Saint's debut is a powerful exploration of the lives of Ariadne and Phaedra, two figures from mythology I wasn't very familiar with. However, it follows a familiar pattern: as with every feminist myth retelling, this is a heartbreaking story of women suffering at the hands of greedy men. Saint writes gorgeously, and Ariadne is an immensely sympathetic character I was glad to hear more about. A must read for fans of The Silence of the Girls and Natalie Haynes.

A book based on Greek myth will always be a book I am quick to grab. This book, on that basis, is a winner solely for breathing fresh breath into this lesser known classic tale. Of course, we all know Ariadne helped Theseus kill the Minotaur but her story beyond that may not be widely known much less that of Pasiphaë (her mother) and Phaedra (her sister).

The writing is well executed, though possibly overly descriptive at times, but worth reading nonetheless. I recommend it without reservations as this brings classics to the masses which is a very good thing.

I feel rather wearied by this trend to measure ancient classics by modern day modes and standards. Feminist angles of view in the classics is wearing thin with me. Yes, men held all the power and women were considered property. Yes, Hera was harshly vengeful toward the mortal women who drew Zeus's eye and not toward him, where the real blame should be directed. Yes, awful things happened constantly but that is what makes classic stories tragic and why we love them so! Happily ever after does not make a story you hold close to your heart. It's the despair of injustice, the bitter pain we feel upon reading of unfairness that makes us recall these stories and want to read them time and again. It's the tragedy that makes it worthwhile. Greek mythology delivers a brilliantly rich, humorous and hurtful tapestry that will outlive all of us, and rightfully so. We can learn from the folly of the Gods and man and these stories are better for the blatant injustices they expose.

Jumping off my soapbox now as it is mainly Adriane burning her bra over the injustices toward women that kept me from giving more stars. Before you can correct me, I know she didn't wear a bra. I'm sure she was much happier because of it! To sum up, Ariadne is a joy to read because it shines light on lesser known classic characters who will be happy their stories have been retold, even if liberties were taken to be kinder to them and their actions.

Thoroughly enjoyed this book! The story of Ariadne is fascinating and I do love a good Greek myth retelling!

I also love a strong leading lady and Aridne is captivating. The writing was wonderful and the chaarcter development really made then come to life for me.

I can see myself rereading this book for sure!

I have been a huge fan of Greek myth retellings from an early age. I would repeatedly watch the classic Ray Harryhausen movies of Jason & The Argonauts & Clash Of The Titans with wonder. The Greek myths are the ultimate in storytelling for me. I was especially interested in the myth of Medusa and even as a young girl I found her to be very hard done by, as I got older I realised this was the case with most women in the Greek myths. They were very often punished for the sins of men or pushed aside as if they had not existed in the first place. Jennifer Saint tries to change that narrative with Ariadne.

This feminist retelling of a classic tale involving two sisters, Ariadne and Phaedra, really captured the every day battles they fought to rise above the belittling, oppression and torment they suffered. As Princesses of Crete and Daughters of the tyrant King Mynos they are expected to put up and shut up, no more so than when their Mother gives birth to the infamous Minotaur (half man, half bull) following a union between herself and a sacred bull (yes, that's right, a BULL!) as punishment for a perceived slight by her Husband against he God Poseidon. Ariadne goes on to betray her family and her country by helping Theseus the Prince of Athens to kill the Minotaur within the great labyrinth below the palace.

The writing in this book was impeccable. I loved the intricacy of the storytelling and how other myths were woven into Ariadne's story. The women were constantly subjected to misery by their families and the all mighty Gods who would play with them at whim, using them as fodder for games and betrayals as entertainment. I cared so much for Ariadne, who played a minor role in her own life story in the original myth of the minotaur, but here we see her brought to life through her struggles, romances and grief.

This book was carefully crafted and executed and has reignited my love for Greek myths once again. If you are a fan of Madeline Miller (especially Circe) then this will hit all the right notes for you too. I thought it was truly wonderful.

I wasn't sure at first if I was going to get on with this book, I'd started it a couple of times but not got very far, but that was all down to my mood because on the third attempt I was absolutely hooked and couldn't stop reading.

