Reviews with content warning for Death - Ariadne

Reviews tagging 'Death'

Ariadne, by Jennifer Saint

162 reviews

emmerylynn's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

I did enjoy parts and pieces to this book. The writing was stunning and there were parts of the book where I couldn’t put it down. The message came through clearly, that women are the playthings (and ultimate victims) of heroes and gods.

The ending wasn’t as satisfying as I had hoped. This made me realize that most of Greek myth is just bad men being awful.

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piratesandprophecy's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring 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

4.0

pasiphae. semele. medusa. now a hundred grieving mothers. the price we paid for the resentment, the lust and the greed of arrogant men was our pain, shining and bright like the blade of a newly honed knife.

i seriously don’t even know where to start? as with every greek mythology retelling i’ve read, i have a lot of fond and conflicting thoughts about ariadne. i find these retellings really difficult to rate a lot of the time, because i always throughly enjoy them but it’s hard to fit stories like this one into just ‘this star rating or that one’.

i’m glad that this book felt like circe in the sense that it didn’t just follow a portion of ariadne and phaedra’s lives, but the majority of them instead. the minotaur really only took up the first 25% of this book, and i liked the way their stories were expanded upon. getting to hear their stories and see their perspectives rather than the men around them was refreshing and i LOVED the notes of feminism in this book, but it was a very faithful retelling overall. not much reimagining was done, if that’s the kind of myth retelling that you like then this one probably won’t be your favourite. it’s a faithful retelling from a new perspective, but not much of the content of the myths was altered in any way, which i honestly kind of liked about it. there were so many moments i underlined that hit so hard on some of the fears and struggles of womanhood, especially in a setting where women are fairly helpless to the whims and vices of the men around them and often fall victim to the vengeance of the gods for crimes and slights committed by men, or to the deprivatities of said gods and men. i loved that aspect of it— the fact that it brought to to light how unjust it is that these women have to suffer so much as pawns in the games of those who hold more power than they do.

in terms of writing, i’ve seen jennifer saint’s prose compared a lot to madeline miller’s. while there are definitely some similarities between their writing styles i feel like madeline miller’s is just… more?? more lush, more descriptive, etc. saint’s prose was HIGHLY enjoyable and i have absolutely nothing against it, some kickass quotes and very memorable and impactful passages lay ensconced in this little tome and her and the way she uses words is breathtaking in its own way, but i think i still prefer madeline miller’s writing in the end. something about her style just hits different for me.

one of the things i found most interesting in ariadne is the relationship between she and dionysus, and dionysus’ character in general honestly. i loved that she depicted him as sort of a being caught halfway between the man he could have been and the god he truly is— how there were moments of a very human tenderness and depth of feeling from him, and then that olympian coldness and vanity would shine through and break the illusion. it kind of lulled you for a while and then you remember ‘oh shit, this guy is still a very powerful, very dangerous and fickle god’. i also loved the stark contrast between ariadne and phaedra. their perspectives never seemed to blur together at all because they’re such distinct characters. their dynamic as sisters was complex and difficult because of how opposite they were, and i loved both of them for different reasons. their characterization was one of the greatest strengths of this book in my opinion.

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tashtasher's review against another edition

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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

4.0

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carlymorlando's review against another edition

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dark reflective 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

4.0

A feminist reflection on forgotten female characters and how they are treated by both gods and men.

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demib's review

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Spoiler

I’m a huge lover of Greek mythology retellings - but this one I have mixed feelings on.

It’s advertised as a feminist take, but I fail to see where that happened? Ariadne started naive and ended naive. She made a choice to leave with Perseus, and from then on became frail and scared of everything.

Phaedra deserved better. Her character was strong, blunt, intelligent beyond her years desperate for change. Yet it doesn’t end well for her, and all because of unrequited love?

Dionysus and Ariadne is one of my favourite stories, and whilst I’m not always looking for a happily ever after, this was meant to be about women finding strength and yet she ends up in the stars. Even though there is mythology out there of her becoming immortal like his mother.

