Create My Own Perfection

Olson College

by E.H. Timms

"It's not every day you get to put the fear of Medusa into a god."

Emma Stone, medusa, is the groundskeeper for Olson College of Extensive Education, a place where everyone is welcome, from the mythical to the magical. When her selkie best friend loses her skin in Fresher's week, the race is on to find it before someone uses it against her.

The search brings Emma face to face with her oldest enemy - and forces her to confront the worst nightmares of her past.

Words: 8,010

Genres: Fantasy, Queer, Fiction, Retellings, Urban Fantasy, Asexual, LGBT

ebook

First published April 2, 2021

Reviews

[Roz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aroace Medusa!! Who became a medusa as a form of protection from harassment!! Honestly what's not to love?

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lovely modern-set story with mythological elements about an aroace woman who chooses to be turned into a Medusa in order to protect herself from unwanted advances. This is mostly told in backstory alone with her current life as groundskeeper at a college and helping a friend with a mystery.

[aspeccharactersoftheday]

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[Andre Boone · Rating 5 out of 5]

A nice mix of ancient history and contemporary setting. Timms does a great job of showing the struggle of a person who chose to become a medusa in order to protect themself from a scumbag god.

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the creativity Timms showed in interpreting our MC, a medusa (to be read as the Medusa), as aroace. I love when modern retellings seek to show Medusa as not-a-monster, and what their reasoning is behind that. Similar to these retellings, Emma (our MC) only turns to stone men who sexually harass her (specifically ONE man, or god, I should say: Poseidon). Emma being aroace adds another layer to this dynamic, because the reason Si (Poseidon) keeps coming back is that he can’t accept that Emma doesn’t experience sexual or romantic attraction. Being able to turn sexual harassers to stone offers her protection, but it’s clear that she wishes others would understand straight away that their advances will never be of interest to her. Through this aroace rep we get some stellar quotes - unfortunately I didn’t write these down and no longer have access to the book.

Also as a consequence of the MC being aroace is that the story stresses how important friendship is. Emma describes her friends as her lifeline, and she as theirs, which is backed up by the plot of the book where Emma helps her selkie friend, and in turn is helped.

My major criticism with this book is that there was a real lack of world-building. I couldn’t parse what type of setting we were in, what impact the Greek gods existing alongside mortals had, why the Greek gods were drawn to Olsen College in particular, etc. It meant that the events of the book felt like they were taking place on a (metaphorical) island surrounded by dense mist.

Rep: aroace MC

[Kristīne Vītola]

Aroace character
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