I knew many of the myths covered in this book, either from Greek drama or retellings of the myths but it wasn't until this novel that I realised how interlinked they all were.

I am really enjoying this trend for putting women back into the tales of the Greek myths, and of hearing their versions of the tales.
This was wonderful and a great addition to the genre - perfect for fans of Madeline Miller, Pat Barker and Natalie Haynes.

Genre: Literary Fiction, Mythology Retelling
Published: April 29th 2021 by Wildfire
My Rating: 4.5/5 stars

I’m a simply girl: I see a Greek myth retelling: I add it to TBR.

Synopsis:
As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur - Minos's greatest shame and Ariadne's brother - demands blood every year.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too
well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods -
drawing their attention can cost you everything.

With Ariadne, Jennifer Saint gives voice to the titular princess of Crete, known mostly as a side character in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, placing her at the centre of her own story for once. The concept has been trialled and tested in Circe, The Silence of the Girls and A Thousand Ships, but Ariadne’s story is one that lends itself perfectly to the same treatment, as even in her original story she’s a female character with a lot of agency. As the brains behind Theseus heroic rescue operation, Ariadne dares to spin the threads of her own faith and stand strong and tall in a world ruled by man, Gods and monsters.

My Opinion:
I didn’t immediately fall in love with this novel the way I wanted to. We start with a lot of setting up the scene, and for someone who’s already very familiar with original myth, it all felt a bit redundant and info-dumpy. During this same set up, there was some fairly heavy handed priming towards the clear feminist message that the book carries throughout, and I honestly was afraid that it would take too much of an aggressive approach to this.
However, once the story got going, my hesitation and reserves went out the window. With stunning prose, Saint brings these characters (male, female, gods and beasts) to life in a way that I’ve only ever seen done in Circe. Not only Ariadne, but her sister Phaedra and many other forgotten women from these myths are brought to life in nuanced, complex and emotionally profound ways that will hit home to many of us, even centuries later.

If, like me, you loved Circe and haven’t had quite enough of this style of myth-retelling that focusses more on character than story: this is one you can’t miss. It is “the next Circe”, but it’s also entirely its own. It’s contemporary, but also timeless. It’s a tragedy, but an absolutely joyous experience. Highly recommend!

“No longer was my world one of brave heroes; I was learning all too swiftly the women’s pain that throbbed unspoken through the tales of their feats.”
- Jennifer Saint, Ariadne.

I think that quote summarises my experience reading Ariadne all too well. The one thing this book does really well is emphasise women’s pain and suffering in all of the great heroic stories from Greek mythology. As our soft-hearted, naive heroine, Ariadne’s story unfolds for her to realise this brutal truth, so is the reader left to second-guess every myth they have read about.

So, did I love this book? For most of the part, yes.
Characters are a very important part of the story for me, and sadly, I wanted to whack all the characters I met in this one. But having said that I love Greek retellings and this one was no exception. There are a few dull parts in the middle, but apart from that, I really did enjoy the book. If you love Circe, this book will definitely appeal to you. And if you love Greek mythologies, you don't need to hesitate one bit before picking this up.

I was really excited to read this book. I grew up reading Greek mythology and was so interested to see how this book retold a familiar story but from a female perspective. And I have to say I wasn’t disappointed. Although it did take me a while to connect to Ariadne as a character, her feelings for Theseus in particular could have been explored in more depth to feel less superficial, I was drawn in by the beautiful descriptions and strength of emotions that drive the story.

The various tales of Greek heroes and Gods were well woven in, helping to create a rich atmosphere and a clear sense of the mythological world this story takes place in. As someone quite familiar with the different myths, it was nice to hear them told as stories by the different characters as it reminds you how interconnected the different stories are.

It was so nice to get the female perspective on stories that are often male-centric and showing that even the ‘heroes’ are not perfect. Ariadne and Phaedra are both strong, complex characters, toyed with by both men and gods and placed in difficult situations. Their stories are heart-breaking but getting into their heads and understanding their feelings really adds depth to the tale. They no longer feel like objects to be acted upon but actors themselves with clear passion and motivations.

