Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

112 reviews

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

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

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

amsswim's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

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

3.75

I really did enjoy this book though. There seems to be a lot of confusion in some of the reviews that this book does not know what it is trying to accomplish, but I think the big themes are simple. 1) Men are capable of, and often commit, great terrors on the world and individuals whether they realize it or not. 2) Being near Greek Gods and their games is a dangerous idea. 

I am a fan of mythological retellings, so this hit the spot for me. This did not live up to Circe in my eyes, but I cannot fault it on not being my favorite book lol. It did have a similar vibe to Circe though in my opinion. If you like mythological retellings and/or stories of women trying to survive and thrive, I recommend.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Colonisation, Pregnancy, Violence, Blood, Child death, Grief, and Suicide

vistacanas's review against another edition

dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

4.5

"I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself."

In general, I'm not a huge fan of Greek mythology...mostly because of the rampant misogyny and bad behavior of men and their Gods—which is why Ariadne sat on my shelf unread until several days ago. I really, really liked it!  

Written from the perspective of two strong, but very different, sisters—Ariadne and Phaedra, daughters of King Minos of Crete and sisters of the half-man/half-bull Minotaur whose diet was comprised of human sacrifices—this book kept me turning the pages quickly from start to finish. Although it was still filled with the tragic behavior of men and gods, the women were the focal point. 

Although I admired and loved both of them, I related more to fiery Phaedra who went after what she wanted with passion...often without the benefit of adequate life experience or deep thought...and was justifiably pissed off at the men. Been there. 

I love learning history through books like this. Whether you're a fan of Greek mythology or not, it's a worthy read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Genocide, Grief, Violence, Sexism, Pregnancy, Misogyny, Classism, Death, Gore, and Cannibalism

Moderate: War, Abandonment, Blood, and Slavery

Minor: Incest

lermaline's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

If you want a beautifully written tragedy go for it, you’ll find what you need in this book. I think my mistake was reading Elektra before Ariadne. 

They were very similar topic in both of those books which makes sense because it’s based of off Greek mythology so they’re a thread of story that needs to be respected. However this book is a bit more colorful then Elektra. Why I’m disappointed is that it made me mad ! They women suffer, suffer, and then they die. Okay 👍🏻

 
Could’ve lived without reading this book however beautifully it described sibling relationships and betrayal 🙃

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Suicide, Alcohol, and Animal death

Moderate: Grief, Rape, Cannibalism, Child death, and Death

kkalicky94's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Grief, Animal death, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, Suicide, Death, and Violence

volleymollie's review against another edition

emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

2.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, and Grief

Moderate: Child death and Rape

theblushbookworm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-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

4.0

My heart breaks for the women of this story: Ariadne, Phaedra, Pasiphae, Seleme, the Argive women. Men sucking is truly ancient. If you’re a fan of Greek mythology retellings, particularly Circe by Madeleine Miller, definitely pick up Ariadne.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Animal death, Child death, Blood, Death, Gore, Grief, and Sexual violence

majakrmer's review against another edition

dark emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Pregnancy, Death, Grief, Child death, and Rape

Moderate: Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Alcoholism, Death of parent, Incest, and Animal death

Minor: War