Reviews with content warning for Suicide - Ariadne

cowabummer.

JK. (Well, not jk, this book is actually very sad, but I digress.) This book was really good! The writing was spectacular, and I loved the weight Saint was able to put into her writing. That being said, I had a few problems it.
I think my biggest problem with the book is how I feel like the Minotaur wasn’t explored fully; I feel as though the writing was setting up for Ariadne to explore her feelings about her brother, and how she felt about Theseus killing him, or anything like that, because it is alluded to briefly that she does have some mixed emotions regarding her brother. I just felt like that was really glossed over, and it bugged me for the rest of the novel. Overall, I did feel that way for a lot of things regarding this novel: I feel like a lot of things were glossed over when they should have been expanded, and a lot of things were expanded when they should have been glossed over.

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savvyrosereads's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

Updated review (July 2024):

Rating: 4/5 stars

Ariadne is a princess of Crete when she helps Theseus defeat the minotaur, setting in motion a series of events that will alter the rest of her life.

This was a reread for me, and I really enjoyed it both times! In my first read, I remember disliking the ending, and this time around I understand it more but still find it abysmally sad, hence my rating remaining at 4 stars. That said, the writing here is impeccable, and I love the story structure and alternating chapters from Ariadne and Phaedra’s perspectives. I also feel like this is told in a very approachable way and is easy to understand even without much background context.

This is also super fast paced (I listened to the audiobook in just a couple sittings) and Ariadne is a top tier heroine for me. Thoroughly enjoyed, and a fantastic July pick from my book club!

CW: Death, including animal and child death; sexual violence/mentions of assault; suicide; misogyny/sexism; pregnancy/motherhood

Original rating (August 2021): 4/5 stars

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krmreads2024's review against another edition

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hopeful sad tense 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? No

3.5

If you are into Greek mythology and fantasy than this book is perfect for you. It is a refreshing retelling of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. I thought the characters, especially Ariadne and Phaedra, were interesting to follow. This genre is not my favourite so I found it hard to become absorbed in the story as much, but that’s just me.

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eturner's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional informative tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes

4.5

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clovetra's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging medium-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? It's complicated

2.0

idk how to feel about this book. honestly i think im becoming a bit… disillusioned with greek mythology retellings at the moment. i honestly think they swing big and either really succeed or meander. and i would say this book follows the later.

i really couldn’t connect with this book at all. the ending felt rushed, and after the minotaur story was completed, the story felt as if it was floundering. obviously the entire book can’t be about life at crete but the fact it barely even covered 100 pages really let this book down.

ariadne was at best a blank slate to narrate the tales of dionysus, and at worst was incredibly boring and annoying. i understand her naivety is fundamental to her story but it was overdone 200 pages in, and by the end i was over her.

phaedra was kind of likeable i guess. i enjoyed her at the beginning, but as soon as her story moved to her & hippolyta, she became insufferable. seriously when

her & ariadne were fighting over hippolyta

i didn’t agree with either of them. her ending also felt rushed and she lacked any depth being her impulsivity and brash nature.

dionysus was boring as well. he seemed to be all over the place with his characterisation, and his ending felt like it against everything earlier set up in the book. i get that was kind of the point but from a reader’s perspective it’s just a tad stupid.

i also think i became disillusioned with saint’s writing style by the end. to begin with i loved her descriptions and her poetic way of writing, but after the 20th sentence telling us that women always pay the price for a man’s crime i was over it. this book felt like it was going in circles constantly.

now you might ask - why did i finish this? because i own a copy of this, and i was curious to see if it could redeem itself the more it progressed. i don’t like to DNF books i own - if its a library or ebook sure she’s going in the DNF pile. but i paid $26 for this i was finishing it either way. and yet why didn’t i give this a 1-star? because i was still curious to see where this went. i wasn’t invested in the characters but i was invested in where things would go.

idk i don’t think i had too much fun reading this. the beginning was intriguing, but after ariadne’s arrival at noxus the book fizzled away. and also the ending was dumb, anticlimatic and yet again rushed.

i will defo be taking a break from retellings for a while after this one!

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annasbookjournal's review against another edition

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slow-paced

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

1.0

A bit of a harsh review, but here goes.

As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to have nothing to do with it anymore and it took me a bit to write a review about it.

The writing and the choices in the depiction of Ariadne were really disappointing for me. In an interview, Jennifer Saint talks about how passionate and angry Ariadne was in a source that Saint read, and how powerful her voice was, but I don’t see that at all in this book. I feel like many of the deep emotions that Ariadne would have felt were breezed over in a page and never talked about.

Like when Phaedra committed suicide, Ariadne’s grief is never ever talked about: she literally just goes back to how her life was and even says that it was EASY to do so. That is not the sisterly love that I would like to read in a feminist book.

The way that Ariadne was depicted in the beginning of the book in particular made me question if this was the best way to retell the myth: her character is described as a horny girl who just wants to do first Theseus and then Dionysus. I feel like there was no depth to her whatsoever and that’s really disappointing. The point of a retelling (especially from a feminist POV) is to show that the women were more than pawns, that they had emotions of their own and that they weren’t stupid like the ancient people thought. We, on the other side, are handed a horny girl who can’t even come up with a plan on her own and has to depend on Theseus and Daedalus. WTF.

I believe that the only good points from this book are the descriptions of the hard moments of pregnancy that Phaedra goes through.

I also found myself countless times feeling like the choice of vocabulary was very modern, even though the setting for the scenes were ancient royal Greeks.

I don’t think I’m going to read any of Saint’s other mythological retellings after this.

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