Reviews with content warning for Gaslighting - Ariadne

Reviews tagging 'Gaslighting'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

49 reviews

milliemoo207's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

parts 1 and 2 were beautiful, the writing the plot and the characters. part 3 and 4 were just a mindfuck and i cant believe that i got tricked into loving both thesus and dionysus and then saw them get completely ruined. the ending happened so fast and ariadne was smart enough to know not to look into perseus’ shield and it felt a bit forced. it was so sad when dionysus took all the babies just before it was said that neither dionysus or ariadne (obviously) wouldnt go back to naxos and their sons had to grow up without them all ariadne wanted was an adventure:( the goat chapter was so disturbing idek what to think
anyways fav quotes:

“I danced for the end of everything I knew and the beginning of everything I did not. Beyond the palace walls, bulls lowed long and loud as they were led to the gates ready for sacrifice. In the temples incense burned, sending sweet smoke to the heavens in preparation for the blood that would follow, spilled to honour the gods. And far beneath my dancing feet, hooves rumbled impatiently, and as the sun reached its triumphant zenith in the sky above, the Minotaur bellowed in the blackness below.”

“The gods do not know love because they cannot imagine an end to anything they enjoy. Their passions do not burn brightly as a mortal's passions do, because they can have whatever they desire for the rest of eternity. How could they cherish or treasure anything?”

“I cannot love another immortal. I see them, vain and stupid, puffed up with their own importance and their petty cruelties. Mortals may age, but the gods are prisoners of their own infantile whimsies, never capable of change and never knowing what it is to love because they dare not risk the suffering of loss?”

“'A trinket can be lost,' he answered.
I suppressed the fuming reply I wanted to give.
It can be stolen, it can be twisted or tarnished and lose its lustre, he went on. I want no gift that I give to you to be so transient. And so I took it from your head, where it can only look dull in comparison to your radiance, and I put it somewhere it will shine forever. He cupped my cheek in his hand and lifted my chin to the dark bowl of the night sky. 'See the new constellation there?
In the eternity of night, I saw the brand new pinpricks of light that shone in a sweeping arc. The lustre of my crown, now a fiery illumination against the darkness.”

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droggelbecher42's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

4.25

I think it's a testament to how well written this is that I kept getting really upset the actions of the men in this book.
It made me tear up a couple of times so it feels illegal to give it any less than 4 stars.

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saurahsaurus's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Content Warnings

aformeracceleratedreader's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I've read a couple feminist/women focused retellings (Circe, The Witch's Heart) and Ariadne is the weakest of them. I liked it overall, but it felt like the interesting aspects were not as detailed as other aspects. I was hoping for a story about the sisters being the focus, but the romantic love was more heavily the focus. I understand that we need to see these terrible dudes/gods for what they are and how they force the hands of the women in these tales (how women are used/abused in these myths and legends), but I really wish the sisters were given more of a personality than what we got. It seemed like even though this was supposed to be female focused, the dudes in here were still given more depth, character, and story significance than our actual main women. I'm sure it's difficult to build on characters that we didn't get much from before like the male characters of these stories who we all have baseline knowledge of if we know any Greek mythology, but I feel the women were just given very generic and flat personalities. Ariadne's character and Phaedra's character had so much potential in the beginning but by the end, they were letdowns. This could've been great, but it fell short on a lot of parts for me.

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nick13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark slow-paced

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

3.0

I had heard several good things about this book so when I decided to read it, I was quite excited. However, I was left quite disappointed as, even for such a short book, it seemed to drag on and on at times about myths that barely pertained to the story and the ending, to me, felt a little lack luster. Overall, it was an okay read with really amazing moments in it but everything between those moments just make my attention wonder elsewhere.

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