Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Pandora's Jar: Women in the Greek Myths by Natalie Haynes

7 reviews

tashtasher's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

4.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Blood, Death, Gore, Murder, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Incest, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Pregnancy, Child death, Infidelity, and Pedophilia

Minor: Confinement, Slavery, Death of parent, and Alcohol

cozy_gh0st's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny informative fast-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, War, Rape, Sexual violence, Gore, Murder, and Blood

karissabubble's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative tense medium-paced

4.5

It was a very informative read. It is a bit on the academic side, so I think this would be great for students as well.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Grief, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Blood, Misogyny, Child death, Rape, Suicide, Death, Incest, Kidnapping, and Sexism

northernlitreading's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

Just brilliant. I don’t think I’ve ever read a book like this - essentially an extended research paper. It was so interesting. I studied Classics a little in school but only some books of the Iliad or the Aeneid. This book was so informative but it was captivating and the authors voice really shone through - occasionally adding witty or even shocking remarks. Fell in love with the author and Greek mythology all over again. 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Pregnancy, War, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Sexism, Child death, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, and Cannibalism

asipofcozy's review against another edition

dark funny informative reflective tense medium-paced

4.5

After reading Natalie Haynes' portrayal of women in Greek Literature in A Thousand Ships, I just knew I needed to pick up Pandora's Jar.

I have always been fascinated by Greek culture and mythology. I grew up on stories of Achilles and Hercules and thought, "this is what it means to be a hero". Yet, now, after reading Pandora's Jar I can say that I have changed my tune. It's not that I don't still respect these childhood stories that we still teach children today; it's that I now see the truths that lay behind each of them.

Haynes takes the voices of these marginalized women in greek myths and finally gives them a voice. She analyzes each artist, writer, poet, and singer and how they have hidden away these women in the background. Too afraid to sing of their pain, suffering, and loss at the expense of these heroes. She makes us question if Medusa is actually the villain due to earlier accounts of her story or if Clytemnestra was an out-of-control woman that wanted power. The greek writers and even modern-day writers never want to talk about the women's side of the story, and now we have it.

I think what disturbed me the most was how modern-day writers and retellers of these stories gloss over some serious issues that were normalized in the original greek retellings, which Haynes points out quite often in Pandora's Jar. Such as r*pe, sexual harassment, Stockholm syndrome, and suicide. Take the thousands/millions of retellings of Persephone and Hades for example.

Not one story talks about how Hades forced himself on her or forced the Pomegranate down her throat every day so she couldn't leave. Or how Zeus was a part of all this, yet it's in all of the original texts. Why was this? Was it because it wouldn't be as "romantic" of a story? If so, these modern-day writers are turning a blind eye to r*pe culture and just allowing it. Even now, with some very popular retellings out like Lore Olympus: Volume One or A Touch of Darkness, not one talks about Persephone being r*ped. That it was "romance" that kept her there.

I get that we need these retellings. I mean, I love a good retelling as the next person but are these stories, in the end, taking away the voices from the original women of the myths who are constantly used, abused, and thrown to the side as trash for the next woman that catches the fancy of the hero?

Pandora's Jar made me think analytically about women in literature, women in the modern day, the original stories of these myths, and the retellings of these myths. It led me to question the stories I was told as a child and whether I would think differently of these so-called 'heroes' if I knew how they treated women. Or how modern-day storytellers treat these women by wiping away their original voice. Haynes, in the end, creates a complex situation behind these women like Helen of Troy, Phaedra, and Pandora and if they truly are the beautiful villains we have come to see today.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Domestic abuse, Gore, Blood, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Eating disorder, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Stalking, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

caseythereader's review against another edition

challenging emotional funny reflective medium-paced

4.75

Thanks to Harper Perennial for the free advance copy of this book.

 - PANDORA'S JAR is for everyone who loves Greek mythology but wishes the women weren't protrayed only as objects or monsters.
- Even if you think you know it all in terms of myth, I'll bet Haynes digs out some alternate tellings and translations you haven't seen, giving everyone from Persephone to Clytemnestra new dimensions.
- Plus, this books is funny as heck. Haynes is dryly sarcastic, giving much needed levity to these tales of tragedy and woe. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Animal death, Blood, Suicide, War, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death of parent, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Grief, and Incest

marianneiriss's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Misogyny, Child death, Death, Murder, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Incest, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Grief, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Injury/Injury detail, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Slavery, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Xenophobia, Blood, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Suicide attempt, Violence, Cannibalism, Infertility, War, Abandonment, Ableism, and Adult/minor relationship