Library Journal: DEBUT The well-known myth and metaphor of Icarus is that he flew too close to the sun because he was overwhelmed by the freedom of flight or because he didn’t listen to his father Daedalus’s instructions. In this mythic retelling from Daedalus’s perspective, he’s not satisfied with that explanation. He needs to hear the truth from his son’s own lips—even if Daedalus has to descend to hell himself to get his answer. But Daedalus isn’t telling himself the whole truth of his own life or his son’s death because even Hell won’t give Daedalus a chance to justify his crimes to the boy who flew and fell the moment he got the chance. This is part of the current trend of mythic retellings, along with Madeline Miller’s Circe and Jennifer Saint’s Ariadne, telling a familiar story from an entirely different point of view. That this particular myth is wrapped around the even more famous story of tyrannical King Minos, Theseus, and the famous Minotaur adds another facet to this tale of an unreliable man placing the blame for his sins and his crimes on everyone but himself.
VERDICT Readers who enjoy mythic retellings will be riveted by Sullivan’s debut.