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saskia_ej's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and War
hello_lovely13's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Extremely well-written and thoughtful. It goes very much in-depth about the experience of being a woman, particularly what it would’ve been like during that time. It focuses a good deal on the quiet, subtle power women wield through deception, as well as the sheer audacity of men. I liked it more as it went on as I got used to the narration style (it is narrated by Hera in an omnipotent POV, which I’m not the biggest fan of, but grew to appreciate). I liked it, but I don’t think I’ll continue on with the series. The first part of the book I didn’t have a strong emotion reaction to anything other than annoyance at the men. However, I did get emotional at certain parts when Hera brings up her affection and love for “her queens”, as well as the despair that is to come both in their future as well as in their experience due to the ego of men. Overall, it was thoughtful and hit the points it wanted to address effectively, but as for it continuing as a series…I’m not fully on board.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Sexual harassment, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Death, Violence, and Blood
Minor: War and Slavery
deadnberried's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.75
TW: SA, violence against women
I went into reading this thinking I knew what it was going to be and it was decidedly not what I imagined.
A huge fan of Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achilles, I expected Ithaca to be a similar blend of raw humanity, rich characters, and the thin veil between mortals and gods that infuses everything with magical potential, be it for good or ill. This book seems to have been written attempting to do those things, but through such an incredibly jaded, bitter lens that the story is a slog to get through.
Advertised as Penelope's side of the story (ra-ra, Penelope ruled Ithaca for ten years, let's see how this badass rose to the challenge!), we instead get an incredibly dejected, dispiriting novel about being crushed under the thumb of patriarchy. Women's lives and happiness don't matter, men are animals and will do what they want to women, even royal women can't escape man's ownership and brutality, even GODDESSES can't. Penelope is regularly condescended to by the council that 'helps' her rule Ithaca, while she does all of the actual work of keeping an economy running herself behind the scenes, her son is as different from his hero father as it's possible to be (and Odysseus isn't that great actually), Hera is almost powerless so she just hovers behind Penelope wringing her hands and bemoaning the fate of women in a man's world. This book is just a bummer.
I went into reading this thinking I knew what it was going to be and it was decidedly not what I imagined.
A huge fan of Madeline Miller's Circe and Song of Achilles, I expected Ithaca to be a similar blend of raw humanity, rich characters, and the thin veil between mortals and gods that infuses everything with magical potential, be it for good or ill. This book seems to have been written attempting to do those things, but through such an incredibly jaded, bitter lens that the story is a slog to get through.
Advertised as Penelope's side of the story (ra-ra, Penelope ruled Ithaca for ten years, let's see how this badass rose to the challenge!), we instead get an incredibly dejected, dispiriting novel about being crushed under the thumb of patriarchy. Women's lives and happiness don't matter, men are animals and will do what they want to women, even royal women can't escape man's ownership and brutality, even GODDESSES can't. Penelope is regularly condescended to by the council that 'helps' her rule Ithaca, while she does all of the actual work of keeping an economy running herself behind the scenes, her son is as different from his hero father as it's possible to be (and Odysseus isn't that great actually), Hera is almost powerless so she just hovers behind Penelope wringing her hands and bemoaning the fate of women in a man's world. This book is just a bummer.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, War, Child death, and Murder
sauvageloup's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
hard to rate this one since I read it rather piecemeal and I cant hold a coherent sense of it in my head
pros:
- the characters all have distinct personalities and dialogue, which is written well. Penelope is focused, hera is snippy, telemachus is foolish, etc. but they're all complex too. there were some nice additions to the canon, kenamon and teodora (or I didnt remember them anyway), and it was nice having some decent characters.
- there is dry humor, especially in here's perspective
- I like the concept on focusing on outwardly quieter female power, and looking at hera and penelope, and the other women from a different angle than the mythology does.
cons:
- it did feel too slow a lot of the time, with a lot of meandering and introspection.
- it was frustrating seeing telemachus ignore his mother repeatedly, and aspects of the myths play out, but that's not a book criticism, just that inevitable tragedy isnt rly my genre.
so overall, I appreciated the writing quality and definitely enjoyed meeting Claire North and hearing her discuss her work, but this wasnt quite my type of book, a bit too slow.
pros:
- the characters all have distinct personalities and dialogue, which is written well. Penelope is focused, hera is snippy, telemachus is foolish, etc. but they're all complex too. there were some nice additions to the canon, kenamon and teodora (or I didnt remember them anyway), and it was nice having some decent characters.
- there is dry humor, especially in here's perspective
- I like the concept on focusing on outwardly quieter female power, and looking at hera and penelope, and the other women from a different angle than the mythology does.
cons:
- it did feel too slow a lot of the time, with a lot of meandering and introspection.
- it was frustrating seeing telemachus ignore his mother repeatedly, and aspects of the myths play out, but that's not a book criticism, just that inevitable tragedy isnt rly my genre.
so overall, I appreciated the writing quality and definitely enjoyed meeting Claire North and hearing her discuss her work, but this wasnt quite my type of book, a bit too slow.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Child death, Gore, War, and Misogyny
Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Rape
Minor: Xenophobia
simonlorden's review against another edition
dark
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I liked the story, but the amount of misogyny and all the rape descriptions got really exhausting by the end.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Child death, Misogyny, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Death of parent and War
cathy_alice's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and War
Moderate: Slavery
booksthatburn's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
As the first book in the series, ITHACA tells a chapter in Penelope’s life while Odysseus is aware. It tells a complete story, then ends rather dramatically in a way that foreshadows the sequel.
