Book Title: Ariadne
Author: Jennifer Saint
Date Started: May 31st 2021
Date Completed: June 14th 2021
Genres: Historical, Fantasy
Quality Rating: Three Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Four Star
Final Rating: Four Stars
Review:
◆ Thanks to NetGalley for this eBook copy for review ◆
Jennifer Saint's Greek myth retelling was definitely enjoyable, but nothing particularly new. The trend of mythology retold through the female figures often overlooked or used only as side characters is one that I've always been a fan of, and this addition is nothing to be sniffed at even if it just adds to the catalogue. Ariadne herself is a cool figure to look at, one that seems to so far have flown under the radar, and Saint's novel has a good deal of characterisation to flesh her out as a complex human being and do justice to her role in the notorious stories.
Ariadne's story will be familiar to many, though through the lens of its traditional hero Theseus as he sets out to defeat the monstrous Minotaur of Knossos in Crete. This story takes up a surprisingly small amount of the start of the book, I suppose because Ariadne doesn't get to see much of the action of the original story herself. Like a lot of modern myth retellings, I felt that the book lacked some direction or a goal after this initial 'mini-retelling'. The rest of the book incorporates various other self-contained myths into the epic of Ariadne's lifetime - I'm actually not totally sure if they are all traditionally connected or not, but it's compelling and entertaining nonetheless.
Saint tries to balance this pacing by also giving us the perspective of Ariadne's sister Phaedra and how the consequences of the Labyrinth affected her also, while narration strings together time as other myths are slowly introduced to construct the overarching point that men are pigs and ultimately can't be trusted. It's obvious from the start and knocks you over the head a bit, and I feel the book blames the individual male characters themselves and pretty much entirely overlooks the society which perpetuates and pushes such attitudes, but whatever.
Ariadne was an entertaining read but it didn't stand out to me. To use Saint's novel as an example for the wider sub-genre of Greek myth retellings for a moment, I feel like there's a recurring trend of complete disaster and sorrow for all of the women whose stories are being retold. And don't get me wrong, women were treated terribly, were punished for men's crimes, and always overlooked and underestimated as individuals. But there's a reason why a certain myth reteller (MM) is fathoms ahead of the rest; she captures the joy and the magic and the splendour of the ancient world that these women also experienced. Yes, trauma and abuse should be repainted by modern authors to draw attention to the fact that that is what they are, but we understand light and dark through comparison and contrast. Ariadne isn't the worst example of this, but I feel like the light in these myths is often ignored in favour of highlighting just how terrible these women's lives were, which ultimately hinders that very argument by pretending every one of their lives was unliveable; which is not always the case.
