vnfhcxksiw's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Child death, Death of parent, Slavery, Toxic relationship, War, Toxic friendship, Violence, Emotional abuse, Kidnapping, Suicidal thoughts, Grief, Genocide, Infidelity, Murder, and Abandonment
Moderate: Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual violence, and Torture
coyotes_tiptoe's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Moderate: War, Murder, Infidelity, Grief, Death, Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Child abuse, and Blood
lindsayflor_95's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Murder, and Death
Moderate: War and Violence
Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual violence
corikane's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Violence, Blood, and Child death
Moderate: Sexual assault and Rape
sarahkois's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Rape, Murder, and Violence
sirenricobooks's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Emotional abuse, Death, Sexism, Child death, Grief, Death of parent, Trafficking, War, Classism, Gore, Violence, Child abuse, Misogyny, Murder, and Slavery
Moderate: Cannibalism
Minor: Incest, Sexual violence, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Kidnapping, Rape, Confinement, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Abandonment, Sexual content, and Sexual harassment
vabraham's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Moderate: Violence
ohyeah_karyn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Abandonment, Blood, Child death, Confinement, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Death of parent, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Rape, War, and Child abuse
samburkhouse's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Grief, Violence, War, Death of parent, and Murder
Moderate: Sexism, Sexual assault, Rape, and Slavery
Minor: Abandonment
oceanebooks's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
But - it was very hard for me to like any of the characters.
Spoiler
In fact, I think the only one I could really sympathize with was Georgios and how Elektra treated him and that she left him in the end - it made me so FURIOUS. He was the only sincerely kind and good person in the whole book, HE DID NOT DESERVE THIS.Then again, I have to give the author credit for this, because it's not easy to create round characters and make them all unlikeable at the same time. And with that I don't mean there were only round characters, because there weren't. For example Agamemnon, or Aegisthus. The main characters though, they were pretty well rounded. Especially Clytemnestra, she was so full of emotions (mainly grief and anger, but I'll let that count, too), and it was almost painful to see her realize all her misbehaviour and actions that led to the events happening as they did when it was already way too late. Cassandra was okay, too. It hurt me, too, how nobody believed her, it hurt to think of how things could have ended if people had just listened to her. But I know that's how the tale is told, so Jennifer Saint would only have made a mistake in changing that.
Now, to Elektra. I don't think it's too much to say that I really despised her at the end of the book. Which was so surprising to me, because from reading the cover of the book I had thought she would be this heroic woman, brave and kind and sincere. And maybe she was brave, but she surely wasn't kind and she wasn't sincere, too. I think she was just furious, just angry, and completly filled with grief and the longing for revenge. I don't know how to feel about that because on one side it's pretty dissapointing, on the other side it's pretty genius by Jennifer Saint to create her like that as I'm sure many other readers were surprised, too.
The events themselves weren't too thrilling, because I'd read about the core plot already in "The women of Troy", "The silence of the girls" and "The song of Achilles". So I wasn't surprised when like 90% of the characters died or got slaughtered or died again. So yeah, that sadly took out a big chunk of tension for me, but I won't credit that negatively, because it's no one's fault but mine to be interersted in Greek mythology.
So yeah, judging by the fact that I'm again unable to keep my review short and could say so many more things about this book, you know it's defenitely worth a read, even though it was not my favourite favourite one. (And this is all because of you, Madeleine Miller...)
Still an impressive and somewhat kind of women-empowering piece of literature that's worth giving a try.
Graphic: Violence, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and War
Moderate: Emotional abuse
Minor: Rape