Reviews with content warning for Rape - Ariadne: Princesa. Irmã de um monstro. Amante de deuses e heróis.

Reviews tagging 'Rape'

Ariadne: Princesa. Irmã de um monstro. Amante de deuses e heróis. by Jennifer Saint

384 reviews

erinbarton's review against another edition

2.0

adventurous emotional slow-paced

to start off with positives - i did like the intention of bringing the minor female characters into the limelight, just the execution didn’t deliver for me. this has some nice prose as well as setting description and imagery, and did feel quite immersive in the ancient greece setting. i also think this is a good, accessible option for people who are interested in reading greek mythology but are put off by the language in the original texts.

however, overall i really didn’t think this book did anything new or creative:

quite a large portion of the book was hearing other mythology stories that are just told to ariadne, a lot of which wasn’t relevant and just bordered on info dumping.

the concept of giving a minor female character a whole story and fleshing out was more successful in circe, even the concept of isolation on the island and surviving off the plants etc was in circe too. i understand the myths might be similar but jennifer saint could have written a different myth - or focused more on the beginning of the story with the relationship between her and theseus - rather than making it so similar

although this was heavily marketed as a “feminist retelling”, i have to disagree. simply having a female mc doesn’t qualify this as a feminist retelling. ariadne’s only act of defiance/agency comes directly from the myth - saint hasn’t taken any creative liberties to expand ariadne’s bravery further. she has no agency that isn’t motivated by just loving a man, i don’t even think this would pass the bechdel test. none of the female characters felt especially fleshed out to me and weren’t developed enough to break out of the victim role in which they occupy in the original myths. we don’t get to see ariadne be a hero or save herself, she simply gets lucky and her prosperity is not a result of her own agency. simply pointing out the sexism in stories like this or medusa‘s isn’t anything new/groundbreaking - maybe this book would be better suited to a teen audience or a reader who hasn’t heard/realised the sexism within these myths before.

a question i have is: why are ~1/3 of the chapters told from phaedra’s pov if the book is called “ariadne”? i read the blurb for saint’s second novel “elektra” and it seems that too has multiple povs other than just the title character’s. i’m not sure why saint is so set on the one name titles - yet again similar to circe - but they just don’t make sense to me for a multiple pov story.

ariadne also had no conflict about betraying her family and helping theseus, from when she meets him to when she is betrayed by him just felt incredibly rushed. they were escaping crete and all i thought was oh, is that it? although you could argue that saint was attempting to show how shallow the “love” between them was, the whole middle section of the book dragged on and could’ve been shortened to allow for a better paced development in part 1. a more slow burn “romance” would have made naive readers all the more shocked when theseus leaves her, and readers who know what will happen feel more dread and empathy for ariadne.

when pheadra went to live with theseus and began getting suspicious i was thinking, okay here we go - phaedra is going to figure out what’s happened and go rescue ariadne. but no. she doesn’t even really try and defy theseus until hippolytus showed up. there could have been so much more character development for her; she could have still had this naive love for theseus in the beginning that slowly developed to hate when she learns more about his true character. she learns (off-page) that he has a child that was conceived during rape and has no reaction. where is the rage???

Content Warnings

megmoore123's review against another edition

3.5

adventurous informative mysterious reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

Content Warnings

clarissajs's review against another edition

4.25

dark emotional

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: N/A

Content Warnings

peasant123's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: No

Content Warnings

helenastinks's review against another edition

3.25

emotional reflective fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

caroliiineb's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

emmyy15's review against another edition

4.5

challenging sad fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

Content Warnings

maisiepamela's review against another edition

4.0

emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Complicated

Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

I really enjoyed reading this book, it had so many turns at the end that just left me in shock I had no idea that they were coming. I thought the themes explored in this book were interesting, but I don’t think they were written as well as they could have been. Ariadne had such strong opinions at the start but I just felt that they faded out through the book. The author wrote it the toxic men quite well but I just felt as though they were forgiven at points which I didn’t like. The ending was phenomenally written and Ariadne became the one thing she didn’t want to be

which was taking a punishment for a man

. The writing used in this book was so stunning, I quite enjoyed reading it.

Content Warnings

mermaidstears's review against another edition

4.0

adventurous emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I am absolutely, positively screaming after finishing this book. The last 100 pages carried even though i didn't love the ending at all. The writing in this is so lyrical and beautiful to read which l loved. Although Ariadne tried to gaslight, gatekeep, and girlboss, the moral of the story is the world is better without men.

Content Warnings

theequestrianslibrary's review against another edition

3.0

adventurous dark informative reflective 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: Yes

**DISCLAIMER: This may or may not be a full list of every trigger/content warning found in the book, Ariadne by Jennifer Saint. Please take this list with a grain of salt as the book is a Greek Mythology retelling. Some triggers and content warnings may contain spoilers!

To start, as I'm rewriting this review a second time because I accidentally deleted the first one, I was very happy to see a retelling of a Greek Myth that wasn't Persephone & Hades (though I do love that pairing immensely.) For about the first 1/3 of the book, I was unaware this WAS a retelling, but that may have simply been my own oversight, considering the names Theseus and the Minotaur were also mentioned. I digress.

After about 1/3 of the book, I did do a search to see if the main characters, Ariadne and Phaedra, were in fact real characters in these Greek myths. Because of this, I discovered they were and carried on with reading, though now I had some additional information such as pertaining to who ended up with who based on the legend.

The book's writing retains a "formal, prose-y" type of speech, especially when characters are talking. There weren't very many instances that I was confused by a word or a phrase, but did take note of how the characters spoke. The descriptions of scenes and setting was flowery, and as a more flowery writer myself, I tend to appreciate this type of description. However, there were instances in the book, mostly in the first 1/2 that involved numerous references back to past events in the characters' lives. While this is usually fine, it did get a point where it felt very repetitive and almost annoying. By annoying, I mean, "Yes, yes, we know this happened to them, we've been over this, [...]" etc. Etc.

The book also utilizes timeskips. For most of the book, you have no idea how long has actually passed between the very first chapter, to the very end of the book. You actually do not find out how much time has passed until the very last 5 or so chapters. Which, some of the ending chapters were extremely short, some having only two pages, while others earlier on were bordering having ten. While short chapters can be useful in short, choppy scenes, it felt rushed and like larger plot points were simply ran past, in a way that was very reminiscent of, "Oh, okay, we're already past that then." Admittedly, this may have affected my reaction to the end, as well as my brief research into the character' original identities.

When the book ended, I did not feel any overwhelming emotions. I was simply ready for the next one, unlike other books that can leave you in emotional disarray for days on end. I didn't dislike the book, but I would border it more to a 3.5 rather than a 3. The book, to me personally, feels like a one-off. You read it, mark it off your list, and then keep it on the shelf for its pretty cover. I would recommend it simply because it is a retelling of a myth not often touched upon, as it's a good one to simply sit down, read, and enjoy for what it is.

Content Warnings

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