Reviews tagging 'War'

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

177 reviews

madelinequinne's review against another edition

sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

Since my obsession with Ancient Greece has come back full force, I knew I needed to read this book as soon as I saw it in Waterstones, and it was… fine? I think reading Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati before reading Electra made me not enjoy this so much since the former painter Clytemnestra’s character in such a strong way, with so much depth that then reading the latter’s depiction of her was disappointing. She was written as if she was weak minded and always in her sister’s shadow, and she was rather two dimensional in certain points of the book. 

For a book called Electra, there wasn’t all that much about her until the last third of the book. It was much more focused on Clytemnestra and Cassandra right up until Agamemnon’s murder, so at times I didn’t really feel like I was reading her story at all. 

This book was a fine read, but I can’t say it was my favourite. The writing was very beautiful and descriptive, and I didn’t feel like it was a drag to read or anything, so I’d still recommend this to anyone wanting to read about Ancient Greece, but it’s certainly not at the top of my recommendation list. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Child death, Infertility, Murder, Sexism, Death of parent, Mental illness, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Slavery, and War

Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Sexual assault

mamaowlbear's review

challenging 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Death of parent, Murder, Child death, and War

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Blood, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Alcohol, Animal death, Child death, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, War, Gore, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

sarabookshelf's review against another edition

dark tense

3.75

A retelling of the Trojan war and its aftermath focusing on the tragedy of the women in house of Atreus. The main character was in my opinion the least interesting of the three narrators, and I wish the focus was more on Cassandra as her fate I found the most fascinating. The later parts of the book dragged on a bit and made me lose interest to what happens to the characters. But overall, it was a solid greek mythology retelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Child death, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual assault

shaylac's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I honestly could not get into this book. I was able to finish it but it took me longer than I expected and I'm not sure if it was because of the 3 different perspectives that didn't really coincide with each other or if it was the the way nothing was really exciting. At some points the plot gets interesting and it holds my attention, then the plot dies and turns to a different perspective.

I was excited to read a book with female POVs but I can't wrap my head around why Cassandra's POV was included in this book. I think it was nice to have her perspective as a princess of Troy but I don't feel that her POV was necessary for this book. Also, I was waiting for the point for all 3 of their perspectives merge into 1 but that didn't happen either. I'm not sure if it's because I don't have the most in depth knowledge of Greek mythology but I couldn't get into this book at all.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death and Death

Moderate: Grief, Murder, War, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Death of parent

ienbdri's review against another edition

dark emotional tense slow-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

a lot of daddy issues and incest even for greek mythology

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, War, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Rape, Gore, Grief, Murder, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Slavery

shay_talksbooks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence and Child death

hello_lovely13's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Death, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Sexual assault, Slavery, and Rape

Minor: Cannibalism

pencilspeaker's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and War

havefa1th's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious medium-paced

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

2.0

This book is very good but sometimes it just feels very slow and I'm hoping for it to hurry up. Another thing is that I struggled to sympathise with Elektra, the literal namesake for the book. I found the other povs far more interesting

but unfortunately they both die before Elektra

. By the final ten-ish chapters, I just desperately wanted the book to finish.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Violence, Pregnancy, War, Blood, Death, and Gore

Moderate: Grief, Sexism, Slavery, Child death, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Classism, Death of parent, Rape, and Self harm