Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

40 reviews

biobeetle's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

bellsdixon's review against another edition

adventurous informative sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

Moderate: Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation

clauglezzz_'s review against another edition

dark informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.25

Heads up to anyone who still hasn't read it, it has three points of view, Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Elektra.
I really wanted to like this book a lot more than I did. I found it really repetitive at times and to me it felt like the book was telling me how to feel. I also had a hard time empathising with the characters throughout the majority of the book, I just didn't manage to connect with them. My favourite was probably Cassandra, Helen or Clytemnestra.

I think Iphgenia's death was really well narrated but to me the book just went downhill from there.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief and Death of parent

Moderate: War

Minor: Pregnancy

celtictales's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, Murder, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and War

mdal26's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Animal death, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lesemaus2303's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Hate crime, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

ccee's review against another edition

challenging emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

Saint’s prose is readable in that she can compose a sentence, yet her imagery relies heavily on ancient turns of phrase that we’ve seen rehashed again and again throughout these retellings. Cassandra and Clytemnestra had depth, yet Elektra, a stunningly tragic figure, lay flat.

Her take on Pylades and Orestes as sworn brothers made me cringe a little, their relationship felt stiff and platonic, and Elektra’s instant attraction to Pylades felt so far out of the realm of the canon of the Tragedians that it blindsided me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Gore, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Animal death and Abandonment

unfiltered_fiction's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

This is an easy-read retelling, in that the prose is very clean and the story doesn't require much work to follow. Unfortunately I found the character work (arguably the most important aspect of retellings, as this is where something truly new can be offered) quite weak. Cassandra felt somewhat diluted and Elektra was two dimensional, with no real depth added by the bizarre touches of Oedipal thinking in her envy of the women her father abducted and abused. Helen had some interesting moments between her sympathy for Cassandra, touches of witchcraft, and the description of her serenity as consolidating her supernatural beauty was effective, but this was all kept relatively surface-level. Clytemnestra's character was definitely the most developed, but still didn't feel strong enough to hold the book up on its own. Overall, a readable story but not one that gripped me - perhaps because Greek myth retellings are such a flooded sub-genre, and so I tend to feel that a writer needs to really offer something breathtakingly brilliant in order to hold their ground.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Rape, and Pregnancy

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, and Gaslighting

Minor: Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Alcohol, and Classism

bectothebooks's review

adventurous dark tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Confinement, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Blood, and Gaslighting

Minor: Incest and Pregnancy