Ariadne - Jennifer Saint

"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.

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

This book wasn't what I was expecting. I figured this would solely be a retelling of the Minotaur myth, but it actually follows Ariadne's entire life (the minotaur is only like the first 25%). I really enjoyed getting to know more about her outside of her father's kingdom. I found her relationship with Dionysus interesting and the alternate perspective of Theseus refreshing.

The writing is also lovely, not quite on the level of Madeline Miller or Pat Barker(an impossibly high standard, to be honest), but still has moments of beauty. 

However, I was disappointed. To put it plainly, there was so much potential from the get go, but the longer the story went on, the more it seemed like this was just a re-write of the original myth from Ariadne’s perspective. Not much differed from my finite knowledge of the myth to which this was based on. There was no new take, or fresh approach. The book merely changed the POV character.

The book's pacing also flagged in the middle. It was mainly just the author trying to come up with some sort of emotional conflict that didn’t need to happen, and would have been much more interesting to have the darker aspects of Dionysus shared and explored with Ariadne. Especially since classical art DEPICTS her participating in his rituals with the Maenads and Satyrs. So the characterization of her being the dutiful housewife and mother was dull and off-putting, which is something I never could have imagined for the wife of the god of wine, revelry, ritual madness, and religious ecstasy. It would have also been a wonderful way to explore that feminist aspect with Ariadne finding her own wildness and passion. 

I was hoping the ending would give me the satisfaction I was looking for, I mean you hear “feminist retelling” and you get a little excited. However, upon reaching the end I have to say that giving this novel that description could not be more misleading. The ending itself also felt anti-climactic and sudden. I had no idea how it was truly going to end and the ending that was given did not leave me feeling satisfied in the least and mostly left me wondering what even was the point of the novel other than “women suffered a lot in a highly misogynistic society" ..which I mean, duh. 

Age Rating 15+. A few more brutal moments. Childbirth, depression, suicide.