Reviews tagging 'Child abuse'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

24 reviews

lanid's review against another edition

reflective sad

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Grief, Alcohol, Religious bigotry, Child abuse, Death, Incest, Gore, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Violence, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Rape

clairew97's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Grief, Violence, Abandonment, Addiction, Alcohol, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Gore, Infidelity, Suicide, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Confinement, Death, Child death, Child abuse, Vomit, Emotional abuse, and Gaslighting

sarahna's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? Yes

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Body horror, Child death, Gore, Grief, Incest, Mental illness, Murder, Pregnancy, Death, and Fatphobia

realalexmartin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I came into this book thinking it would simply be a re-telling of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth from Ariadne’s perspective,

but what I got was an epic and detailed life story of Ariadne that is  surprising, comforting, and nothing quite like what I’ve read before. I think it’s also a stroke of genius to use a character like Ariadne, who is widely unknown yet quite significant, to speak on the treatment of women in all of Greek mythology (and wider storytelling in general)

. I think the story kept getting better and better as it continued further from its initial premise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Suicide, War, Animal cruelty, Child abuse, Gore, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Pregnancy, Alcoholism, Misogyny, and Physical abuse

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Self harm, Torture, Violence, Vomit, Rape, Suicide, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Mental illness, and Physical abuse

whatjasread's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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? Yes

3.0

• this had a rough start, but picked up around 1/4 through
• i liked ariadne, although i felt like i liked her mostly because of how everybody interacted with her rather than because of her as a person
• phaedra was very interesting to follow too
• very morally grey characters -- you root for them because they deserve better but then they do awful things and you can't justify your support
• i enjoy learning the in depth versions of greek mythology, especially because we only ever learn the basics where the women were the problem, or where theseus was a great hero
• overall, it was a decent story but i felt detached from it quite a lot of the time

TWs: blood, child neglect, child abuse, death of animal, animal cruelty, lying about rape, gore, pregnancy, miscarriage, post-natal depression, rape, child death, emotional abuse, incest, sexism, body horror, abandonment, suicide (hanging)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Gore, Suicide, Child death, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Sexism, Emotional abuse, and Mental illness

Moderate: Blood, Abandonment, Rape, Pregnancy, Incest, and Body horror

Minor: Miscarriage

nebulasaurus's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Alcohol, Blood, Body horror, Child abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and Vomit

caseynathan's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Suicide

Moderate: Death, Body horror, and Child abuse

elly29's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.25

I might have thought this was also by Madeline Miller, who wrote Circe. Which is an impressive thing to say; this is Saint's debut novel, and already she is accomplished. I will look forward to Elektra when it comes out in April '22.

The themes were the same as Circe - the powerlessness of women in the Greek world, and how women always seem to pay for the crimes and indiscretions of men. Saint certainly emphasized that theme, through the telling of Ariadne's story (and a quarter of it was well and truly her sister Phaedra's story).

I was surprised at the portrayal of post-partum depression and depression Phaedra experienced. It seems rare in a YA/EA novel like this.

This is an interesting tale if you like Greek feminist retellings, the Minotaur stories where the Minotaur is still bad, or Dionysus. At times it comes across as misandrist, ie that all divine and mortal men will disappoint in some way (do women not disappoint?).

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, and Child death

Minor: Gaslighting, Incest, Mental illness, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

lololaburnam's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

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

2.0

This was a fun, interesting ride, but it just felt rushed. It felt like reading a summary of a book that was condensed for a movie--like it was a list of plot beats, so nothing really had time to settle. By the time you read a line and processed what had just happened in a scene, it was already onto the next action. That came to the detriment of character development and relationships too. 

Lines that would indicate character growth from ariadne or phaedra seemed to come out of nowhere like an epiphany and weren't expanded on really at all. I also had a hard time believing and becoming emotionally invested in the relationship between dionysus and ariadne, because we don't see their attraction or trust develop. We just hear "we walked the beach," "he spoke of his travels," "weeks passed" and we don't actually see the connection forming at all. The abrupt style worked with describing her attraction to theseus in the beginning because she was an impulsive and lustful 18 year old and she wouldn't have acted the way she did if she wasn't. Dionysus' sudden shift in character in her eyes in the last pages also would have so much more of an impact if we got to see more moments of just how he was as a person. (Side rant, I think it would've also helped to talk about the story of zagreus and how that ties into his rebirth abilities and why the maenads specifically kill by tearing limbs off of animals/people--so that didn't make sense to me why it was left out)

I think also at times the writing style was distracting. It was to the point where it took away from the voices of the characters whose perspectives we were reading. Like it just didn't feel like I was reading a person's thoughts of a situation when the situation was being described, if that makes sense. So while Saint's writing is beautiful, I think it'd be more conducive to a 3rd person narrator.

Negativity aside, I did still enjoy the book and how Saint was able to tie in so many different figures and events from mythology in general and I still plan on reading elektra when it comes out next year.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Incest, Misogyny, Sexual assault, and Suicide