adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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dark sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Character
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

I did enjoy parts and pieces to this book. The writing was stunning and there were parts of the book where I couldn’t put it down. The message came through clearly, that women are the playthings (and ultimate victims) of heroes and gods. 

The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped. This made me realize that most of Greek myth is just bad men being awful. 

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adventurous emotional sad tense slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

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adventurous emotional mysterious medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: No

  I’m a huge lover of Greek mythology retellings - but this one I have mixed feelings on. 

It’s advertised as a feminist take, but I fail to see where that happened? Ariadne started naive and ended naive. She made a choice to leave with Perseus, and from then on became frail and scared of everything. 

Phaedra deserved better. Her character was strong, blunt, intelligent beyond her years desperate for change. Yet it doesn’t end well for her, and all because of unrequited love? 

Dionysus and Ariadne is one of my favourite stories, and whilst I’m not always looking for a happily ever after, this was meant to be about women finding strength and yet she ends up in the stars. Even though there is mythology out there of her becoming immortal like his mother. 

I loved the start of their relationship, friendship and talks, him providing her a home after being abandoned and all the other women who were abused and unhappy. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but it just fell flat for me. <\spoiler>

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Ariadne can be slow at points, though that may be because of the different perspectives. Which, while I enjoyed, I personally find it easier to get attached to one character's perspective. In saying that, the pace picks up, especially the last 100 or so pages which were impossible to not turn. Definitely recommended if you enjoy modern takes on mythology!

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adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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adventurous dark reflective fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Complicated
Diverse cast of characters: Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

This started out very promising but it started to lose its luster for me as Ariadne made ridiculous choice after ridiculous choice. It’s odd that the premise of the book is how in Greek mythology, women were often punished and tortured for the crimes and desires of men and Ariadne is so keenly aware of this at the very beginning and claims to want to change her fate and yet she just does nothing? She’s brace when she assists Theseus but from that point on she just chooses to sit by and do literally nothing and allow the men in her life to save her or torment her or continue to do as they wish with her.

Juxtapose that with her little sister Phaedra (who is the far more complex and fascinating narrator here, particularly when dealing with Post Partum Depression) who is so bold and headstrong and vibrant and also determined to live her own life despite her status as a prize for Theseus (and she succeeds! She convinces him to keep adventuring so she can do as she pleases while he’s away!) until
she literally out of nowhere becomes obsessed with her 14-year-old stepson? 

Now, yes, that’s correct in terms of the original mythology but I thought the whole point of the book was to flesh out female mythological figures more? This book offers ZERO explanation for the insanely drastic change in character when it comes to Phaedra. Was she being used to punish Theseus? Did she upset Aphrodite? Was she just mad? We literally never find out. Her only reason for loving Hippolytus is because he’s different from Theseus but it still feels bizarre to me that a 28-year-old woman, who as far as we know was completely sane, would fall in love with a child literally out of nowhere.

I’m really not someone who needs media spelled out for me but in this case some explanation would have been great because it truly is that sudden of a change. It’s a storyline that feels rushed, like the author felt she had to shoehorn in that myth about Phaedra because it’s so well known but she didn’t really connect it very well with her version of Phaedra that she created for this book.


Jennifer Saint is a talented writer. She paints vivid pictures and there’s a lot here that’s compelling and interesting but to me, this book just didn’t quite stick the landing.

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