One of the difficulties in embarking upon retellings of Greek myths for a modern reader is that merely trying to lay out the relevant backstory involves listing several people Zeus assaulted, and a great deal of other violence, just to say the origins of a particular hero or the parentage of a demigod. ITHACA has a refreshing and circumspect approach to this and other similar difficulties which come from delving into stories where women were generally not considered to be full persons. ITHACA aims to tells the stories of the people the poets ignored, the women and slaves who were excised from their own stories (unless relegated to paragons of virtue or warnings of catastrophe). Hera is the narrator, telling what happened while Odysseus was on Calypso's Island, indulging in passion, and Penelope is at home in Ithaca, keeping dozens of suitors at bay. She keeps them just hopeful enough to refrain from war against Ithaca to claim her hand and her husband's responsibilities. In this retelling, there’s a cleverness and frustration to Hera. She, who was the goddess of queens, made small by Zeus and the imaginations of mortal men. Squeezed into the role of the goddess of wives, stifled by the implication that wives and mothers are less than men and distinct from warriors. Instead, ITHACA slowly disrupts that status quo as Penelope shows how she is a queen in fact and in name.
Because everything is from Hera's perspective, she doesn’t know exactly what Penelope is thinking. Hera's most frequent interactions are with Athena and Artemis, as she is deliberately hiding her activities from Zeus, and any god who might carry tales to him. There’s a loneliness and a hunger in Hera, as the way she can only accomplish things while beneath Zeus's notice mirrors the way that the wives, mothers, and queens, who pray to her must conceal their cleverness. When they produce something that men like, their ingenuity is misunderstood, or assumed to have another cause. When their cleverness threatens the men, either truly or only in their minds, then the women must be stopped through social pressure or violence.
The suitors cannot believe that Penelope continues to feed so many without gold, refusing to accept that she is a shrewd tradeswoman who manages her household well. Those who press her on the matter seem to think that hidden gold is a readier explanation than competent husbandry of goats. As if feasts are made of metal and gems, the men refuse to understand that barter and bargain can produce feasts with the resources of the farms and fields.
I’m very pleased with the worldbuilding, the narrative style, the focus as shaped through Hera, and many small moments in the story. I’m very excited to read more, and I’m glad this is a series instead of a standalone book.
One of the difficulties in embarking upon retellings of Greek myths for a modern reader is that merely trying to lay out the relevant backstory involves listing several people Zeus assaulted, and a great deal of other violence, just to say the origins of a particular hero or the parentage of a demigod. ITHACA has a refreshing and circumspect approach to this and other similar difficulties which come from delving into stories where women were generally not considered to be full persons. ITHACA aims to tells the stories of the people the poets ignored, the women and slaves who were excised from their own stories (unless relegated to paragons of virtue or warnings of catastrophe). Hera is the narrator, telling what happened while Odysseus was on Calypso's Island, indulging in passion, and Penelope is at home in Ithaca, keeping dozens of suitors at bay. She keeps them just hopeful enough to refrain from war against Ithaca to claim her hand and her husband's responsibilities. In this retelling, there’s a cleverness and frustration to Hera. She, who was the goddess of queens, made small by Zeus and the imaginations of mortal men. Squeezed into the role of the goddess of wives, stifled by the implication that wives and mothers are less than men and distinct from warriors. Instead, ITHACA slowly disrupts that status quo as Penelope shows how she is a queen in fact and in name.
Because everything is from Hera's perspective, she doesn’t know exactly what Penelope is thinking. Hera's most frequent interactions are with Athena and Artemis, as she is deliberately hiding her activities from Zeus, and any god who might carry tales to him. There’s a loneliness and a hunger in Hera, as the way she can only accomplish things while beneath Zeus's notice mirrors the way that the wives, mothers, and queens, who pray to her must conceal their cleverness. When they produce something that men like, their ingenuity is misunderstood, or assumed to have another cause. When their cleverness threatens the men, either truly or only in their minds, then the women must be stopped through social pressure or violence.
The suitors cannot believe that Penelope continues to feed so many without gold, refusing to accept that she is a shrewd tradeswoman who manages her household well. Those who press her on the matter seem to think that hidden gold is a readier explanation than competent husbandry of goats. As if feasts are made of metal and gems, the men refuse to understand that barter and bargain can produce feasts with the resources of the farms and fields.
I’m very pleased with the worldbuilding, the narrative style, the focus as shaped through Hera, and many small moments in the story. I’m very excited to read more, and I’m glad this is a series instead of a standalone book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Death, Gore, Blood, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Classism, Grief, Sexism, Misogyny, Death of parent, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Rape, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Cannibalism, War, Slavery, Murder, and Child death
Minor: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Incest, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
imlfox's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Blood, Violence, and Death of parent
introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
A unique offering in the outpouring of Greek myth retellings that provides an entirely new perspective on Penelope, Clytemnestra, and its narrator Hera. The novel shares its focus between a cast of compelling female characters and undermines the male characters whose abuse of power and mediocrity gets in their way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
theblerdnewsletter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The reason I didn’t give it 4.5 stars is because I would love to see Hera’s telling of when Odysseus comes home.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Slavery, Infidelity, War, Blood, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking