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quinn22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Pregnancy, Death, Child death, Misogyny, and Alcohol
Minor: Suicide, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Grief, Torture, Miscarriage, Colonisation, Abandonment, Rape, War, Incest, Child death, Death of parent, Animal death, Violence, and Animal cruelty
madmadsparkle's review against another edition
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide
Moderate: Abandonment and Sexism
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Death of parent
amelianotthepilot's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
a good retelling but she doesn’t turn into a big spider in this one :/
Content Warnings
Graphic: Abandonment, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, Suicidal thoughts, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Blood, and Death
icarusandthesun's review against another edition
dark
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.0
This was a buddy-read for me—the only reason why I did not immediately dnf this book after 200 pages.
It's so wordy and slow and boring. Fancy words and fancy sentence structures might be nice from time to time, but not to this extend. It was so tiring and my attention wavered frequently, making the whole experience rather unenjoyable.
The story wasn't quite it either. Lots of insta love and betrayal and nothing really of value. The message was repetitive and nothing new or revolutionary. I was expecting rich feminist commentary and some of it was good, not gonna lie, but most of it was just the same "men suck" and "gods suck" and so forth, as if everybody wasn't already aware.
Deeply disappointed.
It's so wordy and slow and boring. Fancy words and fancy sentence structures might be nice from time to time, but not to this extend. It was so tiring and my attention wavered frequently, making the whole experience rather unenjoyable.
The story wasn't quite it either. Lots of insta love and betrayal and nothing really of value. The message was repetitive and nothing new or revolutionary. I was expecting rich feminist commentary and some of it was good, not gonna lie, but most of it was just the same "men suck" and "gods suck" and so forth, as if everybody wasn't already aware.
Deeply disappointed.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Blood, Death of parent, Sexual assault, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Grief, Sexism, Violence, Animal cruelty, Death, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Suicide
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship
tetedump's review against another edition
emotional
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Gore, Incest, and Suicide
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
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
jessicaludden's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
inspiring
reflective
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
5.0
“No longer was my world one of brave heroes; I was learning all too swiftly the women’s pain that throbbed unspoken through the tales of their feats.”
Originally this was going to be 4.5 stars because it was pretty slow at certain parts, but the ending really did it for me. I loved this story and it felt like there were so many different parts to it. From the beginning with Ariadne helping Theseus kill the Minotaur, to Daedalus’ story and Icarus flying too close to the sun, to Ariadne’s time on Naxos with Dionysus, to Phaedra them in Athens with Theseus, to Hippolytus, to the ending. There were so many separate parts, but I felt like it all cohesively went well together. I loved getting Phaedra’s point of view in the second half of the book (even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her all the time). I loved the sister dynamic between Ariadne and Phaedra and this book really started picking up for me when Phaedra went to Naxos to ask Ariadne (more like Dionysus) for help with her feelings for Hippolytus. I loved the argument they had. That scene was so interesting to me because I could see both sides of the argument (even though I most definitely was on Ariadne’s side) and then seeing how what the other said affected their actions and their thoughts. Ariadne started doubting Dionysus because of what Phaedra said and Phaedra (later) realized Ariadne was right about Hippolytus. In the moment, neither of them wanted to hear what the other was saying, but they both ended up being right and they both paid the price for it. A price that wasn’t theirs to pay. I loved the overarching theme of women paying the price for the deeds of men (or gods). Phaedra killed herself in fear of Theseus’ reaction. She may have actually loved Hippolytus, but overall she realized she just wanted to run away. She was miserable with Theseus and she feared him enough to rather die than face him. Ariadne looked into the eyes of Medusa’s severed head and was turned into stone because she was attempting to make peace with Perseus after Dionysus caused a battle to erupt. The ending absolutely killed me. Dionysus saying goodbye to Ariadne as she was turning to stone was so tragic. Of course I was angry with him because he’s insane, but he loved her and they had a family together. One of the most painful parts of his existence was loving mortals and watching them die and with Ariadne he had to watch that much sooner. Then he turned her into a constellation and ripped my heart out. I love the last line of the book as she’s watching over the other women of Naxos who call to her for guidance and she says
“I turn my light toward them and I bathe them in it’s unquenchable glow, gathering them all to share our inexhaustible strength together.”
Leaving us with the lasting impression of the strength of women, no matter the circumstance.
Favorite Quotes:
“The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own.”
“I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man’s actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead.”
“What the gods likes was ferocity, savagery, the snarl and the bite and the fear. Always, always the fear, the names edge of it behind the smoke rising from the altars, the high note of it in the muttered prayers and praise we sent heavenward, the deep, primal taste of it when we raised the knife above the sacrificial offering.”