I loved the start of their relationship, friendship and talks, him providing her a home after being abandoned and all the other women who were abused and unhappy. I enjoyed it enough to finish it, but it just fell flat for me. <\spoiler>

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_falieadeline's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny inspiring mysterious 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

4.25

Ariadne can be slow at points, though that may be because of the different perspectives. Which, while I enjoyed, I personally find it easier to get attached to one character's perspective. In saying that, the pace picks up, especially the last 100 or so pages which were impossible to not turn. Definitely recommended if you enjoy modern takes on mythology!

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lizcastner's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging 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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conspystery's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

This book was underwhelming. Even calling it that feels like I’m giving it too much credit. I will note that I listened to the audiobook version, and have absolutely no gripes with that aspect. The narrator’s performance was well-fitting for the story and characters. My issues with this book are mainly in the writing of its characters, their development, and the message it tries to convey as a whole.

Seeing so many comparisons to Circe by Madeline Miller caused me to expect this book’s protagonist, Ariadne, to have the same amount of depth that Circe’s does. I expected a fresh, interesting perspective as the voice of the novel, one that would take agency and control over the narrative like the description of the book suggests. But I felt Ariadne was quite passive as a main character; her feminism can hardly be called that at all, considering how often she ponders the sexist definition of and treatment of women by men but does nothing to functionally combat it in the narrative, instead playing directly into the roles she resents with very little thought given to the implications of her actions. Even when she does take agency in the story, her actions are shallow and serve men in the ways she claims she hates,

Spoiler

which is acceptable in Part One to set up irony but not so much as the book continues. Ariadne suffers emotionally from Theseus’s betrayal, but she learns nothing: she confirms her belief about the evil selfishness of men, but continues to play into it over and over without ever changing the way she acts throughout the book.

Her character development is a disappointingly repetitive cycle that fails to reach a satisfying conclusion. Any likenings of Ariadne’s protagonist and her development to Circe’s are laughable.

Phaedra was briefly interesting as a character-- I liked her initial fire and bounce compared to Ariadne’s more subdued introspection, and how that evolved

Spoiler

into near-scheming cleverness with her marriage to Theseus-- but she, too, fell into a poisonous internal refusal to learn from her actions. Her storyline in Part Three was particularly frustrating. It was an absurd departure from her character as it was established, diverting her development from the claiming of agency and independence to merely swapping allegiances to yet another man. I think Phaedra’s error in mistaking her need to be free for swooning, all-encompassing affection was the point of her story, as it was very briefly addressed at the end of Part Three, but the book does so little to make any use of such a thing as a warning: it reads more like a painfully predictable “I-told-you-so”, causing its emotional impact to fail to hit.

Her narrative is once again defined by men in the end, in a way that serves sexism rather than refuting it via poignant commentary, which is I think what the author was trying to present it as.

The rest of Ariadne’s main cast fall into similar pits. Pasiphae is not granted nuance even by Ariadne, which reflects once again how poorly Ariadne embodies the beliefs she says she holds; Daedalus’s story is interesting but loses plot relevance and narrative attention far too quickly, when it could have been given more room to impact the story and characters as the book went on;

Spoiler

Ariadne’s children are more narrative device than character, as are Phaedra’s; Theseus becomes a shallow husk as soon as his betrayals are revealed, and not in a satisfying manner;

and Perseus, though genuinely intriguing, is introduced far too late to be explored in detail. The most compelling character in this book is Dionysus. His jovial compassion for mortals is intentionally discordant with his divine detachment from them, and his treatment of Ariadne changes in a realistic, thoughtful way as the book goes on. He’s well-rounded and fascinating to read, his actions offering much to interpret and consider about his role in the narrative and his character in general. For how feminist this book claims to be, I find it interesting that the love interest man is given more depth than the woman protagonist-- not to say that Dionysus’s depth is bad, as it was one of the only parts of this book I enjoyed, but it reflects poorly on the novel that its attempt to convey a nuanced, feminist perspective from Ariadne’s point of view is so thoroughly outshined by Dionysus’s character. It is frustrating and disappointing to see characters with so much potential fail as they do here.

