The first time I read this book, I just threw it down 50 pages in in disgust. I absolutely hated the initial pages of the book. Helen was insipid. Despite there being no clear description of her, I could tell that she was going to be another of those I-am-so-pretty-but-I-just-can't-see-it type of girl. Well, she is, and she is so typically Mary Sue, but upon a rereading, the entire book is so well-written and its portrayal of mythology so well-explained and creative that I am so glad I gave this another shot. 
 I still have problems with Helen. She is so perfect, but her perfection, her typical way of underplaying herself and underestimating herself becomes a lot more understandable in the book as one goes along. That's where the book shines. In so many YA books these days, there are huge, gigantic, gaping plot holes, and I end up finishing the book with more questions than answers. This is not so with this book. Every question I had was explained, every complaint I had was addressed in a rational manner true to the book's imagined and actual mythological world. I can say overall that I have very few complaints with the characters besides the intrinsically perfect quality of the main character, Helen, and her equally perfect star-crossed love, Lucas. 
 The plot is fairly confusing, but essentially the Delos family moves onto the Nantucket island where Helen and her single father has lived their whole life. Helen starts dreaming about wandering across a dry landscape, and has hallucinations of three women weeping. Her encounter with the Delos clan ends up disastrously, with the entire family and her locked in inexplicable hatred of each other. As they fight their predestined hate, the family and Helen get to know each other and seek to solve the mystery of Helen's true heritage. 
 As I've stated, the beginning did not do it for me. From the first few pages, we get the impression that Helen attracts attention, although we never get a clear impression of how Helen looks from herself: Some of the Labor Day tourists were staring at her, not unusual, so Helen tried to turn her face away as subtly as she could. Helen is such a frustrating character, particularly in the beginning when we first get to know her. It's all Helen-Helen-Helen for the first part of the book. Helen goes to school. Helen talks to her friend. Helen talks to her teachers. Helen dreams, or rather, gets nightmares. What made this worse is that the impression she forms is not a very good one. She constantly downplays herself and her talents. She tries to play dumb in class so she won't attract attention, even if she's in need of a scholarship so she can attend college: her teachers notice this and calls her out on it, but all she has are weak, halfhearted excuses as to why she's not exerting herself or displaying her true intelligence. 
 "I think you're capable of much more than you are willing to admit," Hergie said, frowning. "I know you aren't lazy, Helen. I also know you are one of the brightest students in your class. So what's keeping you from taking advantage of all that this educational system has to offer you?" 
 Even in track, she devalues her own performance, deliberately slowing down her true speed...and still she hopes to get by to college on an athletic scholarship. 
 "Coach Brant and I have noticed something interesting about your times, Helen. No matter who you're running against, no matter how fast or slow your opponents are, you always come in either second or third. How can that be? Do you have an answer?" 
 "No. I don't know. I just run, okay? I try my best." 
 "No, you don't," Coach said harshly. 
 And on, and on, and on, for the first part of the book. Helen is initially such a whiny martyr, getting cramps and being shy and reticent at attracting attention, She just wants to be left alone: "Why couldn't they all just ignore her? Secretly, Helen had always felt she was different, but she thought she had done a pretty good job of hiding it her whole life." By this point, this early on in the book, I was on high Mary Sue alert. 
 Then came the appearance of the Delos family and the Furies. I dislike anger and violence in this book, and this part gave me such a claustrophobic feeling. It's like being stuck in an elevator with someone clearly hiding some intense emotions like trying their best not to cry in public. It feels so awkward and frustrating and as much as you sympathize with them...you just want to get out of there ASAP. That's what it felt like with the inexplicable hatred and violence that the Delos family and Helen get when they're thrown together, and with Helen's violent and inexplicable emotions thrown into turbulence whenever she is in their presence. 
 Later on in the book, Helen improves. She never becomes truly likeable to me, but it was explained clearly why she was the way she was. It was well-explained as to why she is special, why she holds so much value to the Delos family, and why she has all these special powers that she has. It is not intrinsic. The powers are given to her, she is not special for the sake of being special, and her reticence to shine and to show her true self, be it academically or athletically, stems from the mystery surrounding her heritage. And what a heritage. I loved the mystery surrounding her mother, and how it is gradually revealed, and why she is literally unable to let herself shine or be seen as intelligent or special by others. 