“It did not feel momentous, yet when I tore my eyes away from his, I found that nothing looked quite the same, as though the world had fractured and sheared away from itself to reshape in almost—but not quite—the same formation.”
“Or so I thought, until I caught the gaze of a handsome hostage, and on the strength of that glance, let the fire he ignited within me burn down everything I knew.”
“He was right; the only fear I had left was that he would be gone when I had only just found him.”
“Theseus beside me now felt like an anchor, holding me fast to steady ground, bathed in clear light.”
“He kissed me then. It was a bolt of lightning, a shattering of the sky, a shaking of the earth and everything that stood upon it.”
“The world was on fire and Theseus was a shaded green pool.”
“After tomorrow night, our future stretched out before us, and I would have years ahead of me with him. I would be a part of his story now…”
“The door closed between us, and I wanted to howl at the wrongness of a barrier between us.”
“…these men, these gods who toys with our lives and cast us aside when we had been of use to them, who laughed at our suffering or forgot our existence altogether.”
“‘Does she grieve the beast?’ he asked. ‘Or with its death, does she grieve what it represented? What was done to her all those years ago, that so scattered her mind, perhaps now it is ended she can afford to mourn it?’”
“I wondered what that felt like; to command the respect of people who had not seen you for years and knew nothing of you except that you were the son, rather than the daughter, of the king.”
“I had thought he brought salvation with him. Instead he had traded my existing bondage for another.”
“But now I found that I would have given any number of moments with Theseus for just one more conversation with my sister.”
“I could die whimpering or I could face my fate with the courage of all those women before me.”
“My rage would be my shield.”
“‘When Theseus came, I thought he was not like them. But he was worse—for at least they never pretended to be what they were not.’”
“But how could I know? All I knew was that there would be tomorrow, and perhaps he would be here. Or perhaps he would be gone.”
“I was not Minos’ captive daughter; I was not Cinyras’ trade for copper; nor was I Theseus’ diversion between heroic fears of glory. Somehow I had survived them all, and here I was, free of them at last.”
“He looked at me. ‘I will always come back.’”
“‘Why mortals bloomed like flowers and crumbled to nothing. Why their absence left a gnawing ache, a hollow void that could never be filled. And go everything they once were, that spark within them, could be extinguished so completely get the world did not collapse under the weight of so much pain and grief.’”
“‘The gods do not know love, because they cannot imagine an end to anything they enjoy. Their passions do not burn brightly as a mortal’s passions do, because they can have whatever they desire for the rest of eternity. How could they cherish or treasure anything? Nothing to them is more than a passing amusement, and when they have done with it, there will be another and another and another, until the end of time itself. Their heroes do not know love because they only value what they can measure—the mountains they make of their enemies’ bones, the vast piles of treasure they win, and the immortal verses that are sung in their name. They see only fame and are blind to the rewards that only human life can offer, which they simply toss aside like trash. They are all fools.’”
“I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.”
“‘I will love you when you are shriveled and ancient.’”
“‘I can go anywhere in the world that I choose,’ he said. ‘A god’s freedom is limitless. But I only want to be here, milking goats and talking with you…’”
“Mortals may age, but the gods are prisoners of their own infantile whimsies, never capable of change and never knowing what it is to love, because they dare not risk the suffering of loss.’”
“‘I know what it is to lose someone. But it taught me that every second can be precious, even in a god’s eternity. I do not want to waste any.’”
“‘I thought you were so lucky to be chosen by Theseus, but it was his leaving you that made you fortunate in the end.’”
“‘You have a life that makes you happy,’ she went on. ‘I don’t think you can imagine any other. You have lived here since you were eighteen years old. I have ruled the mightiest city in Greece. Our experiences are more different that I realized.’”
“As if we hadn’t learned from living with our shattered mother and her monstrous spawn that all a woman can do in this world is take what she wants from it and crush those who would stand in her way before they break her into fragments like Pasiphae.”
“The possibility of a world where kindness was king, not brutality or greed or rapaciousness.”
“A fallen woman is the sweetest entertainment they know; I saw it before, on Crete. I will not let it happen to me.”
“I wondered how I had become someone on the outside. I had thought we made a perfect circle, he and I, with our children clasped tightly in the protective embrace of our arms. When had he slipped away? How had I not noticed it happen?”
“‘Why do you seek the love of the world when you have us only for our brief lifetimes?’”
“‘Being a god and loving mortals means. nothing more than watching them die. I know that all too well.’”
“Because if I had learned anything. I had learned enough to know that a god in pain is dangerous.”
“Pasiphae. Semele. Medusa. Now a hundred grieving mothers. The price we paid for the resentment, the lust, and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife. Dionysus had once seemed to me the best of them all, but I saw him now for what he was, no different from the mightiest of the gods. Or the basest of men.”
