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lia_24's review against another edition
dark
reflective
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
I never thought I'd say this but I love Hera and even more so I love her blunt and honest narration of the story of women that history reduced to mere wives.
Hera's love for the Greek Queens is incredibly moving and her telling of the place women occupy in society is terrifyingly honest.
You're caught between laughing at her insults towards men and her fellow Gods, only to be hit with a passage describing the abuse women are victim to on the daily which makes your stomach turn.
There could not have been a better narrator for the story of Queens than their goddess.
Hera's love for the Greek Queens is incredibly moving and her telling of the place women occupy in society is terrifyingly honest.
You're caught between laughing at her insults towards men and her fellow Gods, only to be hit with a passage describing the abuse women are victim to on the daily which makes your stomach turn.
There could not have been a better narrator for the story of Queens than their goddess.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Rape, and Sexual assault
booksthatburn's review against another edition
hopeful
reflective
tense
medium-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? It's complicated
5.0
As the first book in the series, ITHACA tells a chapter in Penelope’s life while Odysseus is aware. It tells a complete story, then ends rather dramatically in a way that foreshadows the sequel.
One of the difficulties in embarking upon retellings of Greek myths for a modern reader is that merely trying to lay out the relevant backstory involves listing several people Zeus assaulted, and a great deal of other violence, just to say the origins of a particular hero or the parentage of a demigod. ITHACA has a refreshing and circumspect approach to this and other similar difficulties which come from delving into stories where women were generally not considered to be full persons. ITHACA aims to tells the stories of the people the poets ignored, the women and slaves who were excised from their own stories (unless relegated to paragons of virtue or warnings of catastrophe). Hera is the narrator, telling what happened while Odysseus was on Calypso's Island, indulging in passion, and Penelope is at home in Ithaca, keeping dozens of suitors at bay. She keeps them just hopeful enough to refrain from war against Ithaca to claim her hand and her husband's responsibilities. In this retelling, there’s a cleverness and frustration to Hera. She, who was the goddess of queens, made small by Zeus and the imaginations of mortal men. Squeezed into the role of the goddess of wives, stifled by the implication that wives and mothers are less than men and distinct from warriors. Instead, ITHACA slowly disrupts that status quo as Penelope shows how she is a queen in fact and in name.
Because everything is from Hera's perspective, she doesn’t know exactly what Penelope is thinking. Hera's most frequent interactions are with Athena and Artemis, as she is deliberately hiding her activities from Zeus, and any god who might carry tales to him. There’s a loneliness and a hunger in Hera, as the way she can only accomplish things while beneath Zeus's notice mirrors the way that the wives, mothers, and queens, who pray to her must conceal their cleverness. When they produce something that men like, their ingenuity is misunderstood, or assumed to have another cause. When their cleverness threatens the men, either truly or only in their minds, then the women must be stopped through social pressure or violence.
The suitors cannot believe that Penelope continues to feed so many without gold, refusing to accept that she is a shrewd tradeswoman who manages her household well. Those who press her on the matter seem to think that hidden gold is a readier explanation than competent husbandry of goats. As if feasts are made of metal and gems, the men refuse to understand that barter and bargain can produce feasts with the resources of the farms and fields.
I’m very pleased with the worldbuilding, the narrative style, the focus as shaped through Hera, and many small moments in the story. I’m very excited to read more, and I’m glad this is a series instead of a standalone book.
One of the difficulties in embarking upon retellings of Greek myths for a modern reader is that merely trying to lay out the relevant backstory involves listing several people Zeus assaulted, and a great deal of other violence, just to say the origins of a particular hero or the parentage of a demigod. ITHACA has a refreshing and circumspect approach to this and other similar difficulties which come from delving into stories where women were generally not considered to be full persons. ITHACA aims to tells the stories of the people the poets ignored, the women and slaves who were excised from their own stories (unless relegated to paragons of virtue or warnings of catastrophe). Hera is the narrator, telling what happened while Odysseus was on Calypso's Island, indulging in passion, and Penelope is at home in Ithaca, keeping dozens of suitors at bay. She keeps them just hopeful enough to refrain from war against Ithaca to claim her hand and her husband's responsibilities. In this retelling, there’s a cleverness and frustration to Hera. She, who was the goddess of queens, made small by Zeus and the imaginations of mortal men. Squeezed into the role of the goddess of wives, stifled by the implication that wives and mothers are less than men and distinct from warriors. Instead, ITHACA slowly disrupts that status quo as Penelope shows how she is a queen in fact and in name.
Because everything is from Hera's perspective, she doesn’t know exactly what Penelope is thinking. Hera's most frequent interactions are with Athena and Artemis, as she is deliberately hiding her activities from Zeus, and any god who might carry tales to him. There’s a loneliness and a hunger in Hera, as the way she can only accomplish things while beneath Zeus's notice mirrors the way that the wives, mothers, and queens, who pray to her must conceal their cleverness. When they produce something that men like, their ingenuity is misunderstood, or assumed to have another cause. When their cleverness threatens the men, either truly or only in their minds, then the women must be stopped through social pressure or violence.
The suitors cannot believe that Penelope continues to feed so many without gold, refusing to accept that she is a shrewd tradeswoman who manages her household well. Those who press her on the matter seem to think that hidden gold is a readier explanation than competent husbandry of goats. As if feasts are made of metal and gems, the men refuse to understand that barter and bargain can produce feasts with the resources of the farms and fields.
