Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

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

31 reviews

purplepenning's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

Brilliant! Fascinating and funny. If you have any interest in the Greek myths, the modern novelized retellings (Circle, Ariadne, A Thousand Ships), or the application of feminine perspectives to scholarship of any kind you won't want to miss this. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Child death, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Incest, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Violence

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

Thanks to Harper Perennial for the free advance copy of this book.

 - PANDORA'S JAR is for everyone who loves Greek mythology but wishes the women weren't protrayed only as objects or monsters.
- Even if you think you know it all in terms of myth, I'll bet Haynes digs out some alternate tellings and translations you haven't seen, giving everyone from Persephone to Clytemnestra new dimensions.
- Plus, this books is funny as heck. Haynes is dryly sarcastic, giving much needed levity to these tales of tragedy and woe. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Suicide, War, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, and Incest

lara_anne's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Suicide, and Sexual assault

marianneiriss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Child death, Death, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Slavery, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cannibalism, Infertility, War, Abandonment, Ableism, and Adult/minor relationship

elleapple's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Incest, Murder, War, and Suicide

oliverlang's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, and Violence

madelonpaige's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Suicide, and Sexual violence

solliereads's review against another edition

challenging dark informative reflective relaxing medium-paced

5.0

Upon seeing this title in a bookstore, I was largely hesitant to buy it due to it's pricing but I've come to find, after finishing it in full, that the price is so worth it for the incredible skill involved in the undertaking of this project - Haynes takes great care to keep true to the original tones of these stories, shows off the amount of research that underpins her discussion, and adds insightful commentary to make her discussions of them interesting and explorative. Not only are we being given the details of the stories, we are also given comparisons between the many different versions of them told throughout their time and given some good points of criticism so we are never taking any of the stories she shares at face value, and this caused my enjoyment of this book to skyrocket. Her research and writing style manages to give complexity and depth to those many female figures in Greek Mythology that allows them to flourish, rather than remain perceived as stagnant and bland characters only existing in relation to the men in their lives.

My only "criticism", if even that (since requiring rudimentary knowledge of a topic to read a piece of work doesn't negate its value, IMO) is that I wouldn't present this as a piece of literature those with no knowledge of mythology would instantly understand, and I look forward to re-reading it after doing my research and reading the original texts that are referenced within.

I would strongly recommend this book to those who are interested in Greek Mythology and want a decently-paced and enjoyable read, with references to pop culture spread throughout to encourage our own relatability to these characters as well as encouragement throughout to be critical of the men portrayed in the stories and to give the women a chance to be their beautiful, complicated, and sometimes devious, selves.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Murder, Rape, Suicide, and Child death

wherethebooksgo's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death of parent, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Suicide

stormwise's review against another edition

challenging funny informative medium-paced

5.0

This book was absolutely wonderful - Haynes is becoming one of my favourite authors! 

In each chapter, named after the character it focuses on, Pandora's Jar examines the variations of the original myths, the codifiers that set the cultural standard and the modern interpretations that audiences are familiar with. It's fascinating to learn about some of the alternative versions of these classic stories - what could have been if those tales had been the ones to remain in the public consciousness! Haynes also considers the context of the stories and their classical audiences - Greek plays, for example, were written by, performed by and most likely watched by men. It's no wonder women were so often sidelined. 

I LOVED the insights into language! I love linguistics, so it was extremely cool to look at the original Ancient Greek used and how it has been inaccurately translated in some instances. Word choice can convey so much - one of the biggest offenders that Haynes highlights is the frequent translation of Hippolyta's 'zōstēr' as 'girdle' when the word specifically means 'war belt'. 

I thoroughly appreciated the wry humour and clever wordplay throughout the book, which also helps to alleviate the sometimes heavy subject matter. I found that each chapter was structured and paced really well. Overall this is just a fantastic book which I would DEFINITELY recommend to anyone interested in Greek mythology and feminism. 

Oh, and I'm a Euripides stan now 🤷🏻‍♂️

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Misogyny, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Minor: Kidnapping, Child abuse, Child death, Adult/minor relationship, Suicide, Murder, Body horror, Death, Infidelity, Slavery, and Violence