Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

147 reviews

torturedreadersdept's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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: Suicide, Animal cruelty, Blood, Murder, Animal death, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Confinement, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Pregnancy, Body horror, Abandonment, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Death, Gaslighting, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Child abuse, Misogyny, Grief, Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, and Violence

thelostbookmark22's review against another edition

challenging sad slow-paced

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

2.0

•was enjoyable in the beginning
•loved the mentions of greek mythology and the connections between the stories and the characters
• Theseus was annoying all throughout the book,which was dissappinting as a greek person and kind of ruined my opinion on him
• the ending was confusing and felt not worth the anticipation
•liked the feminism elements

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Death, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Gaslighting, and Murder

nialalovesbooksssxo's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Incest, Blood, Murder, Suicide, Sexism, Gaslighting, and Genocide

Moderate: Pregnancy, Sexual assault, and Rape

Minor: Xenophobia

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging mysterious tense slow-paced

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

3.75

Very poetic at points and following the lives of Ariadne and her sister near enough from start to finish this encapsulates so many points of Greek mythology very well.  

For me the gaps inbetween locations that didn’t always connect the best and deaths of characters felt somewhat unfinished made it seem gappy but otherwise a really well written book

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Murder, Abandonment, Gaslighting, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Sexual content, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Blood, Violence, War, and Pregnancy

_bookishbrina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

TW: R*pe, suicide, emotional abuse, child neglect, child m*rder, sacrifice, misogynie, abandonment, blood. (It's not gory, more often than not, it is mentioned.)

This is the epitome of female powerlessness, female sacrifice, female hate, misogynie and thus resulting in female rage.

I've felt that rage, reading about Ariadne and Phaedra's decisions. I wanted to yell at the top of my lungs when I heard them making stupid decisions after stupid decisions for men. I prepared myself for the certainly upcoming deceptions that would follow their blind trust in the wrong people.

I've felt that sorrow at how they were treated, how motherhood is not a magical experience for all and how it's wielded as a shield to protect a perfect perfect little life.

And I wanted to cry at their death, the ultimate sacrifice they made. For men. Again. Their love is beyond measure, and their pain is infinite.

I did not know how to rate that book. I wanted to give it 0, because it's made be bitter and angry and why was it so unfair -

But... mythology is as it is: unfair.

Men before gods are powerless. And Gods are but petty children playing with toys. I've felt such a vast array of emotions, I cannot not give it 4/5. The book will haunt me for a long time. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Misogyny, and Suicide

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Violence, Death, and Rape

Minor: War

dearheart's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Grief, Death of parent, Confinement, and Abandonment

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Blood, Violence, Suicide, Infidelity, and Body horror

Minor: Pregnancy, Animal death, and Vomit

avery_madison's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide and Abandonment

Moderate: Grief, War, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Pregnancy, Rape, Child death, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Death of parent, and Animal death

biancafrancisco's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I'm a simple woman, I see feminist greek retelling and I read

Buuuuut this one disappointed a bit. I enjoyed reading it, the writing is as pointed out in my cover "lyrical".
However, it does not do what it sets out to do. 

Ariadne as a character lacks luster as she is very passive.

She has barely any role in defeating the Minotaur (Dedalous gives her the thread and Phaedra steals the weapon), with this characterization one wonders how she even had the conviction to betray her father (I guess the explanation is her falling in love immediately by looking at Theseus....istg). 
While she lives in Naxos with Dionysus she also shows no interest in the sister she left behind or on what her husband does on their island.

She is lulled by her comfortable beliefs and leaves everything at that. 

When the two sisters came to be reunited I thought the story's purpose might be revealed, that it would be about these two woman and their bond (once again pointing to the supposed feminist undercurrent of the book), but the only reason Phaedra went to Naxos was to further her plot and they seemed to add nothing to each other. 

Through the book there is an emphasis on the gods being careless and cruel and innocent humans, particularly woman, suffering for it. This attempt at criticizing the treatment of woman in classical myth falls short as the plot of the book goes by. You would think Ariadne would go against this and, even if the ending had to be as in the myth, she would be shown fighting her fate.

Yet, she merely goes where she is pushed most of the time and both Phaedra's and her death feel pointless and void of meaning.

Phaedra's struggle with motherhood seems to also be looking to shed some feminist light, but the message gets lost along the way. 

At the beggining of the book Ariadne
speaks of seizing her destiny for herself, but we see her do nothing of the sort throughout the book. In her own words, after a decade of marriage, she says "I had been trusting and obedient. I had thought that was the right way to be". She ends up being disappointed by Dionysus also and it seems the only lesson to be learned is a weird dichotomy of men are bad and woman good mixed with a Madonna-whore complex where woman who reclaimed and used their power were seen as evil (Medea and Hera, for example) while passive woman like Ariadne were good. 

I realize this is to be a tragedy, but why retell a story if not to shine a new light on it? The women end the story the way they began, Ariadne without purpose and Phaedra miserable and heavy with humiliation. 

It is not a terrible book, it was enjoyable to read - it just didn't convey its own message. If you have started it searching for something akin to Madeleine Miller's Circe, you will not be totally satisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Animal cruelty, and Animal death

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Violence, Blood, Mental illness, and Sexual violence

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Death, Child death, Incest, Sexual assault, Rape, Pregnancy, Murder, Misogyny, and Infidelity

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

maddiebusick's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting, Grief, Animal death, Gore, Murder, Violence, Misogyny, Abandonment, Blood, and Suicide

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Rape, Violence, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Trafficking, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Adult/minor relationship, Medical content, and Incest