Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

36 reviews

mdal26's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Slavery, Blood, Child death, Death, Infidelity, War, Fire/Fire injury, Rape, and Sexual violence

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• 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: Child death, Physical abuse, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Hate crime, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, War, Blood, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

ccee's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Saint’s prose is readable in that she can compose a sentence, yet her imagery relies heavily on ancient turns of phrase that we’ve seen rehashed again and again throughout these retellings. Cassandra and Clytemnestra had depth, yet Elektra, a stunningly tragic figure, lay flat.

Her take on Pylades and Orestes as sworn brothers made me cringe a little, their relationship felt stiff and platonic, and Elektra’s instant attraction to Pylades felt so far out of the realm of the canon of the Tragedians that it blindsided me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Pregnancy, Gore, War, Violence, and Ableism

Minor: Animal death and Abandonment

unfiltered_fiction's review

dark fast-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

This is an easy-read retelling, in that the prose is very clean and the story doesn't require much work to follow. Unfortunately I found the character work (arguably the most important aspect of retellings, as this is where something truly new can be offered) quite weak. Cassandra felt somewhat diluted and Elektra was two dimensional, with no real depth added by the bizarre touches of Oedipal thinking in her envy of the women her father abducted and abused. Helen had some interesting moments between her sympathy for Cassandra, touches of witchcraft, and the description of her serenity as consolidating her supernatural beauty was effective, but this was all kept relatively surface-level. Clytemnestra's character was definitely the most developed, but still didn't feel strong enough to hold the book up on its own. Overall, a readable story but not one that gripped me - perhaps because Greek myth retellings are such a flooded sub-genre, and so I tend to feel that a writer needs to really offer something breathtakingly brilliant in order to hold their ground.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, War, and Child death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, and Confinement

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, War, Misogyny, and Child death

Moderate: Rape, Blood, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Slavery, Gaslighting, and Violence

Minor: Vomit, Alcohol, Classism, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Suicidal thoughts

bectothebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Death, Murder, Death of parent, Infidelity, Grief, Child death, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Blood, Misogyny, Confinement, Gaslighting, Rape, Sexism, and Gore

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy

blancablar's review

reflective 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Child death

Moderate: Sexism, Murder, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Deportation, War, Rape, and Abandonment

Minor: Cannibalism, Animal death, Pregnancy, and Confinement

emma3674's review

dark emotional mysterious slow-paced

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

2.0

Fairly entertaining but I found this quite boring compared to other books I’ve read recently, it took me about six months to finish compared to a few days to a week for others

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Mental illness, Death of parent, Child death, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Murder, Slavery, Pregnancy, Gore, and Blood

sirenricobooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexism, Child death, Grief, Death of parent, Trafficking, War, Classism, Gore, Violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, and Slavery

Moderate: Cannibalism

Minor: Incest, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, Rape, Confinement, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment

ohyeah_karyn's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, War, and Child abuse