I found that the ending really sticks with you, it has been a few days but I can still remember the feeling in my gut as I read the last page or so. I finished reading and had to take a moment to take in everything I had just read. The ending has been criticised for being disappointing, but I feel that it is in perfect fitting with the genre. Yes this is a “feminist retelling” but ultimately it is still a Greek myth which are known for being filled with violence, romance, and tragedy, and so to stray from this would have felt false.

A bewitching mesmerising re-telling of classic myths from a female-centric view; I loved it. This is the story of Ariadne the Princess of Crete and her sister Phaedra, who are central to the story of Theseus and the Minotaur but whose story isnt often told. Ariadne helps Theseus slay the minotaur, against her father's wishes and against everything her country believes in.
A rich evocative story of love and vengeance, well worth a luxurious read.
The printed copy looks stunning too - I think I will have to buy it

I read this ARC for an honest review
All thoughts and opinions are mine

I loved this
I have to admit the stunning cover drew me in - congratulations to whoever designed it

Central is Ancient Greece. It is a vivid portrait of those times and I got lost in the book - which is a good thing

Its a great summer read although I read it on a rainy, dull day snuggled under a blanket and this was perfect for me - so it works either way

A first time author for me but an absolutely beautiful book and I shall be looking out for more

5 Stars from me and this is unusual - stunning

I LOVE this book. I have a fascination with Ancient Egypt and with Greek Mythology. While I haven’t had much success with finding novels about Ancient Egypt there are some fantastic novels that are centered around Greek Mythology and this is one of those novels.

Reading this I felt like I had been transported back in time, the descriptions were so good, so intense that they really established a fantastic sense of place.

I loved the feminist angle of the sisters surviving in a mans world, whilst the main focus of the book is Ariadne and most of it is told from her point of view, her younger sister, Phaedra, also features heavily. I didn’t know much about her prior to this but I’ll be on the look out for other novels where she features

If you’re a fan of Natalie Haynes then you’re going to love this!

This was an immersive retelling of the Greek myth of Ariadne. In some places, too many questions were posed to the reader in the text, which was distracting and irritating.  We don't want to be quizzed through the mind of the character, we want the action to take our mind somewhere.
The book could have been about a hundred or so pages shorter. It did bring to life the fantastical tale of King Minos, his Minotaur, and the women affected by his hubris- his wife and daughters.
I appreciated the way the book had a feminist bent to it, and how it brought out how women especially suffer for the ego, arrogance and whims of men- and in this case, also gods.
I give it 3 out of 5 stars.

Content warnings for book: offscreen child murder, mentions of rape, mentions of past miscarriage, violence, gore

Actual Rating - 4.5

Jennifer Saint's style of writing is so beautiful, and the way in which she writes Ariadne and Phaedra is so filled with emotion and care, they are brought to life as vibrant characters.
One criticism that I have is that there are multiple instances where characters are just narrating past events that have little to do with the plot, in particular, and early one from Theseus that lasts many pages. This could have been shortened to just the relevant parts.
I loved the recurring theme of the anger towards how women are punished for the actions of men and the way in which it is explored throughout the novel, the retellings of the tragic tales of the women of Greek myths gives a new way of looking at them that was interesting to read.

Ariadne first caught my eye because of that absolutely stunning cover. When I hear this was a retelling of the minotaur myth from the perspective of Ariadne I was incredibly excited to pick it up. The story follows Ariadne, daughter of King Minos. Ariadne lives with the sound of hoofbeats beneath the palace, as the minotaur roams the labyrinth below. When Theseus, Prince of Athens is brought to Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him and decides to help him destroy the minotaur. But doing so will betray her family and her country.

I absolutely adore Greek retellings and this might possibly be my favourite one ever. I completely fell in love with this story. Saint has absolutely stunning prose and I got completely lost in this beautiful, fiercely feminist story. Ariadne is a fascinating character and it was so compelling to read the story from her point of view. The story really focuses in on all the female characters that are forgotten in the original myths, in favour of the infamous heroes. Ariadne is an impressive debut and I cannot wait to read more from Jennifer Saint.

