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cathy_alice's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and War
Moderate: Slavery
lia_24's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
5.0
Hera's love for the Greek Queens is incredibly moving and her telling of the place women occupy in society is terrifyingly honest.
You're caught between laughing at her insults towards men and her fellow Gods, only to be hit with a passage describing the abuse women are victim to on the daily which makes your stomach turn.
There could not have been a better narrator for the story of Queens than their goddess.
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
booksthatburn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
One of the difficulties in embarking upon retellings of Greek myths for a modern reader is that merely trying to lay out the relevant backstory involves listing several people Zeus assaulted, and a great deal of other violence, just to say the origins of a particular hero or the parentage of a demigod. ITHACA has a refreshing and circumspect approach to this and other similar difficulties which come from delving into stories where women were generally not considered to be full persons. ITHACA aims to tells the stories of the people the poets ignored, the women and slaves who were excised from their own stories (unless relegated to paragons of virtue or warnings of catastrophe). Hera is the narrator, telling what happened while Odysseus was on Calypso's Island, indulging in passion, and Penelope is at home in Ithaca, keeping dozens of suitors at bay. She keeps them just hopeful enough to refrain from war against Ithaca to claim her hand and her husband's responsibilities. In this retelling, there’s a cleverness and frustration to Hera. She, who was the goddess of queens, made small by Zeus and the imaginations of mortal men. Squeezed into the role of the goddess of wives, stifled by the implication that wives and mothers are less than men and distinct from warriors. Instead, ITHACA slowly disrupts that status quo as Penelope shows how she is a queen in fact and in name.
Because everything is from Hera's perspective, she doesn’t know exactly what Penelope is thinking. Hera's most frequent interactions are with Athena and Artemis, as she is deliberately hiding her activities from Zeus, and any god who might carry tales to him. There’s a loneliness and a hunger in Hera, as the way she can only accomplish things while beneath Zeus's notice mirrors the way that the wives, mothers, and queens, who pray to her must conceal their cleverness. When they produce something that men like, their ingenuity is misunderstood, or assumed to have another cause. When their cleverness threatens the men, either truly or only in their minds, then the women must be stopped through social pressure or violence.
The suitors cannot believe that Penelope continues to feed so many without gold, refusing to accept that she is a shrewd tradeswoman who manages her household well. Those who press her on the matter seem to think that hidden gold is a readier explanation than competent husbandry of goats. As if feasts are made of metal and gems, the men refuse to understand that barter and bargain can produce feasts with the resources of the farms and fields.
I’m very pleased with the worldbuilding, the narrative style, the focus as shaped through Hera, and many small moments in the story. I’m very excited to read more, and I’m glad this is a series instead of a standalone book.
Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Violence, Blood, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, War, and Classism
Minor: Child abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Kidnapping, and Pregnancy
introvertsbookclub's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.5
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
gxcons's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
What worked for me:
-Goddess Hera as narrator provides 3rd person omniscience with a dash of personality.
-The introduction of the house of Atreus (Elektra, Orestes, Clytemnestra) picks up the pacing of events and feels within the realm of possibility (timeline of mythological events).
-The handling of familial relationships (Penelope and Telemachus, the house of Atreus, absent fathers of the Trojan war) was nuanced and the most compelling piece of the book for me, by far.
What didn't hit:
-The very outright obvious "this is a feminist retelling" tone throughout. The focus on women and women's stories on Ithaka makes sense, accounting for the Trojan war and Odysseus's prolonged absence, but the constant "this is women's lot" became repetitive and exhausting.
-Related to that last point, the voice of many women, including Hera, felt imbalanced between sticking to higher, vaguely regal language and modern, 21st century snark. The snark and sarcasm date the book to a very particular (modern) time period; for me, the mid-2010s though this is a recent pub. Early on in the book it occurred to me that Hera reads like Regina from ABC's Once Upon A Time, and I couldn't shake it.
-Repetitive phrasing and jumping around to various character POVs and events
-Although I do appreciate the large cast of characters, it didn't read as Penelope's story with background characters, but rather an ensemble.
-Pacing of events outside of the house of Atreus drama was very slow, which, to be fair, is to be expected considering how long Penelope entertains and fends off suitors.
I didn't entirely acclimate to the tone and language of the book, and there were sections I started skimming over (descriptions of Ithaka, slow plotting). If I had known this was part of a series, I would have been less off-put by the ending. I'll pick up book #2, though, and in the meantime will seek out the two ancient Elektra plays and the Oresteia.
NB: I wouldn't recommend this book to those not familiar with the finer points of the mythology surrounding the Trojan war, but to each their own.
Moderate: Sexual assault
theblerdnewsletter'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? No
4.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Death of parent, Sexual harassment, and War
katelandbear's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Sexual assault and Sexual content
linguisticali's review against another edition
3.0
Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence
brittishrcoming'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? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Blood
Moderate: Misogyny, Violence, Murder, and War
Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery
bridgetdeveney's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault