Reviews tagging 'Sexual violence'

Pénélope, reine d'Ithaque by Claire North

11 reviews

deadnberried's review against another edition

challenging emotional tense medium-paced

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

2.75

TW:  SA, violence against women

I went into reading this thinking I knew what it was going to be and it was decidedly not what I imagined.

A huge fan of Madeline Miller's Circe  and  Song of Achilles, I expected Ithaca to be a similar blend of raw humanity, rich characters, and the thin veil between mortals and gods that infuses everything with magical potential, be it for good or ill. This book seems to have been written attempting to do those things, but through such an incredibly jaded, bitter lens that the story is a slog to get through. 

Advertised as Penelope's side of the story (ra-ra, Penelope ruled Ithaca for ten years, let's see how this badass rose to the challenge!), we instead get an incredibly dejected, dispiriting novel about being crushed under the thumb of patriarchy. Women's lives and happiness don't matter, men are animals and will do what they want to women, even royal women can't escape man's ownership and brutality, even GODDESSES can't. Penelope is regularly condescended to by the council that 'helps' her rule Ithaca, while she does all of the actual work of keeping an economy running herself behind the scenes, her son is as different from his hero father as it's possible to be (and Odysseus isn't that great actually), Hera is almost powerless so she just hovers behind Penelope wringing her hands and bemoaning the fate of women in a man's world. This book is just a bummer. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual violence, War, Child death, and Murder

sauvageloup's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

hard to rate this one since I read it rather piecemeal and I cant hold a coherent sense of it in my head

pros:
- the characters all have distinct personalities and dialogue, which is written well. Penelope is focused, hera is snippy, telemachus is foolish, etc. but they're all complex too. there were some nice additions to the canon, kenamon and teodora (or I didnt remember them anyway), and it was nice having some decent characters.
- there is dry humor, especially in here's perspective 
- I like the concept on focusing on outwardly quieter female power, and looking at hera and penelope, and the other women from a different angle than the mythology does.

cons:
- it did feel too slow a lot of the time, with a lot of meandering and introspection. 
- it was frustrating seeing telemachus ignore his mother repeatedly, and aspects of the myths play out, but that's not a book criticism, just that inevitable tragedy isnt rly my genre.

so overall, I appreciated the writing quality and definitely enjoyed meeting Claire North and hearing her discuss her work, but this wasnt quite my type of book, a bit too slow.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Sexual content, Emotional abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Cursing, Death, Murder, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Child death, Gore, War, and Misogyny

Moderate: Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Rape

Minor: Xenophobia

theblerdnewsletter's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• 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

The reason I didn’t give it 4.5 stars is because I would love to see Hera’s telling of when Odysseus comes home.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Incest, Violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Child death, Slavery, Infidelity, War, Blood, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Trafficking

forgetbeenot's review against another edition

dark mysterious tense slow-paced

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

1.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Sexual assault, and Violence

mothie_girlie's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Sexual content, Misogyny, and Alcohol

Moderate: Sexual harassment and Toxic relationship

Minor: Sexual violence

madamenovelist's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Rape, Misogyny, War, Gore, Violence, Murder, Slavery, Colonisation, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Sexism, Xenophobia, Stalking, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Death, and Death of parent

wlreed312's review against another edition

challenging emotional reflective slow-paced

• 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

4.0

For years I have wanted a book about what's going on in Ithaca during the events of the Odyssey, so you can imagine my excitement when I heard about this. And after a kind of rocky start, I ended up enjoying it a lot, but not as much as I had anticipated. For me it was the POV that took me out of it, I honestly didn't like Hera much as a narrator. I wanted to know more of what was going on in Penelope's mind, and this didn't give me as much of that as I would have liked. I also had some issues with how Hera talked about women, there was some cattiness that didn't sit well with me. And there was once or twice where there was a line or two that bordered on homophobic for me.

But in spite of that, I thought the last third of the book was outstanding. We get some really lovely scenes between Penelope and Elektra, as well as between Penelope and Clytemnestra. There is some great dialogue, and I thought the ending was very good. So while it wasn't exactly what I was looking for, it was still very enjoyable.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: War, Sexual violence, and Rape

historic_wince's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and Death

Moderate: Sexual assault and Sexual violence

brazenbookbabe's review against another edition

dark sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

This was a great Greek myth retelling. I very much enjoyed Hera as a narrator and this insight into Penelope’s story during her period on Ithaca without Odysseus. It was bitchy and full of feminine rage. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death of parent, Child death, War, Violence, Slavery, and Sexual violence

tinybluepixel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional mysterious reflective sad slow-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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Violence, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Abandonment, Murder, Infidelity, Blood, Adult/minor relationship, Child death, and Death

Moderate: War and Incest