Wearing the Lion by John Wiswell

✦ BLURB ✦

Heracles, hero of Greece, dedicates all his feats to Hera, goddess of family. Heracles’ mother raised himto revere Hera, as her attempt to avoid the goddess’ wrath. Unbeknownst to Heracles, he is yet another child Hera’s husband, Zeus, had out of wedlock.

Hera loathes every minute of Heracles’ devotion. She finally snaps and sends the Furies to make Heracles kill himself. But the moment Heracles goes mad, his children playfully ambush him, and he slays them instead. When the madness fades, Heracles’s wife, Megara, convinces him to seek revenge. Together they’ll hunt the Furies and learn which god did this.

Believing Hera is the only god he can still trust, Heracles prays to Hera, who is wracked with guilt over killing his children. To mislead Heracles, Hera sends him on monster-slaying quests, but he is too traumatized to enact more violence. Instead, Heracles cares for the Nemean lion, cures the illness of the Lernaean hydra, and bonds with Crete’s giant bull.

Hera struggles with her role in Heracles life as Heracles begins to heal psychologically by connecting with the monsters—while also amassing an army that could lay siege to Olympos.

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✶ PRE-READING ✶

The idea of Heracles as a tragic figure isn’t new, but this approach - focusing on psychological recovery, subverted heroism, and a compassionate lens on the “monsters” - had my full attention. I was curious to see how the story would handle Megara (so often fridged) and Hera (so often vilified), and I’m always here for retellings that ask, “What if the real strength was kindness?”

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✶ POST-READING ✶

As I thought... This was thoughtful, nuanced myth retelling at its best. The writing doesn’t rush, giving Heracles space to breathe, grieve, and evolve. The tenderness with which he approaches the monsters - so often painted as his conquests - was genuinely moving. I especially appreciated how the book reframes "heroism" as more than brute force. It also really cleverly reconciled Heracles' eventual death by hydra blood with the story it was telling.

It surprised me by... ...how much of the emotional arc belonged to Hera. Watching her unravel, reflect, and try (haltingly, clumsily) to atone gave the story a real sense of weight and complexity. This isn’t a straightforward redemption arc - it’s more like two broken figures circling each other, realizing too late what might have been. I also loved Megara’s presence; she’s no longer just a footnote in Heracles’ suffering, but a sharp, grief-forged force in her own right. There's space given to some of the other gods as well, but John wisely didn't try to cram all of the twelve in - only half of them appear and only half of those have any real bearing on the story.

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✦ RECOMMENDATIONS ✦

Book Recommendation: A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes – for a similarly sharp, empathetic take on classical myth from unexpected perspectives.

TV or Movie Recommendation: The Green Knight (2021) – for its mythic weight, psychological depth, and refusal to glorify violence.

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✧ VIBE CHECK ✧

A colour palette: Burnished gold, bruise-purple, smoke and pale olive

A soundtrack: Low cello and slow, echoing percussion; moments of quiet harp

A season: Late autumn - darkening skies, the scent of ash, and quiet reckoning

A mood: Wounded, contemplative, and fiercely gentle

A scent: Singed olive branches and old leather, warmed by sun

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★ TAROT CARD PULLED ★

Strength – Universal Goddess Tarot (Ishtar).
Ishtar, goddess of love and war, stands calm and composed, a lion at her side and a serpent coiled in her hand.
This version of Strength speaks to the emotional core of Wearing the Lion: the effort to master rage without denying it, to hold both tenderness and power. Like Heracles and Hera, Ishtar is a figure of contradictions - one who learns that true strength isn’t about destruction, but balance, mercy, and accountability.

Wearing the Lion publishes on the 17th June, 2025. I received a free copy and am giving an honest review.