Pandora is a sixteen year old American girl who lives with her father and her adopted sister, Mandy. She was deserted by her mother upon birth with a promise she would return on her sixteen’s birthday. When Pandora was ten, her father told her that her mother was a sea nymph from another world who was not allowed to see her. Pandora is not sure whether to believe him or not. When her mother fails to appear on her birthday, Pandora feels betrayed and abandoned. When she confronts her father about her mother again, he tries to calm her and tells her: “Pandora, stop. For a start, I’m not crazy. You’ve seen the news, you know as well as I do people are starting to believe in the Gods.” (p. 5). Yet we are not told anything further about this mysterious statement of his. 

On the next day Pandora is attacked by a monster that emerges from the sea, and is rescued by a woman who turns out to be her mother (who remains nameless). Her mother tells her that she, Pandora, is a descendent of Oceanus and that she belongs in Olympus Academy. The woman is cold and collected and hardly speaks with Pandora. She gives her a choice: to come with her to Olympus and leave her family or remain on earth where she will be forever pursued by monsters who are drawn to her because she does not belong to the mortal world. 

Pandora is afraid that if she stays she will endanger her family, so she agrees to go with her mother. They dive into the sea and after a while arrive at a magnificent underwater school. The headmaster, the centaur Chiron, welcomes them and introduces Pandora to her roommate, Zali. When the other students discover that Pandora is a descendant of Oceanus, a Titan, they start to fear and hate her, due to the ancient and bloody war that once took place between the gods and the Titans. Even though Oceanus did not participate in the war, Titans are not welcomed in the school. There is even a story that in the past a Titan descendant (a girl) caused a deadly fire in the school. 

Only Zali and another male friend Tak stay true to Pandora and help her during her time in the academy. Pandora is badly bullied especially by Arketa, Aphrodite’s descendant. She enjoys her classes, especially the Pegasus riding class, although she misses her mortal family as well. Soon she starts to befriend a moody and unpleasant Titan descendant named Icarus, who hides a painful past (which has not yet been revealed). Icarus is also hated at school and ridiculed mainly due to very small feathers which grow on his back. Later, Icarus and Pandora are asked by their professor, Dasko, to solve an ancient riddle pertaining to the Titans and locate a mysterious box. They must do it before Zeus’ inspection of the school. After many hardships and adventures, during which they fall in love, they manage to find the box, but Pandora opens it and unleashes daemons. She and Icarus manages to catch one demon but they are afraid that the other one might be posing as a new schoolmate. To be continued in the next volume.

This story is a mix of Percy Jackson and Harry Potter, with a strong female lead.

The age of sixteen is an important milestone, on the threshold of adulthood. Pandora is still a young adult, but she is on the verge of becoming a young woman. She is going through emotional hardship, and the knowledge of her mother’s abandonment weights heavily on her. Like many teenagers, Pandora does not really feels as if she belongs anywhere, and as is common in such fantasy stories, her feeling is justified, since she truly belongs in another world. She wonders: “Could the excruciating, restless boredom I spent every day of my life fighting be because I was meant to be somewhere so much more exciting than here?” (p.12). This story also shares some features with the Pegasus series by Kate O’Hearn. In these fantastic coming of age tales, a young regular girl or boy suddenly discovers that they have special abilities. They must first learn about their powers and discover them and slowly learn how to control them, by gradually growing up and discovering their inner selves and the meaning of being an adult, as well as the meaning and importance of true friendship and love.

Part of this growing up involves overcoming bullying and standing up for oneself and others. The Olympus academy appears as a tough place, like a human high school, again as is typical of similar stories (for example Harry Potter, or to a lesser degree Goddess Girls). Even in these fantastic schools one can face discrimination and loneliness, and a society of demi-gods does not guarantee a peaceful environment; on the contrary, it can enhance the drama.

Regarding her name, Pandora is not named after the mythical character; she actually is the Pandora of myth. While she does not discuss her own curiosity, Pandora’s character is revealed through the people around her, who emphasize her inquisitiveness. For example, when at first she declares she will not wait another day for her mother, her father replies: “I know you, Dora. If there’s any chance she might be there, curiosity will win out.’” (p. 5). Later, Icarus reprimands her for always asking questions. 

Pandora’s questioning is a recurring motif which is meant to emphasize her curiosity in popular stories, (similarly the character of Pandora in Goddess Girls is always asking questions). Yet in the original myth her curiosity was rather limited to the mysterious jar and not in general. In the end, when she is faced with the box, Pandora’s reasoning appears persuasive. Since the box, as she and Icarus are informed by their professor, is meant for Titans, why can’t she open it? There was no ban from anyone on opening the box. It was Icarus who suggested they contact the teacher first, just in case. Furthermore, Pandora wishes to open the box not out of pure curiosity, but because the answer to her and Icarus’ wishes, namely to be free and also to be able to move between worlds so that she can reunite with her family, lies in the box. When she unleashes the daemons, unlike the mythological Pandora, the heroine of this story tries her best to challenge the daemon and eliminate it, risking her own life. She and Icarus are the hope of survival for the rest, due to their success in defeating the daemon. Pandora is an active and strong person, she tries to help others and not harm them. In contrast to the mythological Pandora, who was created as a punishment from Zeus, this Pandora is a Titan’s descendant, and it is yet to be revealed whether she was also manipulated by a greater force to create havoc.

Icarus’ past is still shrouded in mystery at the moment, with only hints at a labyrinth and experiments. We know that he is a descendant of Prometheus, hence his reunion with Pandora appears destined as well as his initial detachment from her (in the myth Prometheus advised his brother against marrying Pandora). The tiny wings on his back, which cause him much suffering, allude to the myth of his flight, however, in the next volumes the author does not revel more on his past. We are told, however, about a clash between Prometheus and Zeus, as occurred in the Greek myth. When Pandora learns about Prometheus’ gift of fire, she asks: “‘So why don’t humans worship him instead of the gods?’ I asked. ‘Zeus would not allow it. Mankind live in fear of the Olympians. They do bestow favors on those they see fit, but rarely and not without cost.’” (p. 62). The cruelty and pettiness of the gods, especially Zeus, is hinted at, and it is little wonder that their descendants in the school follow this path, especially Zeus’ twins, Vronti and Astra. Olympus as well as the academy, as Pandora quickly finds out, are not fair.

Regarding the mortal world, Earth, Pandora is told that it was part of Athena’s experiment, “To see how much can be achieved by mortals if they are left alone.’” (p. 62). So ironically, a world without the gods is actually a world created by the gods.

A final note on Olympus. Chiron tells Pandora: “Rumors of Olympus exist in your world as Greek mythology. Do you know much of it?’” (p. 20). In this story the gods exist and their existence is concealed from the mortal world with the guise of stories and myths similarly to the Percy Jackson and Pegasus series mentioned above. Hence the link between myths and reality is illustrated, allowing the Greek myths to be regarded as a history of another world. Furthermore, in the academy, due to her lack of knowledge, Pandora is forced to sit in history class, so that she can learn more about Olympus and the gods. In this story, Olympus is composed of 12 realms, linked to the zodiac signs and each god controls a realm (for example, Dionysus’ realm is Taurus and so on). Hence Olympus is not just a mountain but could be visualized as an entire world.

The review refers to the Kindle edition.