“In terms of heartbreak, Dionysus could call himself the greatest of all the gods now. He could measure his glory in female torment and blaze his legend across the heavens as the conquerer of infants, destroyed of the innocent.”
“He pressed his face to mine: cold stone against immortal flesh. His pain. It permeated the creeping paralysis of my mind. I felt it, the ragged pulsing anguish of his pain. The grief of a god.”
“The span of a dozen, dying heartbeats. Our last embrace.”
Originally this was going to be 4.5 stars because it was pretty slow at certain parts, but the ending really did it for me. I loved this story and it felt like there were so many different parts to it. From the beginning with Ariadne helping Theseus kill the Minotaur, to Daedalus’ story and Icarus flying too close to the sun, to Ariadne’s time on Naxos with Dionysus, to Phaedra them in Athens with Theseus, to Hippolytus, to the ending. There were so many separate parts, but I felt like it all cohesively went well together. I loved getting Phaedra’s point of view in the second half of the book (even if I didn’t necessarily agree with her all the time). I loved the sister dynamic between Ariadne and Phaedra and this book really started picking up for me when Phaedra went to Naxos to ask Ariadne (more like Dionysus) for help with her feelings for Hippolytus. I loved the argument they had. That scene was so interesting to me because I could see both sides of the argument (even though I most definitely was on Ariadne’s side) and then seeing how what the other said affected their actions and their thoughts. Ariadne started doubting Dionysus because of what Phaedra said and Phaedra (later) realized Ariadne was right about Hippolytus. In the moment, neither of them wanted to hear what the other was saying, but they both ended up being right and they both paid the price for it. A price that wasn’t theirs to pay. I loved the overarching theme of women paying the price for the deeds of men (or gods). Phaedra killed herself in fear of Theseus’ reaction. She may have actually loved Hippolytus, but overall she realized she just wanted to run away. She was miserable with Theseus and she feared him enough to rather die than face him. Ariadne looked into the eyes of Medusa’s severed head and was turned into stone because she was attempting to make peace with Perseus after Dionysus caused a battle to erupt. The ending absolutely killed me. Dionysus saying goodbye to Ariadne as she was turning to stone was so tragic. Of course I was angry with him because he’s insane, but he loved her and they had a family together. One of the most painful parts of his existence was loving mortals and watching them die and with Ariadne he had to watch that much sooner. Then he turned her into a constellation and ripped my heart out. I love the last line of the book as she’s watching over the other women of Naxos who call to her for guidance and she says
“I turn my light toward them and I bathe them in it’s unquenchable glow, gathering them all to share our inexhaustible strength together.”
Leaving us with the lasting impression of the strength of women, no matter the circumstance.
Favorite Quotes:
“The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own.”
“I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man’s actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead.”
“What the gods likes was ferocity, savagery, the snarl and the bite and the fear. Always, always the fear, the names edge of it behind the smoke rising from the altars, the high note of it in the muttered prayers and praise we sent heavenward, the deep, primal taste of it when we raised the knife above the sacrificial offering.”
“It did not feel momentous, yet when I tore my eyes away from his, I found that nothing looked quite the same, as though the world had fractured and sheared away from itself to reshape in almost—but not quite—the same formation.”
“Or so I thought, until I caught the gaze of a handsome hostage, and on the strength of that glance, let the fire he ignited within me burn down everything I knew.”
“He was right; the only fear I had left was that he would be gone when I had only just found him.”
“Theseus beside me now felt like an anchor, holding me fast to steady ground, bathed in clear light.”
“He kissed me then. It was a bolt of lightning, a shattering of the sky, a shaking of the earth and everything that stood upon it.”
“The world was on fire and Theseus was a shaded green pool.”
“After tomorrow night, our future stretched out before us, and I would have years ahead of me with him. I would be a part of his story now…”
“The door closed between us, and I wanted to howl at the wrongness of a barrier between us.”
“…these men, these gods who toys with our lives and cast us aside when we had been of use to them, who laughed at our suffering or forgot our existence altogether.”
“‘Does she grieve the beast?’ he asked. ‘Or with its death, does she grieve what it represented? What was done to her all those years ago, that so scattered her mind, perhaps now it is ended she can afford to mourn it?’”
“I wondered what that felt like; to command the respect of people who had not seen you for years and knew nothing of you except that you were the son, rather than the daughter, of the king.”
“I had thought he brought salvation with him. Instead he had traded my existing bondage for another.”
“But now I found that I would have given any number of moments with Theseus for just one more conversation with my sister.”
“I could die whimpering or I could face my fate with the courage of all those women before me.”
“My rage would be my shield.”
“‘When Theseus came, I thought he was not like them. But he was worse—for at least they never pretended to be what they were not.’”