Further, the message of this book has questionable implications. Ariadne’s continuous disappointment by men serves as the novel’s theme: men are afforded privilege in society that they too often use to brazenly wreck the lives of women, because said women are forced unjustly to face the consequences for men’s actions. The nuance in this perspective somehow deteriorates over the course of the story as Ariadne is proven right over and over until it seems the book condemns men as a whole; by the end of the novel Ariadne views all men as inherently the same, fated to disappoint and destroy the lives of women forever. I don’t like this perspective. What of Daedalus, who treats Ariadne with kindness in her youth?

Spoiler

Or the children she loves dearly, or Phaedra’s children, or Hippolytus?

In treating sexism as an unavoidable feature of all mankind, Ariadne presents a somewhat bleak, hopeless view of humanity, as well as ascribes blame to a collective rather than addressing the underlying issues at play-- one of the most insidious qualities of a sexist is the intention they have in adopting such a worldview, the part they choose to play to further sexism’s reach, but Ariadne completely ignores the harms of willfulness. The main character’s perspective is not feminist so much as it is accusatory, refusing to address her own hand in the sexism she continually falls victim to-- Ariadne has agency in the narrative, but never makes significant use of it, always pacing in philosophical circles as she aids her own victimization without taking any lessons from her continued tragedies. This inherency perspective lacks nuance and is unhelpful in meaningfully addressing sexism, which is best understood as a worldview bias that is played into rather than some kind of inevitability of men.

Ultimately, I did not enjoy this book. The writing itself is decent but never stands out, and the pacing is strange and drawn-out with how repetitive the narrative’s themes are. Its messages are unfavorable and feminist only on a surface level, its characters serving as poorly-wrought examples of what it is trying to condemn. Possibly the most interesting way to read this novel would be as a fated tragedy, and to consider what it has to say about agency under destiny as viewed through Ariadne’s failure to learn from her mistakes or adopt a more reasonable, adjustable worldview-- how she creates her own helplessness through wilful inaction and rejects taking control of her life in favor of condemning the Gods and men for all misfortune, refusing to look deeper inwards even once. However, since it is billed so overwhelmingly as a feminist retelling, I don’t imagine that the agency in tragedy interpretation is what was intended by the author, and so I think it fails as the narrative it was written to be. It’s disappointing. I wish it had been the story it claimed to be, or had the potential to be, but I found it unfortunately lacking.

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readwithria's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful 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? No

4.0

Ariadne weaves a tale of women and the price they pay for the sins of the men in their lives. It takes a character of myth who is often forgotten and ties her story to that of every woman who has paid for someone else’s wrongdoing.

I enjoyed every second of this book. I was familiar with the titular character’s part in the story of the Minotaur, but unfamiliar with what happened to her afterward. I was expecting the Minotaur aspect of her life to take up more of the book, but was not disappointed by how much was devoted to her life afterward.

I was also pleasantly surprised by the inclusion of Phaedra’s POV. She was such a fiery character, and I enjoyed how different she was from her sister.

I typically prefer my books to be plot heavy, and this was definitely a character-driver story, so that’s probably why it wasn’t a five star read for me. However, I thoroughly enjoyed the characters and the writing, so it’s still a book I loved and would recommend. 4 stars.

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thelostbookmark22's review against another edition

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challenging sad slow-paced

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

2.0

•was enjoyable in the beginning
•loved the mentions of greek mythology and the connections between the stories and the characters
• Theseus was annoying all throughout the book,which was dissappinting as a greek person and kind of ruined my opinion on him
• the ending was confusing and felt not worth the anticipation
•liked the feminism elements

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