Dead Beautiful

By Melanie Dugan

What if the man you love is the God of the Dead?

That’s the problem facing Persephone. Her mother, Demeter, is a Level-1 goddess who wants Persephone to marry Darryl, demi-god of home repairs, and stay close to home. Her father, Zeus, the top god on Mount Olympus, is a bit grumpy these days, fed-up with all the demands being made on him. And Hades, well, now that she’s getting to know him, Hades isn’t what Persephone expected at all — he’s handsome, smart, sensitive and witty — in a word, hot.

Beautiful, intelligent and strong-willed, Persephone’s in line to be a Level-1 goddess herself someday. The problem is ... she’s dissatisfied and restless.

This new take on the classic myth is a smart, sexy, fast-moving read. Dead Beautiful explores the many faces of love, explains why there are four seasons, and reveals what really happens after death.

In the tradition of Marie Phillips’s Gods Behaving Badly, Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, and Ali Smith’s Girl Meets Boy, Dugan takes a classic tale and makes it new. Dead Beautiful is a story for anyone who wants to know what life on Olympus with the immortal gods is like, for anyone who has fallen in love, and for anyone who wonders what happens after death.
Diane Schoemperlen, author of At A Loss for Words and Our Lady of the Lost and Found, says Dead Beautiful is “a cheeky and thought-provoking romp through the Pantheon, the Underworld, and that peculiar little place called Earth that lies somewhere in between."

• Language: English
• Publisher: UpStart Press
• Release date: Jun 28, 2013
• ISBN: 9780988062702

Melanie Dugan

Melanie Dugan is the author of three novels, Dead Beautiful (Upstart Press, 2012) Revising Romance (Sumach Press, 2004), and Sometime Daughter (Second Story Press, 2002). Her short story, “A Map of the Human Heart,” was shortlisted for the CBC Literary Contest. Melanie’s writing has appeared in Toronto Life, The North American Review, the Kingston Whig-Standard, and other magazines. Melanie has studied at the University of Toronto’s Writers’ Workshop, the Humber School for Writers, and the Banff Centre for the Arts. Born in San Francisco, Melanie grew up in Boston, Toronto and London, England. She lives in Kingston, Ontario with her family.

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