Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Clytemnestra by Costanza Casati

68 reviews

catie_cat's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I love the stories of the Ancient Greeks. The mythology the inspired heroes and tragedies alike. This creative adaptation of Clytemnestra pulled at my heart from beginning to end. I knew her story was tragic, but this took her to a whole new level. One of my favorite reads for 2024!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, and Pregnancy

This story did contain more serious topics. It was tragic and showed how a world of violence had a cycle in many of the people’s lives. Women were not necessarily sheltered from these things either.

audreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

All my homies hate Agamemnon!

Book is beautifully written. It’s a challenge to write this time period in a way that’s still easy to consume but this book definitely accomplishes that. It’s also super difficult for me to keep up with a lot of characters, but the descriptions and callbacks were so good that I rarely had to look back at the character list (which is also helpful)! I do feel like some scenes and details could be cut. While the book wasn’t especially long, it took me longer to get through than I expected. Overall I would recommend this to anyone interested in Greek mythology and/or female rage, with the caveat that you should definitely read the content warnings first.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Homophobia, Incest, Infidelity, Grief, Lesbophobia, Outing, and War

Minor: Bullying, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Classism

I listed a ton of content warnings, yes, but most of them overlap for the same scenes and passages. The book is pretty honest about the treatment of people in this time, particularly women, so there are a lot of traumatic topics. I struggled with the amount of SA occurrences, but not so much that the book wasn’t worth it. Much of the book is dark, but moves on quickly and the end leaves you with some spark of retribution.

bookdragonkatie's review against another edition

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War

Minor: Incest

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Toxic relationship, and Death of parent

Minor: Incest, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Lesbophobia, and War

elya_moss93's review against another edition

dark reflective tense medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

emerentina's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad tense

• 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: Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Torture, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Fire/Fire injury, and War

topodibiblioteca's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Infidelity, Torture, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Lesbophobia

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, and Death of parent

inkwellimps's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Murder, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Confinement, Slavery, Death of parent, and Classism

Minor: Homophobia, Incest, Suicidal thoughts, Lesbophobia, and War

sarabook's review against another edition

dark reflective tense slow-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: Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Blood, and Death of parent

cass_herg's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

I support women’s wrongs!

I’m a sucker for anything related to Greek mythology, feminine rage, and for historical retellings so this was a no brainer to pick up. Going in I only knew of Clytemnestra as she related to Agamemnon and Helen (aka a murderer and the cruel sister who didn’t compare) and how she was essentially just a “bad wife” foil to Penelope in the Odyssey so I was really excited to see her perspective for actions only ever portrayed from one specific point of view.

I assumed Agamemnon would probably be an ass, but I didn’t realize just how much I’d hate him immediately. He deserved everything he gets in this book and then some and that opinion was cemented for me before I even got to page 100.

It is so interesting how for both the two major losses and points in clytemnestras life we essentially just skip past all the other stages of grief until we get to anger. I think normally I’d be a little upset to skip over those intense and important moments of grief, but here it feels very fitting since the anger is extremely justified. In the case of Iphigenias death, I loved that right before the skip we just get a series of letters from her surviving loved ones. These are also the last words we get from any of those characters perspectives and I think they sum up each character perfectly.

There is so much nuance in this book and it’s honestly one of the most heartbreaking yet empowering stories I’ve read. It’s an incredibly powerful story that gives a lot of poignant commentary on what it is to be a woman, mother, sister, and a daughter. Every female character is multi dimensional with their share of faults but also a strength that is unique and different for each individual and it is so refreshing to read that.

I could probably write an entire dissertation on this book (clearly), but I’ll leave it at this: if you are at all a fan of Greek mythology, read this.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, and War