Review Detail

Hercules proved he was a true hero and became a god like his parents, Zeus and Hera. Meg is thrilled for him and shocked when he says he wants to stay with her. The problem? Zeus won't let Hercules go back to being a mortal, and Meg can't join him in Olympus because she is a mortal. Hera offers Meg a quest to become a god: she must once again journey to the Underworld and then save the wife of her ex boyfriend, the one she gave up her soul to save. Meg must battle literal demons and her own inner ones if she wants to stay with the god she loves.

As soon as I saw Hercules was next up in Disney's Twisted Tales series, and focusing on Meg at that, I was ecstatic. Hercules is one of my favorite Disney movies, and Meg is my favorite character. There was such joy in reading this book. In GO THE DISTANCE, we get so much more information about Meg. We see what her childhood was like, how her previous relationship developed, and how deep her fear of being abandoned is. For the first time, she has to stop running and face her past in order to move forward. She has to learn hard lessons on accepting help from others, opening her heart, and being vulnerable. Her emotional arc is beautifully written, and I was ready to sob in the last couple of chapters.

Not only do we learn more about Meg, but we also get to see more of the women in the movie who didn't get much screen time: Hera, Athena, Aphrodite, and Katerina, the woman Meg's ex moved on with who isn't originally named in the movie but mentioned. I love how the gods in particular work together and help Meg in her journey, reluctant as she is to accept help at first. Especially in regards to Hera, sometimes someone else has to see something in you that you don't recognize yet in order to find it yourself.

While I love the ending of Hercules the movie, I almost like the conclusion GO THE DISTANCE leaves us with better. A hero's hardest quest is often fought on the inside, with ourselves, and the journey can change us completely.