Ariadne: A Novel

I was captivated by Ariadne's story. Her tale flowed with a (seemingly) effortless prose and deep wisdom.We learn of Ariadne's frustration founded in women's suffering, time and time again brought upon them as punishment for crimes committed by their husbands or other men in their lives.Ariadne herself grew up witnessing suchI was captivated by Ariadne's story. Her tale flowed with a (seemingly) effortless prose and deep wisdom.We learn of Ariadne's frustration founded in women's suffering, time and time again brought upon them as punishment for crimes committed by their husbands or other men in their lives.Ariadne herself grew up witnessing such cruelty first hand. And yet with all the knowledge she possessed, she was young, brave and willing to risk herself to right wrongs and find love. cruelty first hand. And yet with all the knowledge she possessed, she was young, brave and willing to risk herself to right wrongs and find love.

Naturally, most of us are familiar with the classical myth of how Ariadne, princess of Crete, aided the overrated "hero" Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, find his way out of the maze, and free his fellow Athenians once and for all from the cruel tribute of her father, King Minos, only to be cruelly abandoned by the creep on the island of Naxos!We are then assured that she was "rescued" by someone better, the god Dionysos, and lived happily ever after -- or did she? Even with the best possible bridegroom, human or divine, things are often rather complicated and even less than ideal.

I am enthralled with all mythology and recently returned from Crete, where my wife and I intentionally sought out the goddess in all her forms. As such, when Ariadne was on offer, I was excited to buy it and it quickly rose to the top of my reading list. I will admit that many if not most of my problems with this book are details and most readers may never brush against them. First, the most persnickety of details. The Author betrayed her setting on numerous occasions: Knossos is not on or near the sea and the directions the Author cites simply do not match the geography, which is easily surveyed on Google Maps, but which is that much more glaring on the ground. She informs at one point, Daedalus and Icarus appeared as dots in the sky, but then said the molting feathers from Icarus' wings were also visible. She also used utterly anachronistic phrases, the one which glared worst was that one of the characters had to "tune in" regardless of the fact this would only be a possible sharpening of senses in the age of transmitted communications. Yes, these are small details, but details matter when they snap the reader out of the story through their sharpness. I would possibly more easily get past these crashes were the story more fluid. Don't get me wrong: This story is good and the Author shows some mastery over the subject matter: I really appreciated her "looping in" relatively minor characters, but perhaps she tried to gather too many loose strands of the tapestry and would have done better sticking to more streamlined narrative. For my part, additionally, I found the use of Ariadne and Phaedra as major narrators somewhat jarring and not useful. I would rather have heard the story from a single point of view, and occasionally the Author struggles to keep the two isolated, allowing one to "know" what only the other has experienced. I finished the book, which suggests I found the story engaging enough, and I appreciate having made the effort (after struggling to get past some of those details which really jolted me out of the storyline). Overall, the book is good, but not great, not even really good, in my opinion.

Very enjoyable on a par with Circe.

"I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself."(A quick note: I listened to the audiobook version of the book, and the narrator performed wonderfully! Highly recommended.)Many books have claimed to be spiritual successors to Madeleine Miller's phenomenal Circe, but Ariadne is the first one that, for me, really earns that distinction. Although it can be argued that the story does not stray far enough from the source mythos to be considered a feminist retelling in the same way that Circe challenges our assumptions about the famous witch of the Odyssey, showing her in a new light, I still feel Ariadne does an excellent job of framing the decisions of its characters in such a way as to give us fresh emotional context for Ariadne and Phaedra's choices.It's impossible to talk about this book without mentioning how beautifully written it is. The prose is gorgeous from start to finish, and the alternating first-person POVs between the two sisters invites a sense of intimacy. Saint knows exactly when and where to linger in her scenes to capitalize on the emotion therein. Likewise, the pacing is excellent for a story that heavily relies on the internal experiences of the characters and their relationships to one another, with the big mythological moments many readers are already familiar with (slaying the Minotaur, etc.) nestled between rather than dominating the story. While the ending devastated me, it also felt completely earned by all that had come before it, which is really all one can ask for!As someone with only a passing knowledge of Ariadne from Greek mythology—and none of her sister—I was constantly surprised by what happened, leading me to read quickly on. Readers with more familiarity may not find the plot twists as shocking, but Saint's execution entertains nevertheless.Overall, this was a phenomenal debut, and I'm only sorry that I'll have to wait to see what this author writes next!

