Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

117 reviews

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Rape, and Pregnancy

Minor: Sexual assault, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gaslighting, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

agnela's review against another edition

sad tense medium-paced

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

2.75

I wanted to dnf this so hard! There was a time in my life where I would have loved this, but now I want to read about powerful characters, about joy and life and becoming better. But this story just told you a story about wronged women and men who messed it up for them. I understand it's ancient Greek culture thing, but damn, we, now, can tell those same stories in a better way, we can imagine these characters taking different choices, even if they end up in the same places. We can give them healing and humanity. Plus we can give them a better ending, because now we know there are more endings and more tellings of their stories. It's so not feminist at all. Ariadne makes a few decisions in her whole life, and that's how the story moves. I think she has made maybe 3 or 4 choices, and the plot then just deals with it. 
The book had a gorgeous cover. The translation had some wobbling with genders and adjectives, although the prose was pretty. But the characters needed so much more polishing and building. 
It's not a feminist story if you tell tragic life of a woman from her own perspective. It's not a feminist story to say men use women's labour and have them to point it out themselves. It just means it's female centric, told from a females perspective. 
It got better to the end, maybe last 30%, where both women have a bit more agency and clear motivations rather than being naive horny girls or trying to survive. I loved Pheadra's point of view, you can at least tell the girls had different interests and passions. I was rooting for Pheadra to get more involved with ruling the kingdom, but I guess all those lessons and experiences tought her nothing. It's funny how both sister's stories involve being horny, Ariadne starts and Pheadra ends with it. No yes I know Pheadra just wanted to run away, but I don't really believe it. She had already visited Ariadne and Naxos where women could run away, and she didn't even love her children much, which I love by the way. Being a woman and being able to have a baby doesn't mean you want to, will be a good mom, or have to. Not to mention the trauma they experienced in their own home might have heavily contributed to how Pheadra felt about motherhood. 
Overall I'm really disappointed. I saw this writer had a book about my beloved Hera and i will not be reading that because I know there will be only suffering and agony for my goddess, and I do not deserve to read about it and neither she deserves it to be write about her.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and War

rtorrey's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

ibjilln's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood and Gaslighting

Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Gore, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and War

thegr1mreader's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Child death, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Child death, Incest, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

julkatten's review against another edition

challenging emotional mysterious medium-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? It's complicated

4.25

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and Suicide

Minor: Sexual assault

emilywemily6's review against another edition

adventurous dark lighthearted sad slow-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! I listened to the audiobook and I thought it was really good. This story is a simple retelling of some women of Greek mythology, and I kept having to stop myself mid book so I wouldn’t go check Wikipedia for what happened to these characters before I read it in this book. It was intriguing and had some strong themes throughout; it definitely had a moral to the story and gave me some things to think about, but it was a little shallow in its storytelling. Like others have mentioned, it didn’t show much, only told you straight out what happened. But I enjoyed listening to it and want to dive back into Greek mythologies and retellings! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing and Miscarriage

camiandkitread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

Jennifer Saint’s “Ariadne” is a beautiful retelling of the Ariadne myth. 

The pacing is slow but steady, enough to keep the reader’s engaged but calm while the tense parts of the myth are spread out. 

The ending of “Ariadne” was not one that I was familiar with but suited this interpretation nicely. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Pregnancy, Abandonment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

shan_lou's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Murder, and Pregnancy

jakeryave's review against another edition

medium-paced

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

3.5

hit the spot for contemporary greek mythology retellings, but nothing compared to Circe. still a good read, ending hit HARD

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and War