Editorial Reviews
Once you read this, you?ll never see the female journey the same way again. This book is a fascinating and engaging explanation into the feminine journey and a real treasure of storytelling. It?s at once academic in scope and yet accessible to the layman reader. It contains masterful storytelling and retelling of the myths that are used to support the thesis of the feminine journey.
-Sacramento Book Review | San Francisco Book Review
From Demeter and Persephone of ancient Greek mythology to the Armless Maiden of South Africa, Pele of Hawaiian legend, and the lesbian wise women of Native American folklore, this book gathers stories from around the world representing the heroine's journey. Frankel, a storyteller, essayist, and novelist, seeks to throw off the oppression of our culture's obsession with hero myths as she reveals the heroine's true role, not as the hero's reward, but as an embodiment of one of the goddess archetypes: magical maiden, life-source and creator mother, wise crone, and guardian angel.
-Reference & Research Book News, Inc., p. 3-4, February 2011.
Ever since I used Christopher Vogler's The Hero's Journey to plot my first novel, I have wanted this book. I sensed that my heroine's journey didn't quite fit the outline, and now Valerie Frankel shows why. In the Introduction, Ms. Frankel says, "The heroine's true role is to be neither hero nor his prize." Rather than conquering through war and battle, the heroine wins through patience, fortitude, and wit. Her goal is not to rescue the princess but--of interest to Romance writers--to re(gain) family.
-Monterey Bay RWA News.
The questing heroine, whether a Samoan mermaid or Mayan moon goddess, seeks enlightenment and strength through a quest of ordeals leading to symbolic death. Rather than a sword, she wields magic slippers, a mirror, a chalice. Only after she has defeated her dark side, the wicked witch, can the young woman grow into a bestower of wisdom, the protecting queen and arch-crone, in this universal journey.
-Beacon News
