Reviews with content warning for Murder - Ariadne

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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shan_lou's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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carolinacortes's review against another edition

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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

Some of the prose in the dialogue made it difficult to get into the character’s personalities since it seemed more like exposition with quotation marks on either end at times. I enjoyed the more woman-centric focus, however.

I did enjoy the world-building and care put into describing the various important locations. It was immersive and gave me a good idea of the environment, structures, and the overall vibe.

Another contributing factor to this rating would be the pacing; some scenes suffered from going too fast and others too slow. I would probably not read this again, but I didn’t hate it. Solid 3+ stars for me.

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kkalicky94's review against another edition

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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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des_talks's review against another edition

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dark hopeful 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

3.75

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hannahbailey's review against another edition

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challenging sad slow-paced

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

2.0

I went into this excited to read a Greek myth feminist retelling that WASN'T about the Trojan war and instead focused on Ariadne, sister of the Minotaur and traitor to her family. After trudging through (barely) the clunky prose I was disappointed to discover this portrayal of Ariadne as passive and boring. I kept persisting with the hope that she would either become more interesting or begin her revenge arc, but she did neither. As I'd not read about this myth before I was interested to find out how it ended, and it seemed to be leading somewhere empowering (finally!) for Ariadne. Jokes on me, I was wrong again. The ending left me unsatisfied and a bit speechless tbh. I could go on but to spare you the pain, if you're struggling to get through this, it doesn't get better -- sorry 🤷‍♀️😔

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sas_ram's review against another edition

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adventurous dark mysterious 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? It's complicated

4.0

I think it would be wrong to compare it to Madeline Miller's books just because it's also a greek myth retelling.
I did enjoy this book. The first half to 2/3 are really good and interesting but the ending seems rushed and is unsatisfactory. I'm unsure if I should give the book 3,75 or 4 stars. So I think I will give it 4 stars with the possibility of correction.
I do think the characters lack a certain depth especially as the plot carries on.

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nialiversuch's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

3.0

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