Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

85 reviews

sarahgmo's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-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

Fantastic book and great writing! I was shocked to find out that this was the author’s first book! 
Slight SPOILER:

It starts off too perfect, but that illusion is quickly shattered and a much better story emerges.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Infidelity, and Violence

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. 

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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

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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

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.

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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

kermitluver69's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Incest, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Panic attacks/disorders, Rape, and Gaslighting

clovetra's review

adventurous challenging medium-paced

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

2.0

idk how to feel about this book. honestly i think im becoming a bit… disillusioned with greek mythology retellings at the moment. i honestly think they swing big and either really succeed or meander. and i would say this book follows the later.

i really couldn’t connect with this book at all. the ending felt rushed, and after the minotaur story was completed, the story felt as if it was floundering. obviously the entire book can’t be about life at crete but the fact it barely even covered 100 pages really let this book down. 

ariadne was at best a blank slate to narrate the tales of dionysus, and at worst was incredibly boring and annoying. i understand her naivety is fundamental to her story but it was overdone 200 pages in, and by the end i was over her.

phaedra was kind of likeable i guess. i enjoyed her at the beginning, but as soon as her story moved to her & hippolyta, she became insufferable. seriously when

her & ariadne were fighting over hippolyta

i didn’t agree with either of them. her ending also felt rushed and she lacked any depth being her impulsivity and brash nature.

dionysus was boring as well. he seemed to be all over the place with his characterisation, and his ending felt like it against everything earlier set up in the book. i get that was kind of the point but from a reader’s perspective it’s just a tad stupid.

i also think i became disillusioned with saint’s writing style by the end. to begin with i loved her descriptions and her poetic way of writing, but after the 20th sentence telling us that women always pay the price for a man’s crime i was over it. this book felt like it was going in circles constantly.

now you might ask - why did i finish this? because i own a copy of this, and i was curious to see if it could redeem itself the more it progressed. i don’t like to DNF books i own - if its a library or ebook sure she’s going in the DNF pile. but i paid $26 for this i was finishing it either way. and yet why didn’t i give this a 1-star? because i was still curious to see where this went. i wasn’t invested in the characters but i was invested in where things would go. 

idk i don’t think i had too much fun reading this. the beginning was intriguing, but after ariadne’s arrival at noxus the book fizzled away. and also the ending was dumb, anticlimatic and yet again rushed.

i will defo be taking a break from retellings for a while after this one!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Religious bigotry, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, and War

hannah_hodges's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.0

Reading this book made me update my content warnings afterwards haha! I enjoyed learning about the two sisters and the heroes/gods they were tangled up with. This isn’t a comment on the writing style, as I thought Saint told the story well, but reading Ariadne and Phaedra’s story and seeing it unravel was a bit like watching a car crash - horrifying but you can’t really look away. I thought the experience of Postpartum Depression was very well written, especially in contrast to the other character’s experience of motherhood. I raced through reading this book and I think it was good to stretch outside my comfort zone and read a sad/emotional/dark book (not my vibe at all lol) but I’ll be paying more attention to content warnings and mood in the future! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Rape

kfergy's review against another edition

dark relaxing medium-paced

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

4.0

Enjoyable read - definitely a good fit for those familiar with Greek mythology and always wanted a bit more context to the parables. Good reflection upon traditional femininity and independence, though the ending doesn't necessarily leave you inspired (it's not supposed to) 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Mental illness, Misogyny, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Child death, Gore, Infidelity, Blood, and Abandonment

Minor: Animal cruelty, Suicide, Pregnancy, and War

icy_queen's review

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, and War

Moderate: Domestic abuse

Minor: Rape

nicolewhopickedthisbook's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

I honestly don’t know how to rate this book. Was this book good? Well… yes. The writing was great. Was anything that happened in this book a surprise? No, not at all. I didn’t think this book would have a happy ending. Did I want a “retelling” that was exactly the same as Greek mythology? No. Like the Greek tragedies that inspired it, countless women fall victim to the whims of men, human and god alike, and they are helpless to break the generational cycle. I feel that retellings are a chance to give these women a different, better ending and this did not deliver. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and War