There were so many things I loved about this book and I particularly enjoyed the sense of sisterhood between Ariadne and Phaedra. Saint has the ability to write really compelling characters and I must admit I got a bit teary-eyed at the ending. This is an exceptional debut and if you’re a fan of books by Madeline Miller and Pat Barker, this should definitely be your next read.

If you are a fan of classical Greek mythology, you will love this retelling of the story of Ariadne and her sister Phaedra. One version of the original story goes something like this: Source: www.greekmythology.com

“One year, when the fourteen young people of Athens were about to be sent to Crete in sacrifice, Theseus, son of King Aegeus of Athens, volunteered to be sent in order to kill the Minotaur and end the sacrifices for good. When they arrived in Crete, Ariadne fell in love with Theseus and decided to help him in his quest. She gave him a sword to fight the Minotaur, as well as a ball of thread; she advised him to tie one end near the entrance of the labyrinth and let the thread unroll as he delves deeper into the twisting and branching paths. When Theseus found the Minotaur, he managed to slay him, and then followed the thread back to the entrance, where Ariadne was waiting.”

In this version, after killing the Minotaur with a club, Theseus takes Ariadne to the deserted island of Naxos, and having first taken her virtue, he abandons her with a week’s supply of food and continues to Athens. Eventually, he marries her sister Phaedra, telling her that Ariadne is dead. But this book goes into far more detail about the other events that took place and the relationships that ensued. Ariadne does not stick to the traditional tale and you will need to suspend disbelief (though these are myths so that probably does not apply) as the author has exercised her wonderful artistic licence a lot here.

However, what this book is really about is the concept of sisterhood. The Gods are portrayed as mean and nasty and they frequently punish the wives for the sins of their husbands, or the children for the sins of their fathers. The Goddess Hera, for instance, rather than be part of the sisterhood, never punishes her husband Zeus for his many misdemeanours, she punishes his mistresses and his bastard offspring.

As I’ve already said, the Gods were cruel and this story, written for a modern audience, does not shy away from the violence against women, rape, ritual sacrifice, women being made to birth monsters and other atrocities. Much of it is extremely unpleasant and certainly anyone who has watched films like Clash of the Titans or Jason and the Argonauts will find this non-sanitised version of the myths rather more distasteful. It is, however, beautifully written, with fabulous descriptions of the places like Crete, Athens and Naxos, and also the suffering of the women involved. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

(PS I’d love to see how this would pan out if it kept to the myth, but took place nowadays. I guess the Gods would be celebrities, everyone would have a mobile phone to call for help, Theseus would go into the maze with an AR15 and Ariadne would never starve as she could always get a delivery from Ocado. But the concept of sisterhood would still remain.)

Many thanks to @annecater for inviting me to be part of #RandomThingsTours and to NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review

In a world where women are nothing more than the pawns of powerful men, will Ariadne's decision to betray Crete for Theseus, Prince of Athens, ensure her happy ending? Or will she find herself sacrificed for her lover's ambition?

I am a huge fan of Greek mythology so I have really been looking forward to reading this book. I absolutely loved it - Jennifer Saint just had a wonderful skill for story telling and I knew from the first few lines that this was going to be one compelling novel.

The detail is all there but it doesn't feel overwhelming, which I was worried about, and it creates pictures and emotions, making you really feel as if you are there on thus journey with the two sisters Ariadne and Phaedra. I genuinely don't have a negative thing to say about it, I can't wait to hopefully read more by Jennifer Saint.

A really stunning debut novel.

Thanks to NetGalley and Wildfire Publishing for my copy in return for a review.

What a debut novel. I absolutely loved this. There seems to be a lot of books just now retelling the story of some of the Greek myths and this is one of the best. It retells the tale of Theseus and the Minotaur but from the point of view of Ariadne. It’s so refreshing to have these tales from a woman’s point of view as all too often women are an afterthought. What a great new talent Jennifer Saint is. Beautifully written and I can’t wait for more from her.

