Reviews with content warning for Sexual violence - Ithaca

Rating: 3.5/5 stars

The story of the women of Ithaca awaiting the return of Odysseus from the Trojan War, narrated by Hera.

This was the inaugural pick for my new book club Myth of the Month and it was fun way to kick off the year! I thought the narration was hilarious and really enjoyed Hera as a storyteller. That said, I found the plot a bit slow-moving, and felt like not very much happened…by the time things started to pick up towards the end, the book was over, and I felt like the entire story was more of a set-up for a sequel than a standalone novel.

Still, if you enjoy feminist mythology retellings, this one was beautifully written, and I would still recommend it overall, particularly if you like a more character-driven narrative!

CW: Murder/blood; death of parent; sexual violence; slavery

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cleowhelan's review against another edition

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challenging hopeful inspiring sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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deadnberried's review against another edition

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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.

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sauvageloup's review against another edition

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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.

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