Review: "Ariadne" by Jennifer Saint

Quick Summary

Type: Novel

Genre: Mythology

Back Cover: "Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.

When Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?"

Read Time: 3 days

Rating: 3 stars

Review

Maybe I just don't like myth retellings. Because between this book and Circe, I feel like I was promised something and never got it.

What was I promised? Not entirely sure, to be honest. I guess I just got my hopes up because I love Greek myths, and the version of Ariadne's myth that I learned is one of the few myths in Greek mythology where the woman's story doesn't end in tragedy. The version of the myth I learned is that Ariadne helps Theseus defeat the Minotaur, escapes with him, gets abandoned, is found by the god Dionysus, and then lives the life she was hoping to live with Theseus, but with a guy who treats her way better than Theseus ever would. Then she dies, and in his grief, Dionysus saves her from Hades and turns her into a goddess. As far as important Greek women, she's one of the lucky ones (in most versions of her story).

So did I go into this story hoping for a happy ending? Yes, I did. Did I go into the story hoping for a retelling that made Ariadne into a stronger figure than she's portrayed in the myths? Yes, I did. I wanted to read the story of a woman who learns to be strong, who makes the life she was hoping to live, who takes control of her story, and who gets the happy ending she deserves.

I didn't get that.

You can argue that Ariadne is a strong figure in the end. My problem with that argument is that her strength, and all her growth into that strength, happens in the last twenty percent of the story (if that). For most of the story, it feels like the story is happening to Ariadne. The narrative is less passive than that of Circe, but it is still quite passive. I wonder if this is just the style of narration that works best with myth retellings. If that's the case, then no wonder I dislike myth retellings so much.

So no story about a woman who finds her strength, builds the life she wants, and gets elevated to godhood because of it. Instead, we get a woman who feels unhappy in her marriage (because of course we can't have a single male character who starts kind and stays kind), and then that woman dies and stays dead. No elevation to godhood, and Ariadne is miserable for a lot of her life and marriage and does nothing to change her misery.

So yeah, not a badly written book, definitely better than Circe, but still a massive disappointment in terms of setting my expectations high and not delivering.