Reviews tagging 'Mental illness'

Ariadna by Jennifer Saint

53 reviews

yannic_rasmus's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

A beautifully tragic retelling of another woman in Greek mythology who deserved better.
Wonderful writing style, captivating characters and very true to the original source material. 
Also recommended for fans of Madeline Miller's "Circe"!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Suicide, and Gaslighting

Moderate: Sexism, Toxic relationship, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Incest, Mental illness, Rape, and Blood

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

4.25

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! 

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Mental illness, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Cursing and Miscarriage

haley_marie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced

• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child abuse, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

Minor: Mental illness and War

kaitlinlovesbooks'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? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death and Death

Moderate: Mental illness, Suicide, Violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Minor: Sexual content, Grief, and War

bestienicoley's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Classism

leonieelektroherd's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Mental illness, and Abandonment

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Rape

sirenricobooks's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful informative reflective sad fast-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexism, and Abandonment

Moderate: Death of parent and Pregnancy

Minor: Body horror, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Sexual harassment, and Classism

tashtasher's review against another edition

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Grief, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Religious bigotry, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Gaslighting, and Classism

kt2e56's review against another edition

adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

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

2.5

This started out very promising but it started to lose its luster for me as Ariadne made ridiculous choice after ridiculous choice. It’s odd that the premise of the book is how in Greek mythology, women were often punished and tortured for the crimes and desires of men and Ariadne is so keenly aware of this at the very beginning and claims to want to change her fate and yet she just does nothing? She’s brace when she assists Theseus but from that point on she just chooses to sit by and do literally nothing and allow the men in her life to save her or torment her or continue to do as they wish with her.

Juxtapose that with her little sister Phaedra (who is the far more complex and fascinating narrator here, particularly when dealing with Post Partum Depression) who is so bold and headstrong and vibrant and also determined to live her own life despite her status as a prize for Theseus (and she succeeds! She convinces him to keep adventuring so she can do as she pleases while he’s away!) until

she literally out of nowhere becomes obsessed with her 14-year-old stepson? 

Now, yes, that’s correct in terms of the original mythology but I thought the whole point of the book was to flesh out female mythological figures more? This book offers ZERO explanation for the insanely drastic change in character when it comes to Phaedra. Was she being used to punish Theseus? Did she upset Aphrodite? Was she just mad? We literally never find out. Her only reason for loving Hippolytus is because he’s different from Theseus but it still feels bizarre to me that a 28-year-old woman, who as far as we know was completely sane, would fall in love with a child literally out of nowhere.

I’m really not someone who needs media spelled out for me but in this case some explanation would have been great because it truly is that sudden of a change. It’s a storyline that feels rushed, like the author felt she had to shoehorn in that myth about Phaedra because it’s so well known but she didn’t really connect it very well with her version of Phaedra that she created for this book.

Jennifer Saint is a talented writer. She paints vivid pictures and there’s a lot here that’s compelling and interesting but to me, this book just didn’t quite stick the landing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Gore, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Pedophilia, Rape, Torture, Grief, and War

biancafrancisco's review against another edition

reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I'm a simple woman, I see feminist greek retelling and I read

Buuuuut this one disappointed a bit. I enjoyed reading it, the writing is as pointed out in my cover "lyrical".
However, it does not do what it sets out to do. 

Ariadne as a character lacks luster as she is very passive.

She has barely any role in defeating the Minotaur (Dedalous gives her the thread and Phaedra steals the weapon), with this characterization one wonders how she even had the conviction to betray her father (I guess the explanation is her falling in love immediately by looking at Theseus....istg). 
While she lives in Naxos with Dionysus she also shows no interest in the sister she left behind or on what her husband does on their island.

She is lulled by her comfortable beliefs and leaves everything at that. 

When the two sisters came to be reunited I thought the story's purpose might be revealed, that it would be about these two woman and their bond (once again pointing to the supposed feminist undercurrent of the book), but the only reason Phaedra went to Naxos was to further her plot and they seemed to add nothing to each other. 

Through the book there is an emphasis on the gods being careless and cruel and innocent humans, particularly woman, suffering for it. This attempt at criticizing the treatment of woman in classical myth falls short as the plot of the book goes by. You would think Ariadne would go against this and, even if the ending had to be as in the myth, she would be shown fighting her fate.

Yet, she merely goes where she is pushed most of the time and both Phaedra's and her death feel pointless and void of meaning.

Phaedra's struggle with motherhood seems to also be looking to shed some feminist light, but the message gets lost along the way. 

At the beggining of the book Ariadne
speaks of seizing her destiny for herself, but we see her do nothing of the sort throughout the book. In her own words, after a decade of marriage, she says "I had been trusting and obedient. I had thought that was the right way to be". She ends up being disappointed by Dionysus also and it seems the only lesson to be learned is a weird dichotomy of men are bad and woman good mixed with a Madonna-whore complex where woman who reclaimed and used their power were seen as evil (Medea and Hera, for example) while passive woman like Ariadne were good. 

I realize this is to be a tragedy, but why retell a story if not to shine a new light on it? The women end the story the way they began, Ariadne without purpose and Phaedra miserable and heavy with humiliation. 

It is not a terrible book, it was enjoyable to read - it just didn't convey its own message. If you have started it searching for something akin to Madeleine Miller's Circe, you will not be totally satisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Suicide

Moderate: Mental illness, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Confinement, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Murder, and Pregnancy