Reviews tagging 'Kidnapping'

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

13 reviews

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.

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Content Warnings

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

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

informative reflective slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Death, and Kidnapping

scarlettoliver's review against another edition

challenging informative medium-paced

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, and Suicide

Moderate: Violence, Child death, Murder, and Death

Minor: War, Kidnapping, Slavery, Cannibalism, and Incest

kkalicky94's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective sad medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Death of parent, Slavery, Suicide, War, Death, Grief, Kidnapping, Child death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, and Sexual assault

bryelle's review against another edition

emotional funny inspiring reflective slow-paced

5.0

Haynes looks at Greek myths through a feministic lens. She is dissecting why we tell stories of woman and make them the villains/victims/monsters. She goes in depth looking at the different ways these myths are told and even inspirations that have had in modern art. I love this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, and Adult/minor relationship

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.

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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

rebeccajost's review against another edition

emotional funny informative inspiring reflective relaxing

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Grief, Infidelity, Pregnancy, War, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Domestic abuse, Sexism, Slavery, Torture, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Emotional abuse, and Violence

erin_curry's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Kidnapping, Suicide, Violence, and Rape

nila's review against another edition

funny informative reflective medium-paced

5.0

I've read quite a few of these kinds of books on Greek myths where a selected few heroes/gods/myths are presented, and the author writes about their different depictions in depth. This is the best one I've read so far. This is Haynes' field and you can tell she's brimming with information that she wants to share. The book is so engaging and I highly recommend it

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Gaslighting, Torture, Violence, War, Grief, Incest, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide, Murder, Sexism, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, and Xenophobia

Minor: Cannibalism

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. 

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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