Reviews with content warning for Incest - Ariadne

It was all just a bit...meh. I found myself scanning most of the chapters because the characters weren't really saying anything. Everyone I talk to about this book raves about the writing and how beautifully it flows, but I found it clunky. I could see what the author was trying to go for, some sentences were done well, but overall it didn't work. I feel like this could have been cut down - it was like the characters were discussing the same things over and over again. The characters themselves were also not engaging for me. I didn't connect with any of them. They jumped from one dramatic to another, which meant that

the build up to Phaedra's death was so lackluster.

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Alcohol, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, and Murder

General - Only very brief descriptions here and there. It follows the Greek mythology of Ariadne if that helps. They discuss her family, the Minotaur, arranged marriages, the gods' relationships and general goings on. I'll give some specifics below where I can... Alcohol -

Ariadne marries Dionysus, the god of merriment and wine. They discuss making wine and drinking wine continuously throughout the book and Dionysus appears more addicted to the substance by the end.

Animal cruelty/death -

Ariadne witnesses Dionysus completing a ritual where the maenads tear the limbs off a goat, but he then restores the goat back to its original form. They only talk about it in true detail once, then bring it up in passing a couple times through the rest of the book.

Child death -

One maenad tells Ariadne about her a time in her past of when she gave birth to a daughter and her husband forced it to be left to die on the hill outside their home. In the climax of the book, Dionysus creates a ritual that makes the women go mad and kill there children. This one is told quite quickly.

Incest - It's Greek mythology so everyone is related to everyone. Infidelity -

Thesus is discussed as sleeping with women on his travels, including having a son to an Amazonian. Phaedra also has intentions of running away with her stepson.

Misogyny - General talk about a woman's place, being a wife and a mother and being passive and quiet. Murder - Again, it's Greek mythology so...

There is a description of Thesus removing the Minotaur's head and leaving it as a bloody mess in a bag for Minos to find. There are also descriptions of the gods and their revenge on mortals.

Pregnancy -

Ariadne has five children and Phaedra has three. Ariadne, for the most part, has a loving pregnancy, but Phaedra feels nothing but contempt towards her children. There is also an early description of their mother who gives birth to the Minotaur.

Suicide -

Upon trying to convince her stepson to run away with her, she goes into a quick spiral of not wanting to face Theseus for the punishment. She hangs herself outside the stables. There is a description of her body from Ariadne's perspective and it is brought up as flashbacks once or twice throughout the rest of the book.

Toxic relationship -

Ariadne runs away with Theseus, only to be left on an island alone. Phaedra marries Theseus, but they don't love or like each other (they barely respect one another). Pasiphae is brushed aside by Minos and because a shell of herself.

mochi21's review against another edition

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challenging tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This climbed from a 3 star to a 4 star in the last 100 pages for me.
This story was heavily inspired by Circe and it shows. And I feel like the timeline of their release dates seem to line up in a way that makes me think Saint read Circe and said "I wish I wrote this book" and then wrote an extremely similar book.

It was obvious, in some parts that it was a debut, where it got wordy for no reason and became boring to read.

I wish there was more resolve in the ending, but it did surprise me that Saint really /went for it/ in the ending. This book felt safe and boring until that point, and it was like the author finally started to find her voice. Like she just kept the rest for character development and called it a day.

Overall, though, this was a short read, and I thought it was pretty decent.

Content Warnings