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3.77 AVERAGE
3.77 AVERAGE
Copying my friend's incredibly accurate review: "Men ain't shit."
Dang, Ariadne. What a life you led, and lead.
Spoilery quote below:
"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."
Dang, Ariadne. What a life you led, and lead.
Spoilery quote below:
"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."
challenging
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
sad
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ariadne was the March pick for Amy’s Book Club and I was at first apprehensive about what a Greek mythology pick would be like! Ariadne is Jennifer Saint’s feminist retelling of the story of Ariadne and... read the full spoiler-free review here: https://www.amysbookshelf.co.uk/2023/03/ariadne-book-review/
adventurous
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I read this book because I knew we would be going to the temple of Dionysus. Ariadne is very naive but still powerful in her own right which I appreciated.
2.5 stars
A princess of Crete, Ariadne has a secluded childhood surrounded by her fearsome father, her traumatized neglectful mother, and the rumblings below from her half-brother: Asterion, better known as the Minotaur. When the handsome and clever Prince Theseus of Athens volunteers as one of his city's sacrifices, smitten Ariadne recognizes his determination to end the slaughter of his people and she sees her opportunity to stop it as well. While she may be doing the right thing, she may not bee trusting the right people.
I read this for my book club, Three of Clubs, where each quarter we read a different theme or subgenre of books. July-Sept 2023 we're reading Greek Myth books, and you can join us for Lore Olympus in September, or Oct-Dec we're reading cosy fantasy. Link in my bio to join us!
When this book came out, I was skeptical of the hype. Then, when picking books for the club, I decided on it because of its large readership, relatively high reviews, and subject matter (i.e. it not being about the Trojan War like our other pick). Unfortunately, my immediate instinct was right. I'll talk about the couple of good things first. This story is entirely true to the original myth and does capture the characters of it fairly faithfully. It also shows the perspectives of two different women who have two very different relationships with the responsibilities of the time of womanhood, which I think modern women will appreciate - one finds solace and love in being a mother, one is forced into a marriage and is repulsed by any part of it. I got through it without a huge problem. Now to what I have to critique. Ariadne, despite being the main character, is the most boring of the cast. She's very rarely an active protagonist and is more a middleman of the plot than an enacter of it. Then, about a quarter of the book turns out to be from Phaedra's perspective, her much more interesting younger sister. This choice seemed strange to me: why not split the book between the two to develop their juxtaposition, or open the book up to more perspectives to flesh out the full story? Maybe even show any of the action on the page even? So often we (and Ariadne) are told and not shown things, a cardinal sin of writing. The pacing/focus was also strange: her childhood through the entire Labyrinth plot is completed within 100 pages, and the rest of the time she's just chilling on an island, not a lot happening. I wish the author hadtaken the time to dive deep into the first part and change these proportions. Lastly, what a lot of retellings are trying to accomplish is to bring nuance and critique to the original plot and characters - this is not done, or if it is, it's very little. The characters are flat and, with perhaps the slight exception of Theseus, shown in the same light as the original story. One's reaction to the story is the same as just reading the original myth, but you don't even get to see the action. Which begs the question, what was the purspose of the retelling?
Overall, this was an unsuccessful book as I had predicted. It didn't do anything offensive, but it didn't add any nuance to the story.
A princess of Crete, Ariadne has a secluded childhood surrounded by her fearsome father, her traumatized neglectful mother, and the rumblings below from her half-brother: Asterion, better known as the Minotaur. When the handsome and clever Prince Theseus of Athens volunteers as one of his city's sacrifices, smitten Ariadne recognizes his determination to end the slaughter of his people and she sees her opportunity to stop it as well. While she may be doing the right thing, she may not bee trusting the right people.
I read this for my book club, Three of Clubs, where each quarter we read a different theme or subgenre of books. July-Sept 2023 we're reading Greek Myth books, and you can join us for Lore Olympus in September, or Oct-Dec we're reading cosy fantasy. Link in my bio to join us!
When this book came out, I was skeptical of the hype. Then, when picking books for the club, I decided on it because of its large readership, relatively high reviews, and subject matter (i.e. it not being about the Trojan War like our other pick). Unfortunately, my immediate instinct was right. I'll talk about the couple of good things first. This story is entirely true to the original myth and does capture the characters of it fairly faithfully. It also shows the perspectives of two different women who have two very different relationships with the responsibilities of the time of womanhood, which I think modern women will appreciate - one finds solace and love in being a mother, one is forced into a marriage and is repulsed by any part of it. I got through it without a huge problem. Now to what I have to critique. Ariadne, despite being the main character, is the most boring of the cast. She's very rarely an active protagonist and is more a middleman of the plot than an enacter of it. Then, about a quarter of the book turns out to be from Phaedra's perspective, her much more interesting younger sister. This choice seemed strange to me: why not split the book between the two to develop their juxtaposition, or open the book up to more perspectives to flesh out the full story? Maybe even show any of the action on the page even? So often we (and Ariadne) are told and not shown things, a cardinal sin of writing. The pacing/focus was also strange: her childhood through the entire Labyrinth plot is completed within 100 pages, and the rest of the time she's just chilling on an island, not a lot happening. I wish the author hadtaken the time to dive deep into the first part and change these proportions. Lastly, what a lot of retellings are trying to accomplish is to bring nuance and critique to the original plot and characters - this is not done, or if it is, it's very little. The characters are flat and, with perhaps the slight exception of Theseus, shown in the same light as the original story. One's reaction to the story is the same as just reading the original myth, but you don't even get to see the action. Which begs the question, what was the purspose of the retelling?
Overall, this was an unsuccessful book as I had predicted. It didn't do anything offensive, but it didn't add any nuance to the story.
emotional
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes