Reviews with content warning for Emotional abuse - Daughters of Sparta

I found this book overall to be disappointing. As a book about Helen and Kyltemnestra I was looking forward to a retelling of the myth of Troy from these women's perspectives. However from the beginning to the end of the book both women lacked agency in their own stories. I appreciate that the author was working within confines of the myth and that agency for Greek women in this period was limited but it was remarkable how little action either woman took and for vast amount of the book they were both just passively reacting to things going on around them without evening seeming to want to do anything. This made them feel like props rather than real people and almost entirely unempathetic because how can you empathise with people who don't even think about doing anything?

Also the frequent time jumping meant that the book never dwelt on anything. Lots of terrible things happen in this book but the author never spends any time in the aftermath. So the thing happens and then we instantly skip forward years ahead so that our characters have already dealt with the immediate consequences of the event. This meant that nothing really landed like it was clearly supposed to and the author failed to evoke and real emotions or look at anything in any real depth.

The author created some really interesting opportunities to explore different types of abuse and neglect but the constant skipping forward meant that we never spent enough time anywhere to fully feel the weight of these.

The author also had a chronic case of tell don't show. There was very little dialogue in the book and most of the the word count was made up of the author telling us what Helen and Klytemnestra had discovered in their time jumps about the men around them. Rather than being allowed to come to conclusions ourselves about other characters the author told us exactly what we should think at all times but failed to demonstrate it through action or dialogue in most cases.

The book was also strangely paced. There was never enough time in this book. The chapters were very short, time was constantly jumping forward and events would be discussed and them dropped. This meant that not only did we spend very little time exploring the events of the book and their consequences and aftermath we also spent very little time in the lives of these two women. Also they seemed to ever do was weave.

I dont often say this but this book needed to be longer. It did not have the word count to tackle the lives of both these women and the consequence was that nothing was explored satisfactorily. Various plot points were also discarded half way through the book and the ending was unsatisfactory.

Overall I was left unsure what exactly the theming of this book was supposed to be and what the story the author was trying to tell was exactly.

Saying all that it was still mostly an easy read and I did finish it. I would be interested in seeing what this author does yet and I hope she will improve in her future writing projects.

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mmatti300's review against another edition

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adventurous sad fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book honestly was a little disappointing. While I really enjoyed having klytemnestras perspective, the rest of the book felt very dry and exactly the same as every other Trojan war retelling. Maybe I feel this way simply because I have read quite a few, including the YA series Nobody’s Princess and Nobody’s prize that we’re similarly from Helens perspective. The writing style was also rather lackluster though there were a few stellar descriptions that fully encapsulated the vitriol and disgusting actions of the men. Since this is a debut, I can only hope that the strength of descriptions that Heywood showed glimmers of will be clearer in future books. A good book, interesting additions of Klytemnestra but overall more cookie cutter than I would have liked.

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rileepickle's review against another edition

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emotional reflective 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

3.25

I really enjoyed this novel, especially towards the end. I think the biggest issue I had with it was that it shifted from focusing on Klytemnestra to focusing on Helen in the latter parts of the novel. I found Klytemnestra's story much more interesting than Helen's, although Helen's was intriguing as well. I didn't like the way this novel ended, and had more questions about some of the plot points that weren't answered. Overall though, a fun and emotional read with lots of jarring scenes and important themes.

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