Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

12 reviews

cactusandtea's review against another edition

challenging funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, Grief, and Murder

ofclumsywords's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-paced

5.0

Another fantastic book by Natalie Haynes. Going into even more depth about women she had previously talked about in her book A Thousand Ships, while adding more women to the list of forgotten voices in Greek myths. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, and War

thewillowwood's review against another edition

funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5

I am happily working my way through Natalie Haynes’s entire catalogue of writing, this book coming almost (library hold time notwithstanding) immediately after my finishing the audiobook for “A Thousand Ships” which i adored. Her narration is wonderful as well as her writing, she is funny, witty, and tells the story of these women with respect and from all angles. I highly recommend giving this a read, or a listen!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Murder, and War

leweylibrary's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I've been in a bit of a nonfiction slump lately, but this book shot right through that. I had to turn the speed down a bit because the author has an accent and all those Greek names are 😵‍💫 but gosh is it a great read.

I really don't know much about Greek myths, I never got into them much as a kid, but I have been reading a lot of retellings of Greek myths as an adult and love them, so it was great learning some of the background about those amazing female characters who have gotten screwed over by so many other narratives. The chapter on Madea is possibly The best--it's incredibly intense and emotionally powerful. But I also love the chapters on Medusa, Pandora, and the Amazons.

The author also has a great voice and sense of humor which made this audiobook all the more enjoyable. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Xenophobia

pipn_t's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Rape and Sexual violence

savage_book_review's review against another edition

dark informative slow-paced

3.0

As can easily be gleaned from my reading history, I do love me some Greek myth retellings. I've heard Natalie Haynes speak and be interviewed on several history podcasts I listen to, and she's always come across as bright, bubbly, funny and extremely knowledgeable about her specialist subject, so I thought I'd give this book a go, simply to get me a little more up to speed with the women of the Greek myths and to obtain a more female-centric view of them.

From very early on, the phrase that stuck in my head was 'stream of consciousness'. The writing is interesting and thought-provoking, but it makes for breathless reading - it came across to me as if the author simply couldn't type the words out quickly enough to keep up with her thought process. One line of examination flowed seamlessly into another; while in general that's a good thing, it made it very difficult to discern the point she was making.

The language used clearly puts this book well within reach of a general audience, but at the same time this is not a book to pick up if you only have a passing knowledge of the women and the myths studied. I class myself in that category - I could place most of the women in the right 'place' in the myths, but aside from that my awareness is in fact relatively limited. As a result, once again it became very hard to keep track of exactly what the author was trying to say - it was only with the last couple of women studied that a clearer recap of their 'standard' stories was included. Otherwise, it felt very much like being thrown in at the deep end, and therefore perhaps more appropriate for those with more expertise. I though this was a shame, as if matters were drawn out a little more I think it would have made a truly fascinating read.

Because of both these elements, I found it a harder going read than expected; for a fairly short book, it was quite heavy-going. I could only digest it for about 20 minutes at a time before the weight became too much and my attention started to drift. I think this would be an incredibly useful reference book if you were studying a particular myth or work such as the Iliad, as it would counter the male gaze of the main story and allow you to consider an alternative perspective. Likewise, if you were focused on one particular female from the pantheon, you might find her chapter in here a great source of information. But otherwise it's just not got that hook to make it a 'must read'.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Pregnancy

tashtasher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol

junglejelly's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.75

Such an amazing book to delve into a few the women of Greek myths. A great springboard to look into other similar texts, too.

Haynes explores various themes and arguments for each woman, linking a few of them together (it's Greek myth, everyone's related).

Not a full 5 stars for me as sometimes I felt I as the reader needed to know the myths better to understand some of the points Haynes made.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

hfleur's review against another edition

challenging informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Child death

Each event is not talked about in harrowing detail but definitely saddening/triggering in places.

asipofcozy's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

After reading Natalie Haynes' portrayal of women in Greek Literature in A Thousand Ships, I just knew I needed to pick up Pandora's Jar.

I have always been fascinated by Greek culture and mythology. I grew up on stories of Achilles and Hercules and thought, "this is what it means to be a hero". Yet, now, after reading Pandora's Jar I can say that I have changed my tune. It's not that I don't still respect these childhood stories that we still teach children today; it's that I now see the truths that lay behind each of them.

Haynes takes the voices of these marginalized women in greek myths and finally gives them a voice. She analyzes each artist, writer, poet, and singer and how they have hidden away these women in the background. Too afraid to sing of their pain, suffering, and loss at the expense of these heroes. She makes us question if Medusa is actually the villain due to earlier accounts of her story or if Clytemnestra was an out-of-control woman that wanted power. The greek writers and even modern-day writers never want to talk about the women's side of the story, and now we have it.

I think what disturbed me the most was how modern-day writers and retellers of these stories gloss over some serious issues that were normalized in the original greek retellings, which Haynes points out quite often in Pandora's Jar. Such as r*pe, sexual harassment, Stockholm syndrome, and suicide. Take the thousands/millions of retellings of Persephone and Hades for example.

Not one story talks about how Hades forced himself on her or forced the Pomegranate down her throat every day so she couldn't leave. Or how Zeus was a part of all this, yet it's in all of the original texts. Why was this? Was it because it wouldn't be as "romantic" of a story? If so, these modern-day writers are turning a blind eye to r*pe culture and just allowing it. Even now, with some very popular retellings out like Lore Olympus: Volume One or A Touch of Darkness, not one talks about Persephone being r*ped. That it was "romance" that kept her there.

I get that we need these retellings. I mean, I love a good retelling as the next person but are these stories, in the end, taking away the voices from the original women of the myths who are constantly used, abused, and thrown to the side as trash for the next woman that catches the fancy of the hero?

Pandora's Jar made me think analytically about women in literature, women in the modern day, the original stories of these myths, and the retellings of these myths. It led me to question the stories I was told as a child and whether I would think differently of these so-called 'heroes' if I knew how they treated women. Or how modern-day storytellers treat these women by wiping away their original voice. Haynes, in the end, creates a complex situation behind these women like Helen of Troy, Phaedra, and Pandora and if they truly are the beautiful villains we have come to see today.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Gore, Rape, Blood, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail