The Eighth House Review

So far, as far as I can remember, I have only reviewed male/male erotica on this blog, but that doesn’t meant that I only read male/male stuff myself. I just haven’t thought about reviewing any of the regular erotica here so far. But then I stumbled over “The Eighth House: Hades and Persephone” by Eris Adderly and thought I should review this one after finishing it.

In modern times, Hades, Lord of the Underworld (everything below ground, as it were), has often been cast as a villain, most prominently in Disney’s “Hercules.” This is, however, an undeserved bad name, because among the gods of Mt. Olympus, Hades is the most relaxed and least active in Greek Mythology (admittedly, he doesn’t live on Mt. Olympus, so there’s that). The most well-known story about Hades is the one where he tricks his niece into marrying him - which is also the basis of “The Eighth House.”

First, a little information about relationships in the Greek pantheon. Zeus and his five siblings, two brothers and three sisters, are the children of Kronos, who thought he could prevent them from rising up against him by eating them right after birth - a strategy which the youngest one, Zeus himself, finally broke through with the help of his mother Gaia. The six siblings in question are Zeus, Poseidon, Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Hestia. The three sons split the world up between them: Zeus got the land, Poseidon the seas, and Hades the underworld (as mentioned, all below ground). Zeus decided to marry his own sister Hera, but neither Demeter nor Hestia ever got married. Demeter, however, had a little fling with Zeus which brought about Persephone, the second half of this strange couple (which, for all we can say from Greek mythology, had a much calmer marriage than many others).

Demeter’s area of expertise is agriculture with all its facets and Persephone is the goddess of all things growing - a spring goddess, if you want to put it like that. If it seems weird to you that she, of all people, should be married to the god of death, look at it this way: Persephone and Hades are a full circle of life. In spring, she leaves the underworld and brings growth back to the world. In autumn, she returns below ground and takes the growth away. Everything from the birth of new plants to their death. That Persephone leaves the underworld every spring and returns in autumn is due to a temper tantrum of her mother Demeter after Persephone had vanished from the face of earth. That she is connected to the Lord of the Dead, on the other hand, is due to a few pomegranate seeds she ate in the underworld - which means she has an everlasting connection to Hades and can’t stay away from him unlimited. (This is the trickery I referred to at the beginning, by eating something in the realm of Hades, Persephone became connected to him.)

“The Eighth House” makes good use of the basic story as told above, but changes quite a few aspects. Despite having been a maiden goddess in mythology before her marriage to Hades, Persephone is not a maiden any longer by the beginning of the novel (which is quite some time before she meets Hades). Being kept away from the male gods on Olympus by her mother, Persephone has been seeking sexual thrills from mortal men. A similar thing can be said about Hades who, not often visiting his youngest brother, has kept away from the other gods and every now and then also been with a mortal woman. Neither of them is satisfied with things as they are and neither of them expects for their situation to change soon. That is until Aphrodite, meddler extraordinaire when it comes to all things of lust and love, demands of Hades to court and, eventually, marry Persephone, so the gods whose heads the younger goddess has involuntarily turned will turn their heads and thoughts back to Aphrodite. She hints at him finding his match in Persephone, too, which he brushes aside. Yet, she helped him create an immensely powerful artefact (which he mostly uses for sexual pleasures) and now demands the favour he promised in return.

Hades agrees in the end and captures Persephone - only to find that the maiden goddess is a match for him, experienced in sex, and the submissive to his dominant tendencies. It takes a while for them to grow close and Hades fights with himself about how to keep Persephone - knowing her mother will move heaven and earth to get her back. After all, Demeter is Hades’ sister as well as Zeus’.

There is a lot of sex in the novel, which is good, since this is, after all, an erotic novel and supposed to have a lot of sex scenes. They’re also written very well and a pleasure (of both kinds) to read.

But it’s also a novel which does take an old myth and makes it better. It gives Persephone agency she has been denied in the classic mythology, making her an accomplice to Hades’ eventual plan to keep her. Yes, the pomegranate seeds play a role, but not the one a person familiar with the myth might expect.

It’s also a novel which gives Hades his real character back, not casting him as a villain - despite his behaviour towards Persephone at the beginning -, but a god who is fully devoted to his job, to the underworld. He has a hands-on approach, takes care of things personally instead of only relying on his personnel.

He’s also depicted as not perfectly beautiful and attractive at the beginning - Hades’ skin is pale at the torso and the upper parts of his limbs, but grows darker and darker down the limbs. He gives Persephone an explanation for this during the novel, so I won’t spoil it, but it makes him appear in a much better light than ‘ugly one among the gods who does well to hide in the underworld.’ Hades is despised and feared by quite some immortals, but it’s undeserved and the author makes sure the readers learn about it together with Persephone.

If you like reading erotica and enjoy stories about gods and goddesses, then “The Eighth House: Hades and Persephone” is a very good addition to your collection. The writing is good, the pacing is as well. The novel is a good read and the story is engaging. It’s a good story to have fun with.