Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

318 reviews

themirrorball's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.0

i really loved the beginning and end of this book, but the middle seemed to be stagnant, with nothing of interest really happening, internally or externally. it felt like a lot of unnecessary descriptions and storytelling that wasn't going anywhere. 

one of my favorite things about this book was the complexity of the relationships. i was genuinely invested in many of the relationships, like the sisters, each of them with their husbands, and ariadne and her mother. they all felt real and raw, in a way i haven't experienced when reading other greek mythology retellings. however, i think that it all could have been pulled together better, considering the ending felt quite abrupt and random. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty and Animal death

Moderate: Child death and Rape

ibjilln's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gaslighting and Blood

Moderate: Animal death, Alcohol, Body horror, Gore, Vomit, Death, Confinement, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Incest, Misogyny, Suicide, War, Toxic relationship, Adult/minor relationship, Infidelity, and Sexual assault

franticfreya's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Animal death, Suicide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, and Blood

Moderate: Pregnancy, Body horror, Alcohol, and Death

Minor: Child death, Grief, and Rape

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Suicide, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, and Pregnancy

soarintotaylor's review against another edition

emotional inspiring reflective fast-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? It's complicated

4.0

The DRAMA, the AUDACITY of these characters sometimes

Overall it was a beautiful, emotional story that accurately portrays the struggles women face throughout their lives

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abandonment, Alcohol, Animal death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

hckilgour's review against another edition

slow-paced

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

2.0

While this book does a great job of following Ariadne’s myth, it was just slow and boring.

So much of the book was just Ariadne on an island… doing nothing interesting.

And as far as plot goes… yes I get the story follows the myths. But there was no seeing where the story was trying to go or even a discernible climax.

Honestly, just not the story for me. Though it was well written.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Suicide and Animal death

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

4.5

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

Moderate: Infidelity, Toxic relationship, and Mental illness

Minor: Cursing and Miscarriage

elizlizabeth's review against another edition

adventurous sad slow-paced

• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No

3.5

It was better than other retellings I've read but honestly I'm giving up on the genre after this. I wish more authors took into account what societies at the time were like, instead of portraying characters with contemporary values and sensibilities.
This retelling, as Circe, was so busy trying to portray the titular woman as someone who can't do or think evil to the point it distorted any semblance of character development for anyone. Phaedra was the only mildly interesting one, but otherwise I was bored for 60% of this. Worse is, if you're trying to be an "empowering" retelling, by removing Ariadne from all knowledge or complicity of ill doings you're rendering her powerless to truly make decisions.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Murder, and Suicide

Minor: Child death

alienor_kerjan's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful 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: Violence and Animal death

Moderate: Suicide

camiclarkbooks's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective 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? Yes

4.5

Jennifer Saint’s “Ariadne” is a beautiful retelling of the Ariadne myth. 

The pacing is slow but steady, enough to keep the reader’s engaged but calm while the tense parts of the myth are spread out. 

The ending of “Ariadne” was not one that I was familiar with but suited this interpretation nicely. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Suicide, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Death, Abandonment, Grief, Infidelity, Sexual assault, Vomit, War, and Animal cruelty