A review by maanbloem
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

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

4.5

A commom criticism of this book relates to the story the main female characters, that those are feminist which is an unfair criticism to the author's writing. The mythological stories were never feminist in the first place and the author, Jennifer Saint, could not make the storyline more feminist while still staying true to the original. I think the feminist perspective of how women are punished for the wrongdoings of men was done very well, especially considering characters like Pasiphae, of course Ariadne but also the ending and the destructiveness of unhappy powerful men.

The only reason this isn't a complete 5 out of 5 stars is that the middle part, about her time on Naxos, reminds me so much of Circe (which is my absolutely favourite book in the world) and felt too similar, but of course not the fault of the author, because that is the nature of the story. The writing style was wonderful and also the POV of Phaedra was unteresting, since I didn't know her story
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