Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

14 reviews

emoryjoy's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I would like to give the caveat that I was listening to this as an audiobook and had it at double speed by the end. This quite nearly was a DNF. 

I'm not sure if the story took liberties with the myth or was just much more in depth than I knew about. Either way, it absolutely nailed the Greek Tragedy vibe and was gruesome in that very specific way that myths often are. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

annasbookjournal's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

1.0

 A bit of a harsh review, but here goes. 

 

As soon as I finished this book, I wanted to have nothing to do with it anymore and it took me a bit to write a review about it. 

 

The writing and the choices in the depiction of Ariadne were really disappointing for me. In an interview, Jennifer Saint talks about how passionate and angry Ariadne was in a source that Saint read, and how powerful her voice was, but I don’t see that at all in this book. I feel like many of the deep emotions that Ariadne would have felt were breezed over in a page and never talked about. 

 

Like when Phaedra committed suicide, Ariadne’s grief is never ever talked about: she literally just goes back to how her life was and even says that it was EASY to do so. That is not the sisterly love that I would like to read in a feminist book.

 

The way that Ariadne was depicted in the beginning of the book in particular made me question if this was the best way to retell the myth: her character is described as a horny girl who just wants to do first Theseus and then Dionysus. I feel like there was no depth to her whatsoever and that’s really disappointing. The point of a retelling (especially from a feminist POV) is to show that the women were more than pawns, that they had emotions of their own and that they weren’t stupid like the ancient people thought. We, on the other side, are handed a horny girl who can’t even come up with a plan on her own and has to depend on Theseus and Daedalus. WTF. 

 

I believe that the only good points from this book are the descriptions of the hard moments of pregnancy that Phaedra goes through. 

 

I also found myself countless times feeling like the choice of vocabulary was very modern, even though the setting for the scenes were ancient royal Greeks. 

 

I don’t think I’m going to read any of Saint’s other mythological retellings after this. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Physical abuse, Rape, and Suicide

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

nialiversuch's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

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

alicia_m_andrews's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Grief, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Blood, Death of parent, and Injury/Injury detail

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective slow-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? Yes

1.0

This was a buddy-read for me—the only reason why I did not immediately dnf this book after 200 pages.
It's so wordy and slow and boring. Fancy words and fancy sentence structures might be nice from time to time, but not to this extend. It was so tiring and my attention wavered frequently, making the whole experience rather unenjoyable.
The story wasn't quite it either. Lots of insta love and betrayal and nothing really of value. The message was repetitive and nothing new or revolutionary. I was expecting rich feminist commentary and some of it was good, not gonna lie, but most of it was just the same "men suck" and "gods suck" and so forth, as if everybody wasn't already aware.

Deeply disappointed. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship

bitterseason's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Rape, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

realalexmartin's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

I came into this book thinking it would simply be a re-telling of the Theseus and the Minotaur myth from Ariadne’s perspective,

but what I got was an epic and detailed life story of Ariadne that is  surprising, comforting, and nothing quite like what I’ve read before. I think it’s also a stroke of genius to use a character like Ariadne, who is widely unknown yet quite significant, to speak on the treatment of women in all of Greek mythology (and wider storytelling in general)

. I think the story kept getting better and better as it continued further from its initial premise. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, and War

mpbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional informative slow-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail