Go The Distance really went the distance

Yesterday I went to the library and checked out 5 books from the library as one of my errands. One of those books was “Go the Distance,” a Hercules Twisted Tale by Jen Calonita. Honestly this was her best Twisted Tale so far. I actually read the book in one day. I did a previous newsletter about this book. The plot is, What if Meg had to become a Greek God? Meg has to go on a quest to save the wife of the man Meg sold her soul to Hades to save his life. Talk about awkward saving the wife of the man who broke your heart who you sold your soul for. If Meg doesn’t complete her quest she and Hercules can never be together since Hercules is a God and Meg is mortal. Though if any of us who read Greek and Roman mythology know, the gods had several relationships with humans whether due to lust or actual love.

Pros

Theres a lot to unpack here. Jen Calonita is an excellent writer. The writing is descriptive and while you read the book, you can read and hear the voice actors of Susan Egan, Danny Devito, Tate Donovan and James Woods voice Meg, Phil, Hercules and Hades just like in the movie. I also like how Zeus basically put a stop to Hercules giving up his godhood and how Hera had to intervene and at least give Meg a chance. Zeus is understandably a little hesitant to trust Meg due to her working with his brother to take them down after all. I liked how we get Megs backstory of her growing up and before the time she met Hades or Hercules. We also see how she met Aegeus and how she sold her soul for him. When she and Phil and Pegasus have to see him in the present there was a shocking plot twist of why Aegeus left and never tried to seek Meg out. We also see Meg grow as a character and realize she can open herself up to love and its okay to show emotions and that she doesn’t have to do everything on her own. I also love that we see other characters of Greek mythology including Persephone.  This time around Persephone wants to be with Hades instead of Hades forcing Persephone to be with him. Honestly their relationship was kind of cute in this version. I don’t know if Hades fully given up being conniving and evil, but Persephone mellows him out a bit.

Cons

There wasn’t much I really disliked. I do wish this book was longer because it was that good. I wish we saw more of Hades. While Meg being raised by a single mother was interesting and it was a good plot, I think a better plot for Meg’s backstory should go to her mythology roots a little bit. In the myth Megara/Meg was a princess. In the Disney film we don’t know about her backstory so maybe she could have been a princess but her kingdom was destroyed for whatever reason and she’s on her own.

Overall

Overall I enjoyed this one. I knew I would like it because Jen Calonita wrote this twisted tale and her past ones didn’t disappoint. I didn’t know how much I would enjoy it though. I might buy this one so I can reread it whenever I want. Part of me hopes some of these twisted tales get sequels. I could see “Go the Distance,” be either an episode for the animated series, a cartoon sequel to the first one if it wasn’t 2 decades too late or maybe even the live action version. The Twisted Tale series is hit or miss, but the ones that are really good I wish could be the live action remakes we get from Disney instead of being a straight up remake.