"As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods".

I had the story of The Minotaur when I was in school, and it was never very clear what happened to Ariadne, after her bravery in helping Theseus. This is the story of a Greek hero, from the perspective of a far more interesting and unfortunately ignored Greek heroine. Ariadne isn't just a sidekick in the defeat of a monster, without her, the monster wouldn't have been defeated at all. This retelling gives prominence to Ariadne's, and Phaedra's side of the story, arguably the ones who displayed immense courage in defying their tyrannical father, with possibly far worse consequences in times where women had almost no agency. Through their stories, Jennifer Saint takes you through multiple other myths as well, Crete being one of the most important centres of the Heroic Age. The narration humanises these storied characters and they Emerge from this book as complex, fully fleshed out humans, far more than my flat school textbook narration did! The book's extremely well-written and the language doesn't feel anachronistic at all, or pretentious. I had always thought of Ariadne as a rather tragic figure, abandoned by a thoughtless Prince, but she's so much more than that, and had a much fuller life. Phaedra is also given a voice, and her relationship with Ariadne and her unhappy life are very movingly narrated, with more depth than the usual male gaze directed at her story. I found the cult of Dionysus a lot richer than the impression I had, that was basically of drunken orgies. Jennifer Saint interprets maenads as possibly wanting to belong to a community of women, rejecting the traditional roles imposed on them, instead of intoxicated revellers. There were several aspects of the myths that I remembered only very vaguely , having read them as a child, and they're retold beautifully, and I appreciated them a lot more- I hadn't noticed, for instance, that Theseus also has to retrieve a sword from a stone to prove his birth. This is a very thought provoking retelling, that also leads you to wonder if the Minotaur myth was also used as a foundation myth for Athens, since Cretan power substantially decreased following the defeat of the Minotaur.



While an underlying theme of all Greek myths is the quote from King Lear I began this review with, this book has Ariadne and Phaedra attempting to defeat the caprices of gods and choose their own destinies. That their stories are still being told, millennia after the myths originated is in some measure, a success.

Madeline Miller's myth retellings seem to have paved the way for more, and all from a far more feminist perspective, and I absolutely cannot get enough of them. These myths have fascinating Heroines, enough with the Age of Heroes, bring on the Age of Heroines!
#Ariadne #NetGalley

“What I did not know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood: however blameless a life we led, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do.”

I know we shouldn’t choose books based on their cover, but I wanted to mention straight away how stunning the finished hardback of this book really is. A gorgeous design in midnight blue and gold, this would jump out at you in any book store. We all know the story of Theseus and the Minotaur. Everything is black and white when we’re small children, so we take in myths like this, accepting everything we’re told. It’s just a story isn’t it? King Minos has a monster called The Minotaur that’s half man and half bull. Every year the city of Athens must send seven of its best sons and daughters to be sacrificed to the Minotaur. Then one year, Theseus arrives in place of one of the chosen boys, with a plan to kill the Minotaur and stop this blood shed. Minos’s eldest daughter, Ariadne, falls in love at first sight and vows to help Theseus, expecting that she will travel back to Athens with him. However, the plan doesn’t unfold as she expected and we follow her story as she wakes up on a neighbouring Greek Island alone.Having done a small amount of Latin and Greek at school, I’ve read many of the Greek myths and my abiding impression was how cruel the gods were. In modern Christian faith believers tend to trust in God being a comfort and help in troubled times, but these gods are usually causing the troubled times. They are either disguising themselves as animals, committing rapes against human women, having relationships with humans, but then retreating to be unfathomable, mysterious, beings when it suits them. I would have found the Greek’s concept of gods to be frightening - they are capricious, childlike and move humans round like chess pieces. So, knowing that the gods interfered in the lives of King Minos and his Queen did not surprise me.

