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A review by caffeinated_magpie
Wake, Siren: Ovid Resung by Nina MacLaughlin
dark
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
1.0
I really, really wanted to like this book. The summary promised stories that would “[lay] bare the violence lurking in the heart of Ovid’s narratives”, instead all I found was the violence in the author’s heart…
Okay, that’s hyperbolic, but instead of the feminist re-telling, I was promised I got a weird mix of torture p*rn and revenge fantasies. “Wake, Siren” promised to give the women of Ovid’s stories their OWN voices, but that only felt true for a few of the short stories within this innocuous-looking little book.
In fact, of the 35 short stories I probably only need one hand to count the ones I liked.
You might get more out of this if you already know all of the source myths. I felt like I missed half the subtext when I didn’t know a particular myth already. Even if you know the myths, I am begging you to look up a list of content notes for this one. I usually don’t need trigger warnings and there were several points that I had to put this book down for days or weeks, upset and angry with it. It took me two months to read this.
If I weren’t so stubborn I would have DNFed this thing.
Even the prose was a pain. This writer often veered into very purple prose, with confusing and uneven sentences. Or overdone similes. I almost like some of it, but usually, the prose was just too much, even for my artist’s heart.
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Incest, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, and Murder