I’m very pleased with the worldbuilding, the narrative style, the focus as shaped through Hera, and many small moments in the story. I’m very excited to read more, and I’m glad this is a series instead of a standalone book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual harassment, Death, Gore, Blood, Domestic abuse, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Classism, Grief, Sexism, Misogyny, Death of parent, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Ableism, Rape, Sexual assault, Infidelity, Cannibalism, War, Slavery, Murder, and Child death
Minor: Child abuse, Kidnapping, Physical abuse, Incest, Pregnancy, and Sexual content
introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
A unique offering in the outpouring of Greek myth retellings that provides an entirely new perspective on Penelope, Clytemnestra, and its narrator Hera. The novel shares its focus between a cast of compelling female characters and undermines the male characters whose abuse of power and mediocrity gets in their way.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
gxcons's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
A retelling of Greek mythology revolving around Penelope, probably the least paid attention to of the three Greek queens during the time of the Trojan war.
What worked for me:
-Goddess Hera as narrator provides 3rd person omniscience with a dash of personality.
-The introduction of the house of Atreus (Elektra, Orestes, Clytemnestra) picks up the pacing of events and feels within the realm of possibility (timeline of mythological events).
-The handling of familial relationships (Penelope and Telemachus, the house of Atreus, absent fathers of the Trojan war) was nuanced and the most compelling piece of the book for me, by far.
What didn't hit:
-The very outright obvious "this is a feminist retelling" tone throughout. The focus on women and women's stories on Ithaka makes sense, accounting for the Trojan war and Odysseus's prolonged absence, but the constant "this is women's lot" became repetitive and exhausting.
-Related to that last point, the voice of many women, including Hera, felt imbalanced between sticking to higher, vaguely regal language and modern, 21st century snark. The snark and sarcasm date the book to a very particular (modern) time period; for me, the mid-2010s though this is a recent pub. Early on in the book it occurred to me that Hera reads like Regina from ABC's Once Upon A Time, and I couldn't shake it.
-Repetitive phrasing and jumping around to various character POVs and events
-Although I do appreciate the large cast of characters, it didn't read as Penelope's story with background characters, but rather an ensemble.
-Pacing of events outside of the house of Atreus drama was very slow, which, to be fair, is to be expected considering how long Penelope entertains and fends off suitors.
I didn't entirely acclimate to the tone and language of the book, and there were sections I started skimming over (descriptions of Ithaka, slow plotting). If I had known this was part of a series, I would have been less off-put by the ending. I'll pick up book #2, though, and in the meantime will seek out the two ancient Elektra plays and the Oresteia.
NB: I wouldn't recommend this book to those not familiar with the finer points of the mythology surrounding the Trojan war, but to each their own.
What worked for me:
-Goddess Hera as narrator provides 3rd person omniscience with a dash of personality.
-The introduction of the house of Atreus (Elektra, Orestes, Clytemnestra) picks up the pacing of events and feels within the realm of possibility (timeline of mythological events).
-The handling of familial relationships (Penelope and Telemachus, the house of Atreus, absent fathers of the Trojan war) was nuanced and the most compelling piece of the book for me, by far.
What didn't hit:
-The very outright obvious "this is a feminist retelling" tone throughout. The focus on women and women's stories on Ithaka makes sense, accounting for the Trojan war and Odysseus's prolonged absence, but the constant "this is women's lot" became repetitive and exhausting.
-Related to that last point, the voice of many women, including Hera, felt imbalanced between sticking to higher, vaguely regal language and modern, 21st century snark. The snark and sarcasm date the book to a very particular (modern) time period; for me, the mid-2010s though this is a recent pub. Early on in the book it occurred to me that Hera reads like Regina from ABC's Once Upon A Time, and I couldn't shake it.
-Repetitive phrasing and jumping around to various character POVs and events
-Although I do appreciate the large cast of characters, it didn't read as Penelope's story with background characters, but rather an ensemble.
-Pacing of events outside of the house of Atreus drama was very slow, which, to be fair, is to be expected considering how long Penelope entertains and fends off suitors.
I didn't entirely acclimate to the tone and language of the book, and there were sections I started skimming over (descriptions of Ithaka, slow plotting). If I had known this was part of a series, I would have been less off-put by the ending. I'll pick up book #2, though, and in the meantime will seek out the two ancient Elektra plays and the Oresteia.
NB: I wouldn't recommend this book to those not familiar with the finer points of the mythology surrounding the Trojan war, but to each their own.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault
theblerdnewsletter's review against another edition
dark
emotional
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
The reason I didn’t give it 4.5 stars is because I would love to see Hera’s telling of when Odysseus comes home.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Slavery, Infidelity, War, Blood, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking
katelandbear's review
challenging
inspiring
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
linguisticali's review against another edition
dark
medium-paced
3.0
The truly relentless references to rape were my least favourite thing about this. Whatever point you want to make about the poets lionising male heroes who are actually Bad Rapists... we get it. Point made. Otherwise it was... fine? I didn't hate it but I won't read the next one.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual assault, Violence, and Rape
brittishrcoming's review
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: War, Misogyny, Violence, and Murder
Minor: Slavery, Rape, and Sexual assault
bridgetdeveney's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
forgetbeenot's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Violence