This is the fourth volume in George O'Connor’s wildly popular Olympians series. It focuses on a single myth, the story of Hades, Persephone, and Demeter. Although it’s called Hades: Lord of the Dead, Persephone is the real main character. During the course of the story, she grows up from a rebellious teenager frustrated by her mother’s strict control into a queen and partner to her husband. Hades doesn’t appear in the story until he kidnaps Persephone, which means that readers get to know him alongside her. Their romance gets off to a bad start but grows as he learns to treat her as an equal. Unlike some versions of the story, Persephone is well aware of the consequences of eating the pomegranate seeds and gets to make her own choices. Demeter also gets some quality face time in the story. Watching her attack Zeus with a scythe is deeply satisfying. It couldn’t have happened to a more deserving person.

Some of the images of the underworld are a little dark, so I’d recommend this graphic novel for readers aged 10 and up. There is a tour of all the souls that are being punished for their crimes in life, and there are ghosts everywhere. Overall, this is one of the most positive stories in the series, so I also recommend it to younger readers who enjoy stories that are a little spooky.  – Krishni Burns

Hades lord of the dead is for kids about 10+ because some parts are sad and others are unsettling. The story is about how Hades kidnaps Kore, Demeter’s child, in ancient Greece. Kore ends up being Hades' wife and for fall and winter, she is in the underworld, and for spring and summer, she's on earth. I would give it 4.5/5 because of the unsettling parts. It's a good book overall and would be good for any people who want to learn more about the Greek underworld. -Abby (age 11)

* For further information on the Our Mythical Childhood Survey, please refer to the website of the project “Our Mythical Childhood” [link: http://omc.obta.al.uw.edu.pl/], led by Prof. Katarzyna Marciniak at the Faculty of “Artes Liberales,” University of Warsaw, Poland, with the participation of Bar Ilan University, University of New England, University of Roehampton, University of Yaoundé 1, and other affiliated scholars, within the funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (grant agreement No 681202).