I received a free e-copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This is a very short book with not much chicken science in it despite the title. Most of it is about the author's own flock and her experiences raising them. While interesting, as I do love chickens and like hearing about their individual personalities, it is not what I signed up for. There is not much to be learned in this book, but it kept me occupied for an hour, and it's about chickens.

I want to start by acknowledging that this is a self-published book, so it should probably be held to a different standard than traditionally published ones. I'm going to do my best to uphold that thinking in this review.

First the positives. There is a lot of representation in this book. We have gay people, nonbinary people, binary trans people, and neurodivergency. Icarus himself is a queer autistic trans man (labels are not used too often in the book so I'm going by descriptions of the characters). As an autistic trans man myself I was pleasantly surprised by this, as it's hard to find trans books in general, and apart from a few authors even harder to find autistic trans ones.

I also really liked the concept of this book. It's a bunch of Greek mythology characters in a futuristic dystopian society. It moves away from the big gods like Zeus, and while I would never call the Icarus story a less well-known one, it's a good change of pace having different characters in the background.

However, I do think the story-telling could use work. As mentioned before it is self-published, but there are a lot of typos that were missed. Combined with the fact that this story happened over the course of a few days it appears, and complete strangers became family during that time, I do wonder at how much editing was done. A few people are acknowledged in the back so I assume there was some, but this book feels a lot like reading an earlier draft than a finished copy.

The characters are also aware of the Greek myths in this. It feels incredibly odd that they're familiar with the myths their names come from, yet every single one is acting out that myth without questioning it. Not to mention there is a character named Andromeda in this book, and while they use different pronouns in the book and are a Greek mythological figure, I do wonder at times how much of a self-insert they are given how fast their plot line moves.

Everyone in this book is also traumatized. Everyone. That can be good reading (I have enjoyed that in series past), however the only one whose trauma seems to matter is Icarus. Even the other characters, fresh from their own trauma, are guarding Icarus against his own, despite being the longest out. It makes it difficult to read at times as it feels like the other characters aren't getting to breathe in this story.

Finally, there are cases of abuse and what in another situation could be seen as rape or sexual assault. Icarus is the victim in all these situations. Perhaps it is not that bad as he is enjoying it, but no consent is given, it is just forced upon him, and the storyline treats it as okay.

This book has potential, and I am glad I read it. If the author sees this, I did in fact like this book. I do think there's the potential for growth, though, so I hope this author keeps writing this series, as I would like to see what it becomes.

I received a free advanced copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

I enjoyed this book, though I do think it would be enjoyed more by other people. To preface, my only familiarity with Medea is from her brief mention in the Heroes of Olympus series by Rick Riordan, so my idea of who she is may be off. However, unlike other retellings I have read this one does not feel like it has much of a twist to it. I'm sure given the myth it comes from that this is a different perspective, but it does not stand out against other modern books.

I do think the author accomplished her goals with the characters though. Despite surface appearances I think you can get an idea of who everyone really is pretty quickly.

The only major thing that irked me is an issue of word usage. As per arc guidelines I am not including it here currently, but when I get the chance to check a final published copy I will edit this review as needed.

Overall I do think this was worth a read, but I don't think it's something I'd reread.