“But how could I know? All I knew was that there would be tomorrow, and perhaps he would be here. Or perhaps he would be gone.”
“I was not Minos’ captive daughter; I was not Cinyras’ trade for copper; nor was I Theseus’ diversion between heroic fears of glory. Somehow I had survived them all, and here I was, free of them at last.”
“He looked at me. ‘I will always come back.’”
“‘Why mortals bloomed like flowers and crumbled to nothing. Why their absence left a gnawing ache, a hollow void that could never be filled. And go everything they once were, that spark within them, could be extinguished so completely get the world did not collapse under the weight of so much pain and grief.’”
“‘The gods do not know love, because they cannot imagine an end to anything they enjoy. Their passions do not burn brightly as a mortal’s passions do, because they can have whatever they desire for the rest of eternity. How could they cherish or treasure anything? Nothing to them is more than a passing amusement, and when they have done with it, there will be another and another and another, until the end of time itself. Their heroes do not know love because they only value what they can measure—the mountains they make of their enemies’ bones, the vast piles of treasure they win, and the immortal verses that are sung in their name. They see only fame and are blind to the rewards that only human life can offer, which they simply toss aside like trash. They are all fools.’”
“I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself.”
“‘I will love you when you are shriveled and ancient.’”
“‘I can go anywhere in the world that I choose,’ he said. ‘A god’s freedom is limitless. But I only want to be here, milking goats and talking with you…’”
“Mortals may age, but the gods are prisoners of their own infantile whimsies, never capable of change and never knowing what it is to love, because they dare not risk the suffering of loss.’”
“‘I know what it is to lose someone. But it taught me that every second can be precious, even in a god’s eternity. I do not want to waste any.’”
“‘I thought you were so lucky to be chosen by Theseus, but it was his leaving you that made you fortunate in the end.’”
“‘You have a life that makes you happy,’ she went on. ‘I don’t think you can imagine any other. You have lived here since you were eighteen years old. I have ruled the mightiest city in Greece. Our experiences are more different that I realized.’”
“As if we hadn’t learned from living with our shattered mother and her monstrous spawn that all a woman can do in this world is take what she wants from it and crush those who would stand in her way before they break her into fragments like Pasiphae.”
“The possibility of a world where kindness was king, not brutality or greed or rapaciousness.”
“A fallen woman is the sweetest entertainment they know; I saw it before, on Crete. I will not let it happen to me.”
“I wondered how I had become someone on the outside. I had thought we made a perfect circle, he and I, with our children clasped tightly in the protective embrace of our arms. When had he slipped away? How had I not noticed it happen?”
“‘Why do you seek the love of the world when you have us only for our brief lifetimes?’”
“‘Being a god and loving mortals means. nothing more than watching them die. I know that all too well.’”
“Because if I had learned anything. I had learned enough to know that a god in pain is dangerous.”
“Pasiphae. Semele. Medusa. Now a hundred grieving mothers. The price we paid for the resentment, the lust, and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife. Dionysus had once seemed to me the best of them all, but I saw him now for what he was, no different from the mightiest of the gods. Or the basest of men.”
“In terms of heartbreak, Dionysus could call himself the greatest of all the gods now. He could measure his glory in female torment and blaze his legend across the heavens as the conquerer of infants, destroyed of the innocent.”
“He pressed his face to mine: cold stone against immortal flesh. His pain. It permeated the creeping paralysis of my mind. I felt it, the ragged pulsing anguish of his pain. The grief of a god.”
“The span of a dozen, dying heartbeats. Our last embrace.”
Content Warnings
Minor: Abandonment, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Child death, Gore, Rape, and Suicide
chelsearose's review
adventurous
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Suicide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Death of parent, Infidelity, Misogyny, Child death, Violence, Gaslighting, Death, and Animal death
Moderate: Alcohol, Adult/minor relationship, Rape, and Pregnancy
Minor: Murder and War
ka_ke's review against another edition
emotional
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
Ariadne does not live up to the hype. It’s not only slow paced, but it’s too slowly paced in my opinion. I found it very difficult to maintain my interest and the characters seemed undeveloped.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Abandonment, Mental illness, Death, Adult/minor relationship, and Blood
Moderate: Religious bigotry, Violence, War, Rape, and Sexism
Minor: Pregnancy
linw21's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
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
3.75
I was very annoyed with Ariadne but I found it really nice to see all the myths I know being woven together. It got very good over the second half, but the first half was just a bit boring
Content Warnings
Graphic: Alcohol, Abandonment, Grief, Pregnancy, Animal cruelty, Blood, Infidelity, Animal death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Gaslighting, Death, Emotional abuse, and Suicide
Moderate: Violence and Incest