Atalanta

Book Title: Atalanta

Author: Jennifer Saint

Date Started: May 28th 2023

Date Completed: June 10th 2023

Genres: Historical, Adventure, Romance

Quality Rating: Three Stars

Enjoyment Rating: Three Star

Final Rating: Three Stars

Review:

◆ Thank you to NetGalley for this ebook for review ◆

I struggled a lot with Atalanta, for many of the same reasons I struggle with a fair few classical retellings; ‘strong independent woman’ who does still need a man in her resolution, reimagining a known tale from a different perspective but ultimately just making the protagonist be an observer, throwing in a bunch of references but not really executing what they thematically mean and missing out on the true wonder of these beloved myths. That being said, I do want to give it credit for not being entirely depressing, which I think is another common pitfall with female retellings of Greek myths.

I don’t think there was a lot of personality in this story, it was just the straightforward sequence of events of the Argonauts from a slightly different angle. While I appreciate that some myth retellings become hard to follow from how much effort being put into making it ‘different,’ I feel like the wonder and the glory, the characterisations and the morality is just lost. I also feel that this book, while reinventing a classical tale to make space for female stories, just came across ignorant to reality while still referencing misogyny and taking part. Atalanta didn’t really conquer anything, not because it wasn’t there, but because it didn’t seem to affect her.

The ending is so hilariously ironic, and sums up my frustrations with this book; we’re going to make fun of and look down on all these ‘womanly’ women throughout the story and be strong and independent (which mostly manifests as making judgements as we stand at the sidelines watching the actual story happen) with very little nuance, but our resolution will still rely on us falling in love with a man who tricked us (but it’s okay because we let him).