A review by jade_courtney
The Children of Jocasta, by Natalie Haynes
4.0
I thought this had a lot going for it and I really wanted to love it. And I did really enjoy it, there are just a few things that stop me from professing my complete adoration unfortunately.
The story is definitely 'inspired' by Oedipus rather than actually retelling the myth(s if you're counting the different versions) and I really enjoyed this aspect. While I was fairly sure on where the cards would land, I genuinely didn't know how they'd get there.
But there was an inconsistency and a seeming lack of motivation for one character (at least for me) which bothered me, more so than anything because they're integral to the story and I was loving it all so much only for it to feel a little incomplete to me. And somewhat relatedly, the characters (having finished the story since during this wasn't a problem for me) didn't 'turn into real people in my mind' in the way that characters often do for me. I think the story was fairly brief, while packing a lot of time and myth in and that this may have hurt their portrayal slightly.
But these are my only complaints and up until the last few chapters, or so, they didn't overly bother me.
The story is definitely 'inspired' by Oedipus rather than actually retelling the myth(s if you're counting the different versions) and I really enjoyed this aspect. While I was fairly sure on where the cards would land, I genuinely didn't know how they'd get there.
But there was an inconsistency and a seeming lack of motivation for one character (at least for me) which bothered me, more so than anything because they're integral to the story and I was loving it all so much only for it to feel a little incomplete to me. And somewhat relatedly, the characters (having finished the story since during this wasn't a problem for me) didn't 'turn into real people in my mind' in the way that characters often do for me. I think the story was fairly brief, while packing a lot of time and myth in and that this may have hurt their portrayal slightly.
But these are my only complaints and up until the last few chapters, or so, they didn't overly bother me.