 I did feel bad for Helen, having a mysterious mother who left her at birth. She grew up thinking that her mother hated her, and to be honest, the things revealed throughout the story kind of confirms that. I can't reveal the other things, but her name itself shows that her mother probably doesn't like her own daughter that much: the name Helen is rooted in Greek mythology as the woman who betrayed Troy, "It's why we Scions never name our children after her. For us, naming your daughter Helen is like a Christian naming their child Judas." 
 Ouch, and I thought naming your child hashtag was bad (true story, sadly). Actually, I think I'd rather be named Helen than hashtag, regardless of how much my mother hated me, it's better to have a name nobody will laugh at. 
 As a character, Helen grows and matures realistically. She comes to realize how selfish she is, and how she needs to get her head out of the sand. "Her life was also the only thing keeping the Olympians from coming back to earth and starting World War Whatever. So the Delos family had to protect her even if they all died doing it. And here she was refusing to learn how to fight. No wonder Hector hated her." Helen learns from her mistakes. 
 The rest of the characters in the book were very well done. There is an enormous supporting cast; the Delos family are a giant clan, and their younger children all go to school with Helen and is subsequently involved in her training. Their sheer number and names (all Greek names, all fairly accurate except for Castor and Pallas. IT'S CASTOR AND POLLUX, DAMMIT) are overwhelming at first, but they all play a separate role and each character has their own personality. I ended up liking them all immensely. 
 I love the fact that the girls in the Delos family are beautiful, stunning, smart, but also kind and never jealous of Helen. There's so much girl-on-girl hatred, especially towards beautiful girls out of jealousy and coming from beautiful queen bee mean girls in YA fiction that it is refreshing to meet the lovely creatures in this novel. Ariadne, Cassandra, and Pandora are kindhearted and warm, and as beautiful on the inside as they are physically stunning. They are the calming presences among the sea of adolescent male Delos testosterone. 
 Lucas is rather too perfect for me to fully love. I liked his endless patience with Helen, the fact that they meet, recognize that their hate is controlled by destiny and by something beyond their control, and fight through it all despite their overwhelming antagonistic emotions. Once they get past that part, Lucas becomes a rather too-perfect guy for Helen. I feel like he enables her self-pity, and loves her so much to the extent that he can never see her flaws, although he does reach his breaking point eventually and tell her that she's got to get over her fear of herself and start fighting. Their insta-love is explained through mythology, and is understandable, although cliched. 
 Hector, for me, was a much more likeable character. He's somewhat of a rogue, he's got considerably more personality than Lucas, and I love that he sees Helen's flaws. He never treats her like a princess like Lucas does, and he calls Helen out on her bullshit whenever he sees it. When Helen is too scared to fight, because she is a pacifist, instead of insisting that he'll protect her as Lucas does, Hector kicks her ass and tells her not to be a wuss. He seriously trains Helen, and does not shy away from hurting her (she heals extremely rapidly, Hector is in no way needlessly abusive) if he feels she needs to learn how to seriously fight and defend herself. He is the one who stands his grounds and tell Helen to suck it up when everyone is pussyfooting around her. 
 "There are so many ways to kill a person, Helen. You think you're safe because you passed Cassandra's test with the sword, but you're not," Hector said, his voice thick with frustration and worry. "I know you're still in shock, but I don't have time to wait for you to get comfortable with what you are. People are coming for you. You have to grow up, and you have to do it now or a lot of people are going to die. So go home. Eat something and get some rest. You look sick and I don't want Luke blaming that on me. But tomorrow you come to train. No more excuses." 
 The explanation of how their family is related to Greek mythology is extremely well done. I had a lot of questions: why are they all so beautiful? Why are they all so talented? Why do the houses exist? All eventually answered, and so well-explained. I hate books with complicated schemes that end up digging a deeper hole for themselves for lack of a credible plot. This book is extremely well-written. Despite my initial hatred for the main character, I am so glad I revisited this book. I ended up loving it, and will continue to read the rest of the series.