Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

117 reviews

juliabristow's review against another edition

adventurous 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? No

3.0

I'll start by saying that the writing in this book is amazing and has beautiful descriptions of the scenery and characters' thoughts and emotions. Unfortunately, I think that's one of the only things it does really well.

I am all for the trend of mythological retellings, but I think a fundamental requirement of the genre is having an interesting story to tell and this just didn't hit that mark for me. There's an even more specific subset of the genre, which is taking existing stories and giving them a feminist retelling in which the women, who are often erased from history and not given their due recognition, are centered rather than the men (Circe and Wake Siren are some examples I love). The issue with this specific story for me is that Araidne happens to be one of the few women in Greek history who actually IS remembered for what she did. Not only that, but the rest of her life just isn't very eventful, nor does she have a strong impact on those around her. I think if you're going to do a retelling that is centered on a less well-known character, you should have something important to say about that character. And I personally didn't find anything impactful in Jennifer Saint's character of Ariadne.

What makes this even more abundantly clear to me was the introduction of Phaedra's POV for only 2 out of 4 parts of the book. It's a bit jarring when it first comes up, and eventually makes more sense, but to me still felt like a weird middle-ground of being about both of them, but mostly being about Ariadne, but not having enough content, but they were split up so it makes sense, but the title is Ariadne, etc, etc. Ariadne also isn't super fleshed out/doesn't have a ton of character development. During her love story with Dionysus, she talks at length about all the things she's drawn to about him, but it's extremely difficult to tell why he likes *her*.

Anyways, it really just seems like the author saw other people doing mythology retellings about women and said "oh nobody has done Ariadne yet." But maybe we should have thought about WHY nobody has done Ariadne. At the end of the day, this review probably makes it seem like I despised this book, which actually isn't true - it was a fine read and I don't feel like it was a waste of my time, I just think it was unnecessary and not well-thought out enough 

---

Content Warnings

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

emoryjoy's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-paced

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

2.0

I would like to give the caveat that I was listening to this as an audiobook and had it at double speed by the end. This quite nearly was a DNF. 

I'm not sure if the story took liberties with the myth or was just much more in depth than I knew about. Either way, it absolutely nailed the Greek Tragedy vibe and was gruesome in that very specific way that myths often are. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Abortion, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

alli_e_oop's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

nightlight_reader's review against another edition

emotional slow-paced

3.0

I should’ve just DNF’d this, but it’s really that the style didn’t vibe for me. It was slow and I just could never quite tell where we were going and felt like the synopsis didn’t tell me just how much we were going to cover. Some of this is due to my lack of knowledge of this specific chunk of Greek mythology, but like this was a ride I don’t think I would’ve signed up for had I known it would cover Ariadne’s entire life.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Blood, Grief, Pregnancy, and Abandonment

reachmars's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes

4.5

Even though it's just a straightforward retelling of the myths, it was very engaging. Especially as someone who didn't know a lot about this specific story going into it, I couldn't put it down. It's a story that makes it make sense that it would survive thousands of years of oral tradition.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Suicide, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Moderate: Confinement, Grief, and Alcohol

Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Colonisation, and War

alyxleaf's review

adventurous dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Incest, Suicidal thoughts, and Suicide

Minor: Rape and Sexual assault

bxnny's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense

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

5.0

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Gaslighting, Abandonment, and War

Minor: Stalking and Death of parent

kayceeisbookish's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

I sobbed a lot and loved it. Loving learning about all the women in mythology.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Death, Incest, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and Alcohol

letheii's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

ariadne... i will never forget you

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Pregnancy

avrija's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-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

1.75

The writing was quite alright, the characters interesting enough but I was searching for the plot all along. Like yes, there were scenes that could resemble plot somehow but there was no character motivation, no goal to reach. The characters just kinda float through what is happening, sometimes with motivation or a goal for a scene but not for long.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Confinement, Suicide, and Abandonment

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Death, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Grief, Murder, and War