However, in this feminist retelling, Jennifer Saint places the women in the centre of this myth, subtly changing it’s meaning and making us think again about the version we have always known. Ariadne and Phaedre have a living example of how women’s lives are played with by male gods in their own mother Pasiphae, who was tricked into falling in love with a bull. Minos tried to steal Poseidon’s incredible creation of the Cretan bull. In his anger Poseidon fills Pasiphae with lust for the bull and from their rather undignified union came the girl’s brother Asterion, half boy half calf. Possibly thinking of her own troubles, their mother tells them the full story of Medusa, including the part prior to her entanglement with Perseus. In a late version of her story, written by Ovid, Medusa was a beautiful girl with lustrous long hair, and was a priestess of Athena. Poseidon was beaten by Athena into becoming patron of the capital city of Greece, Athens. To punish Athena he ‘seduced’ or raped Medusa in Athena’s temple. However, instead of punishing Poseidon, Athena punished Medusa by turning her hair into snakes. The only version I was ever told, when studying classics at school, was Medusa’s part in the story of Perseus - women are of course, only bit players in the story of these incredible male heroes. These part stories, accepted and understood by me as a young teenager, now make me angry. I was only ever given the male history and I can understand what pushed the author to write this.

‘I only knew Medusa as a monster. I had not thought she had ever been anything else. The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own.’

As usual though, because I have a disability, the book make me think about how disability and difference is portrayed in the myths. There were some similarities between Asterion and Caliban in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. As I was reading about the Minotaur’s origins I started to have feelings for this creature who never asked to exist. The narrator tells us about her mother after his birth, when she’s blank and exhausted but:

‘she cradled a mass of blankets to her breast and she pressed her nose softly to her baby’s head. He snuffled, hiccuped and opened a dark eye to stare into mine as I moved slowly forward. I noticed that it was fringed with long, dark eyelashes’.
She describes this special time, before he was monstrous and how she felt, even about the more unusual aspects of him.

‘I reached that final inch and bridged the gulf between us. My fingers stroked the slick fur of his brow, beneath the bulging edifice of rocky horns that emerged at his temples. I let my hand sweep gently across the soft spot just between his eyes. With a barely perceptible movement, his jaw loosened and a little huff of breath blew warm against my face.’

She realises he is not a monster, he is her brother. Inexplicably he moves from milk to craving raw meat and eating passing rats. However, Ariadne does not fear him and instead of thinking ahead, she focuses on the here and now and describes trying to teach him table manners and how to be gentle. Even she has realised that Asterion is a victim, and feels a ‘raw pity’ for him that brings tears to her eyes. In the same way that it isn’t Medusa’s fault she is raped in Athena’s temple, it’s not Asterion’s fault that he is created the way he is. Ariadne describes him as Poseidon’s cruel joke and humiliation for a man who has never even deigned to lay his eyes on him. That is until Minos sees he can use Asterion for his own ends. Minos was only proud of his potential monstrousness and the fear he might instil in his enemies. It is Minos who instructs Daedalus to construct the labyrinth that secures Asterion as a slave and even though there is pride in his new weapon, he doesn’t even allow him to keep his own name.

‘And so Asterion became the Minotaur. My mother’s private constellation of shame intermingled with love and despair no longer; instead, he became my father’s display of dominance to the world. I saw why he proclaimed him the Minotaur, stamping this divine monstrosity with his own name and aligning its legendary status with his own from its very birth.’

I was fascinated with the author’s storytelling, it is spellbinding. She shows us that for powerful men and gods like Minos and Poseidon, whether you are a woman or different like Asterion your only worth in this life, is wrapped up in your value to men. If Asterion had remained gentle and docile, Minos would still have banished him in some way. Pasiphae’s psychological break after his birth shows what happens to women who give birth to daughters and monsters. This is a book that truly makes you think, not just about the historical myths we’re told, but who tells them and why? It also made me think about the stories we are told today, by our world leaders (still largely men). How do they shape the way we view the world? Which heroes do they hold up as examples? Which monsters do they wield to control us? Like Ariadne we must learn to question. She learns to her cost, that even the man who appears to be her saviour, is more interested in his own glory. There is so much to enjoy here and on so many different levels. This is a stunning debut and shouldn’t be missed.

https://lynns-books.com/2021/05/06/ariadne-by-jennifer-saint/
4.5 of 5 stars
My Five Word TL:DR Review : Two sides to every story

I really enjoyed Ariadne by Jennifer Saint and was also incredibly impressed to learn that this is a debut novel. Here we have a reimagining of one of Greek mythology’s most famous stories. This is a beautifully told story, totally immersive, shocking and ultimately bittersweet.

