Reviews tagging 'Suicidal thoughts'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

74 reviews

nightlight_reader's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

3.0

I should’ve just DNF’d this, but it’s really that the style didn’t vibe for me. It was slow and I just could never quite tell where we were going and felt like the synopsis didn’t tell me just how much we were going to cover. Some of this is due to my lack of knowledge of this specific chunk of Greek mythology, but like this was a ride I don’t think I would’ve signed up for had I known it would cover Ariadne’s entire life.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

reachmars's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

Even though it's just a straightforward retelling of the myths, it was very engaging. Especially as someone who didn't know a lot about this specific story going into it, I couldn't put it down. It's a story that makes it make sense that it would survive thousands of years of oral tradition.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and War

alyxleaf's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I sobbed a lot and loved it. Loving learning about all the women in mythology.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

kermitluver69's review against another edition

dark emotional 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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Gaslighting

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

aliyahoff's review against another edition

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

Moderate: Mental illness and Alcohol

Minor: Infidelity, Miscarriage, Blood, Murder, and War

icy_queen's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

amypalmer's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-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? Yes

3.0

This book was ok. I feel like some parts were strong while others were weak leaving it lacking at times. The ending is a little bizarre and without giving spoilers differs from the myth I believe. I did like it and the style of writing, it is good and easy to read but not spectacular and a little basic.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide

saskiajva's review against another edition

dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Definitely read content warnings for this! This book was odd. I felt like it spent a lot of time detailing unimportant things and then sailed through important bits i  wish had been more detailed, so it’s hard to say if not much happens or if a lot happened. Ariadne is a timid, fretful character which was frustrating and hard to like or relate to at times. The ending is one of the darkest things I’ve ever read, but isn’t given too much detail so it loses some punch there which is not a bad thing. I wanted to love this book, but it isn’t my thing. But I can see why others like it

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Infidelity, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and War