A review by hildy
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

dark emotional 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

5.0

I think this book was cleverer than I myself can appreciate. The lesson seems to be "do not trust any man, ever" and I respect that, in a way, as deterministic as it feels. The book begins with a well-known story told through a youthfully optimistic lens, and the storytelling draws you in despite - or perhaps as a result of - the starkly clear-cut sense of right and wrong, with no in-between.
Once this false sense of security in the hero-victim narrative is abruptly pulled out from beneath you, you find yourself looking for the happy ending for our 'unlikely' heroes, the women who triumph despite every male character in the novel seeing them only as something to be used or sold. However, the brief moments of contentment in the lives of Ariadne and Phaedra only serve to contrast the slow and bitter tragedy that - somewhat inevitably, it would seem - befalls them both. The novel goes to show that long term fulfilment was never on the cards for these two, perhaps as a punishment for their fathers cruelty, or simply as a result of their being women in the backgrounds of the stories of so-called 'great' men.
Overall the book was rather more bleak than I was expecting, however there is something in the writing that allowed me not to feel so weighed down by the tragedy as I might, and instead to see a kind of poetic justice in the events that transpire. Nonetheless, not the most uplifting read.
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