I would start this by saying Greek mythology is an area that I have only a brief spattering of knowledge of but like most people I’m familiar with the most famous stories, King Minos and the Minotaur being a story that I was briefly aware of although I’d never read about how the Minotaur came to exist so this was certainly an eye opener and another example of the Gods and how they meddle in the lives of those that worship them.

For me, there are two sides to every story. Throughout history, stories are told from the POV of the ‘winner’ and the other perspective is usually lacking sometimes even completely obliterated over the course of time. Tales of mythology are similarly dominated by the males of the story, the heroes, fighting wars and gaining fame and status and the Gods, powerful and vain, playing with the lives of the mortals that worship them. What I’m really enjoying from the recent spate of such retellings is the opportunity to read those stories from a fresh perspective.

So, to be clear, these are not reimaginings, the story and outcomes remain consistent to the original myth, they’re not an attempt to change the fate of the women involved, instead, they gave a voice to those females involved, tell their story and take the focus away from the traditionally male dominated one to the lesser known females of the piece. And I have to say that I’m loving this trend and would love more such books.

Ariadne is the daughter of Minos and sister to Phaedra. The tale of the minotaur is particularly grim and in fact really sad and the girl’s early years are blighted by gossip, shame and fear. I’m not going to dwell on the earlier aspects of the story other than to say it’s told in the most captivating way. This is a modern story and easy to get on board with and the author does a fantastic job of giving Ariadne a compelling voice. The two sisters are very close and yet quite different in nature and we have the opportunity to explore this by the addition of Phaedre’s pov chapters. I’m not going to discuss the plot. It would be easy enough to check out the stories that already exist, however, if like me, you’re new to the story of Ariadne and her sister Phaedra then I would suggest picking this up without any prior knowledge. It’s a compelling story that I read with almost indecent haste in my rush to discover the outcome

Through events, lies and deception Ariadne and Phaedra come to live very different lives. They don’t see each other for many years and when they rediscover each other anew they unfortunately part on poor terms that ultimately lead to sorrow.

Why I really loved this. I think the way the story is told is superb. The writing is simply gorgeous. It’s evocative and immersive. I really bought into both women’s storylines with equal fascination and mounting fear and dread. I like the play on the idea around monsters. Is Minotaur a monster or simply acting in his nature? Minos certainly acts monstrously and Theseus seems to put himself about, in the guise of a hero, handsome, dashing and brave and yet his actions don’t appear so magnificent when viewed under a different lens. The Gods themselves play with the lives of ordinary people and themselves behave quite abominably, often taking out their spite and vengeance on those that have done nothing to earn such punishments. So there is the dilemma that looking at stories through a different perspective delivers.

In terms of criticisms. I have very little. Of course the ending was a shock, it felt a little rushed too, like the author was in a hurry to get the dreaded deed done (which I kind of understand to be fair). And, I confess that I felt sad about the outcome. But, ultimately, I love that Saint has given both these females their own opportunity to be stood up and counted. Here they have an opportunity to tell their story, sometimes a little less than flattering but with some excellent motivations along the way not to mention change in psyche that is inevitable, particularly Phaedre who, out of the two, seems to live a very precarious life filled with doubt, unease and suspicion that ultimately leads her onto a misled path of delusion and pain.

I thoroughly enjoyed this and would have no hesitation in picking up more books in the same vein. Gripping, beautifully written, uplifting at times, sad at others. A wonderful opportunity to really reimagine what these women’s lives were perhaps like. To take the bare bones of a story and build a body of work that gives a different angle and voice to the myths. Beware of certain triggers though, parts of this are quite brutal, although not in a sensationalist or shock value way, and may be upsetting to some readers.

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.