Reviews tagging 'Child death'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

275 reviews

etl's review against another edition

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Rape

themirrorball's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

i really loved the beginning and end of this book, but the middle seemed to be stagnant, with nothing of interest really happening, internally or externally. it felt like a lot of unnecessary descriptions and storytelling that wasn't going anywhere. 

one of my favorite things about this book was the complexity of the relationships. i was genuinely invested in many of the relationships, like the sisters, each of them with their husbands, and ariadne and her mother. they all felt real and raw, in a way i haven't experienced when reading other greek mythology retellings. however, i think that it all could have been pulled together better, considering the ending felt quite abrupt and random. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child death and Rape

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

---

Content Warnings

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

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

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

turtleycool's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

I enjoyed the story, but Ariadne wasn‘t written as a particularly compelling character. I would have preferred to learn more about Phaedra. The manner of complaining and whinging about unfairness was kind of annoying too.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Incest, and Suicide

franticfreya's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Suicide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Body horror, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, and Rape

in_the_woods___'s review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Suicide, Rape, and Animal cruelty

Moderate: Murder, Violence, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Child death

stormeno's review against another edition

emotional mysterious medium-paced

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

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexism, Death, Sexual harassment, Child death, Sexual content, Abandonment, Gore, and Suicide

Minor: Incest, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Infidelity, Rape, and Schizophrenia/Psychosis

maanbloem's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

A commom criticism of this book relates to the story the main female characters, that those are feminist which is an unfair criticism to the author's writing. The mythological stories were never feminist in the first place and the author, Jennifer Saint, could not make the storyline more feminist while still staying true to the original. I think the feminist perspective of how women are punished for the wrongdoings of men was done very well, especially considering characters like Pasiphae, of course Ariadne but also the ending and the destructiveness of unhappy powerful men.

The only reason this isn't a complete 5 out of 5 stars is that the middle part, about her time on Naxos, reminds me so much of Circe (which is my absolutely favourite book in the world) and felt too similar, but of course not the fault of the author, because that is the nature of the story. The writing style was wonderful and also the POV of Phaedra was unteresting, since I didn't know her story

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Child death, and War

Moderate: Alcohol

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

4.5

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! 

---

Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Cursing and Miscarriage

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

It was better than other retellings I've read but honestly I'm giving up on the genre after this. I wish more authors took into account what societies at the time were like, instead of portraying characters with contemporary values and sensibilities.
This retelling, as Circe, was so busy trying to portray the titular woman as someone who can't do or think evil to the point it distorted any semblance of character development for anyone. Phaedra was the only mildly interesting one, but otherwise I was bored for 60% of this. Worse is, if you're trying to be an "empowering" retelling, by removing Ariadne from all knowledge or complicity of ill doings you're rendering her powerless to truly make decisions.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Child death