Reviews with content warning for Pregnancy - Ariadne

Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

209 reviews

moh_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.5

An interesting concept, but falls flat in some ways for me. Lots of repeated phrases about dancing, bellowing, rotten chamber, women are the ones who suffer for men's actions, etc.

My largest struggle with the book is that the main women in it feel very passive. At times, Ariadne comes across as unrealistically naive in a way that the author justifies due to large passages of time that the reader has not been present for. There were times where I felt like both sisters had been portrayed as smarter earlier in the book, only to have their words and actions later greatly discredit their intelligence, life experiences, and their prior characterization!

This book made me appreciate Clytmenestra more as a novel that truly gave its main female character agency and intellect while still operating within the limits of myth. This wasn't quite it for me, but I did finish it in one sitting.

Content Warnings

nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

I honestly don’t know how to rate this book. Was this book good? Well… yes. The writing was great. Was anything that happened in this book a surprise? No, not at all. I didn’t think this book would have a happy ending. Did I want a “retelling” that was exactly the same as Greek mythology? No. Like the Greek tragedies that inspired it, countless women fall victim to the whims of men, human and god alike, and they are helpless to break the generational cycle. I feel that retellings are a chance to give these women a different, better ending and this did not deliver.

Content Warnings

saskiajva's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Definitely read content warnings for this! This book was odd. I felt like it spent a lot of time detailing unimportant things and then sailed through important bits i wish had been more detailed, so it’s hard to say if not much happens or if a lot happened. Ariadne is a timid, fretful character which was frustrating and hard to like or relate to at times. The ending is one of the darkest things I’ve ever read, but isn’t given too much detail so it loses some punch there which is not a bad thing. I wanted to love this book, but it isn’t my thing. But I can see why others like it

Content Warnings

mirandahems's review against another edition

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dark reflective sad

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? No
Diverse cast of characters? No

3.75

most of the book is people telling stories to ariadne, you don’t see much of the action. i feel like i personally went through a terrible break up by the end of this. overall a good story.

Content Warnings

leweylibrary's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-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

5.0

The number one thing to learn from this book: Never trust a god, and DEFINITELY never trust a man. Jeeeeeez.

But seriously, I really enjoyed this one, especially the relationship between Ariadne and her sister. I do kind of wish it would've slowed down a bit once they were separated and given some more detail on what their lives were like, especially the sister. And my goodness what a depressing ending lol.

Quotes:

What I did not know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood: however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do. (12)
No longer was my world one of brave heroes; I was learning all too swiftly the women's pain that throbbed unspoken through the tales of their feats. (13)
I only knew Medusa as a monster. I had not thought she had ever been anything else. The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own. (13)
I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man's actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead. (14)
What the gods liked was ferocity, savagery, the snarl and the bite and the fear. Always, always the fear, the naked edge of it behind the smoke, rising from the altars, the high note of it in the muttered prayers and praise we sent heavenward, the deep, primal taste of it when we raised the knife above the sacrificial offering.
Our fear. That was how the gods grew great. (17)
Theseus had not left me because I was at fault or because I did not matter. He had left because, to him, nothing mattered at all. Beyond the cold pursuit of his own fame. I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing. Make me doubt the value of myself. (179)
"I want no gift that I give you to be so transient. And so I took it from your head, where it can only look a doll in comparison to your radiance, and I put it somewhere it will shine forever."
... In the eternity of night, I saw the brand new pinpricks of light that shone in a sweeping arc. The luster of my crown was now a fiery illumination against the darkness.
"Just as you will never lose me, you will never lose your crown," his arms wrapped tightly around me. "Your coronet will guide sailors to safety through the labyrinth of the treacherous seas. Women will look to it for a sign of comfort, a light in the darkness. Children will whisper their wishes to it before they close their eyes to dream. It will stay there, fast and true, for all of time." (187)
As If we hadn't learned from living with our shattered mother and her monstrous spawn that all the women can do in this world is take what she wants from it and crush those who would stand in her way before they break her into fragments like Pasiphae. (233)
The price we paid for the resentment, the lust, and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife. Dionysus had once seemed to me the best of them all, but I saw him now for what he was, no different from the mightiest of the gods. Or the basest of men. (299)