I’m only a third in and I’m not sure I'm engaged sufficiently to finish it - Mills and Boon meets Ancient Greece. The characters are undeveloped, the description of ‘feminist’ is a misnomer and I was disappointed to spot the anachronism ‘electric’. It’s a very easy read, if a bit stilted (Saint is over-fond of the word 'viscous') and the language is somewhat clichéd in places. At the beginning it's more like YA fiction than the literary work I was expecting, though I feel I’ve reached a shift in tone now. It’s not awful, but it didn’t live up to the hype.

I anticipated with glee this re-creation of a Greek myth treading in the footsteps of Pat Barker's intense "The Silence of the Girls" and Madeline Miller and her beautiful novel "Circe".Sadly the characterization was very poor and none of the protagonists had any depth to them so it was very difficult to engage in their joys and sorrows. But wow! The cover is fabulous. For all that, it was an excellent concept, the story of two sisters and the different ways that life dealt with them and they dealt with half gods, human men and  the activities of the gods. The story could have been really exciting, desperate and full of love, betrayals, joys and sorrows.Too much was spent at the beginning of the book trying to establish what it must have felt like to believe and live within a sphere of powerful gods.And Ariadne dancing by herself with no music (?) for what reason?   The only aspect that came across strongly was the relationship with and love of one of the sisters Ariadne for her children when they were babies and little children. Does a writer have to experience the deep emotions they write about in order to portray them adequately? I don’t know. Well.... it was a first novel and maybe Jennifer Saint’s writing will improve.

I absolutely adored this book and am encouraging everyone I know to buy a copy. It is richly detailed, lyrical and immersive. From the very first page, you are transported to Ancient Greece. You can smell the sea and feel the heat. It is one of my all time favourites and I can’t wait for Electra to come out.

Absolutely loved this book! I’ve never read anything around Greek mythology and to be honest it’s not a genre I would usually pick up. My 12 year old really wanted to read it though so I bought it and read it first to see how suitable it was. Stunning writing, fabulous storytelling and surprisingly real characters who you could empathise with - not what I expected from a book about gods! Loved it.

This novel is an attempt to weave together elements from various myths to form one whole coherent story around the tragic figure of Ariadne. It doesn’t quite work though. Mainly this is because Ariadne features as a character in the stories of other mythological figures who vastly overshadow her. There isn’t enough of an effort here to make prominent enough in her own story.In Theseus’ most famous escapade, that of him confronting the minotaur and freeing Athens from the power of Knossos, Ariadne has a vitally instrumental role. If anything, though, this novel plays down her importance in these events, attributing a greater share of their success to Theseus and Phaedra at her expense.Ariadne is, of course, most well-known for her role in the ‘Theseus and the Minotaur’ myth. It is somewhat odd then that this novel not only waters down her role in that but also only has those events as a fairly small part of the book. After a fairly decent build up to the arrival of Theseus on Crete, the famous myth is then briefly skipped over in little detail. It seems almost that it is used as merely a vessel for getting Ariadne to Naxos, the locale of her other notable appearance in Greek mythology.This means that the bulk of the novel is concerned with Ariadne’s seclusion upon Naxos, married to Dionysius. There isn’t a great deal of things happening in this scenario to provide much of a storyline. It is pretty much a domestic situation where Ariadne raises a family whilst being involved in a combination of women’s refuge and religious cult. As Ariadne’s part in the cult of Dionysius is virtually removed in this novel, there isn’t exactly that much for her to do.To flesh the novel out because of this the focus switches somewhat to Ariadne’s sister, Phaedra with several chapters coming from her point of view whilst queen of Athens. This inevitably brings in the story of her infatuation with Theseus’ son, Hippolytus, most famously related by Euripides and Seneca.Ariadne, who had no role in these events, is dragged into them so this can still be part of her tale. But it feels a little forced. However, the focus on Phaedra does provide a dramatic tension that events on Naxos just don’t have despite the author’s efforts. Phaedra is also more of a proactive character which contrasts well with Ariadne.There isn’t a great deal of character development for Ariadne and, for the most part, she is a bit of a victim throughout. However, this fits in with the theme of women being abused by men and gods alike. This also leads to a very negative portrayal of Theseus.All in all, it is an intriguing concept to provide an overall story for Ariadne and she is certainly an interesting enough figure from mythology. However, this story just feels a little forced.