!!

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