Pandora Gets Heart by: Carolyn Hennesy

Over the summer I read a historical fiction book, Pandora Gets Heart, by Carolyn Hennesy. This is the fourth book in the Pandora series. The story takes place in ancient Greece. It is based on the story about Pandora opening a box unleashing all the evils into the world. Her main conflict is that she must collect the 7 evils she had unleashed. If she fails to do that, then the gods will punish her and her family for eternity. Plus she’ll have to live with the fact that she ruined everyone else’s life as well as her own. Furthermore, she also carries a burden knowing that she set the whole world into a panic. She often stresses and worries about her family’s safety as well as her friends.
The characters in this book play a significant role in the story. Each of them has strength and weaknesses, but most importantly they all support each other! Iole is very smart and she has a lot of knowledge about the gods, it comes in handy in many of the situations they face. But she is very frail and weak. Alcie is very brave, and she’ll do anything to help her friends, but she has a very big mouth, sometimes she blurts out things she doesn’t mean. Homer, one of the people they meet along their journey, is quite the poet. Since he’s strong he’s a big help to Pandora’s quest, but he isn’t the smartest person around. Of course Pandora relies on all her friends as well. She is strong and finds herself growing up and becoming mature and taking on responsibility while on her journey. Everyone helps each other out through their strengths and weaknesses, and that’s what helps them succeed in the book.
In this book, there are also many literary devices used to make the book enjoyable. For instance, this book includes foil characters. Hera (a god,) is one of the main foil characters; she always tries to ruin everything and most of the time she succeeds. Her main goal is to keep Pandora from collecting the evils so she can ruin her life. Conflict is also the main part of the story. Without a problem, this book wouldn’t be fun to read at all! The author does a good job of explaining the conflict of the story. Also the author uses mood/tone. Even though the book is historical fiction and about Greek gods, that doesn’t make the book boring. Carolyn Henessy puts voice into her writing and she makes the story very lively and vivid. She gives all the characters in the book personality; it makes the story seem more realistic when character trait is added in. Plus, the story is told in third-person view so it gives you a chance to understand all of the characters thoughts. Third-person helps when you’re trying to understand each person’s internal conflict.
Carolyn Hennesy has a very unique writing style, the story is about ancient people but it isn’t a boring book about history. The characters talk more like they would in present times, and the author weaves in different facts about the ancient gods in a very fluent way. Carolyn Hennesy makes the story come alive with her word choice and makes it more vivid with her detail. The main highlights of the book are that Pandora must collect the evils she had unleashed into the world in 6 months. That task isn’t very easy to accomplish, she and her friends must overcome many hard obstacles too. Battling monsters, or mythical creatures, and trying to receive help from the gods without getting caught by Zeus. If they don’t succeed to catch the evils then Pandora will have to face consequences, and since she is facing the gods, her punishment will be very agonizing. The author’s message seems to be that, if you truly want to accomplish something, you have to try hard. Plus, nothing will come easy unless you try your hardest. Take Pandora for instance, she has come face to face with a hard and almost impossible task. But she wants to fix her mistake knowing the consequences that will follow. She has accomplished so much because she tries and believes in herself. Her friends are always ther to encourage her.
Overall, this was a really great book. It was a fun read and it was nice reading about the Greek gods and learning about their personalities. It’s a whole new story about the Greek myth, Pandora’s Box.