Reviews with content warning for War - Elektra

Reviews tagging 'War'

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

175 reviews

loki2's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

This book made me question why it was called Electra. As stated by multiple other reviewers, Electra was the least exciting and most hatable character. I love a POV from the women's point of view, but this book just emphasized all of the extremely creepy parts about the Trojan story while giving no resolution or justification from Helen on what happened in the story. Even in the original mythology events happened for a reason. This book would use events from the original story to push the book forward, while not providing any context or resolution to those pushes. This causes frustration for someone who's unfamiliar with the original mythology and makes you wonder why the author was trying to inflict pain on a character when in fact it's just a copy paste from the mythology without context clues.

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xennial_reader's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

3.25

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sarahbroccoli's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is the best book I have read in a long time

I think a lot of the people who have reviewed this book before me are missing the point that Elektra is who the ~Electra complex~ was named after: the idea that daughters compete with their mothers for their father’s attention and affection. Sound kinda sexist? Absolutely, that’s because it is. Elektra is totally acting on internalized misogyny and rage toward her mother for seeking vengeance against Agamemnon, even though Agamemnon is the one who committed such a terrible act

(and murdered her sister!!)

Also, Elektra holds on to this rage and bitterness throughout the duration of the book, so of course she’s unlikeable. I don’t think we are meant to like Elektra. At the same time, I think to some extent her anger and hurt is justified; she lost her father and her mother has removed herself from her life. That’s part of the beauty of this book, it made me feel for both Clymenestra and Elektra, just to different extents.

Saint does SUCH a great job of showcasing the nuances of family relationships, female rage, grief, and the consequences of seeking revenge. It’s also worth mentioning that Saint does portray the ways that women CAN support and empathize with each other (I.e. the relationship between Clymenestra and Cassandra), even though Elektra clearly does not do that.

Of course besides the content, the prose was beautiful. I enjoyed every second of reading this book!

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wanderingdeviant's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.75

my heart hurts a lot- this was so good. i love historical books told from the perspective of women as it’s so much more heartbreaking and genuine. cassandra and clytemnestra were my favourites and so interesting to read from the perspective of.

also, like… i know it’s based off of myths,, but i fucking hate elektra and she did not deserve to have a daughter of her own.

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lolasherwin's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful informative mysterious reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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porktheorc's review against another edition

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dark emotional mysterious sad medium-paced

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

3.5

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unfiltered_fiction's review against another edition

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dark fast-paced

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

2.5

This is an easy-read retelling, in that the prose is very clean and the story doesn't require much work to follow. Unfortunately I found the character work (arguably the most important aspect of retellings, as this is where something truly new can be offered) quite weak. Cassandra felt somewhat diluted and Elektra was two dimensional, with no real depth added by the bizarre touches of Oedipal thinking in her envy of the women her father abducted and abused. Helen had some interesting moments between her sympathy for Cassandra, touches of witchcraft, and the description of her serenity as consolidating her supernatural beauty was effective, but this was all kept relatively surface-level. Clytemnestra's character was definitely the most developed, but still didn't feel strong enough to hold the book up on its own. Overall, a readable story but not one that gripped me - perhaps because Greek myth retellings are such a flooded sub-genre, and so I tend to feel that a writer needs to really offer something breathtakingly brilliant in order to hold their ground.

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