Reviews tagging 'Religious bigotry'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

6 reviews

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? It's complicated

2.0

idk how to feel about this book. honestly i think im becoming a bit… disillusioned with greek mythology retellings at the moment. i honestly think they swing big and either really succeed or meander. and i would say this book follows the later.

i really couldn’t connect with this book at all. the ending felt rushed, and after the minotaur story was completed, the story felt as if it was floundering. obviously the entire book can’t be about life at crete but the fact it barely even covered 100 pages really let this book down. 

ariadne was at best a blank slate to narrate the tales of dionysus, and at worst was incredibly boring and annoying. i understand her naivety is fundamental to her story but it was overdone 200 pages in, and by the end i was over her.

phaedra was kind of likeable i guess. i enjoyed her at the beginning, but as soon as her story moved to her & hippolyta, she became insufferable. seriously when

her & ariadne were fighting over hippolyta

i didn’t agree with either of them. her ending also felt rushed and she lacked any depth being her impulsivity and brash nature.

dionysus was boring as well. he seemed to be all over the place with his characterisation, and his ending felt like it against everything earlier set up in the book. i get that was kind of the point but from a reader’s perspective it’s just a tad stupid.

i also think i became disillusioned with saint’s writing style by the end. to begin with i loved her descriptions and her poetic way of writing, but after the 20th sentence telling us that women always pay the price for a man’s crime i was over it. this book felt like it was going in circles constantly.

now you might ask - why did i finish this? because i own a copy of this, and i was curious to see if it could redeem itself the more it progressed. i don’t like to DNF books i own - if its a library or ebook sure she’s going in the DNF pile. but i paid $26 for this i was finishing it either way. and yet why didn’t i give this a 1-star? because i was still curious to see where this went. i wasn’t invested in the characters but i was invested in where things would go. 

idk i don’t think i had too much fun reading this. the beginning was intriguing, but after ariadne’s arrival at noxus the book fizzled away. and also the ending was dumb, anticlimatic and yet again rushed.

i will defo be taking a break from retellings for a while after this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and War

morbidgoogle's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious 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? No

4.5

One of my favourite books, reccomended to everyone I know!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Incest, Blood, Murder, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Alcohol, and War

tashtasher's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

lanid's review against another edition

reflective sad

• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.25

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

ka_ke's review against another edition

emotional relaxing slow-paced

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

1.0

Ariadne does not live up to the hype. It’s not only slow paced, but it’s too slowly paced in my opinion. I found it very difficult to maintain my interest and the characters seemed undeveloped. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Mental illness, Misogyny, Blood, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Violence, Religious bigotry, and War

Minor: Pregnancy

claudiamacpherson's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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

4.0

Theseus may be one of the most famous heroes of Greek mythology, but this retelling shows us Ariadne’s side of the story. 

Before reading Ariadne, I only knew of the titular character for her role in Theseus’ escape from the labyrinth. I was surprised by both the rest of Ariadne’s story and my ignorance of it; the twists and turns—especially Ariadne’s eventual marriage—make for a dramatic story.

The Olympians are usually so cruel and capricious, both so much more and so much less than human. So it was interesting to see Dionysus, the god of wine and madness, no less, acting so compassionately to human women. And, though I was not surprised, his betrayal and the violence he used in pursuit of more power was a disappointment.

Happy ending meter (no specific spoilers, just the vibe of the ending):

Not happy at all. Even though the ending is tragic, it feels inevitable, which tempers the sadness somewhat.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Blood, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, War, and Injury/Injury detail