Jennifer Saint Collection 2 Books Set (Ariadne, [Hardcover] Elektra)

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The struggle for females to break free from the influence and punishment of men is a familiar tale, and the infusion of Greek mythology makes it that much more exciting. I'm always thrilled to come across such a compelling debut, and I cannot wait to see what else Jennifer Saint comes up with. Jennifer Saint’s beautiful debut is the reimagining of the Greek mythological story of Ariadne, Princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos and his queen Pasiphae. As a young girl, she is fond of dance, loves her younger sister Phaedra and even helps to take care of her brother Asterion (the Minotaur) when he was a baby, but unable to bear his bestiality as he grows. She grows up listening to her nursemaid’s stories about the gods, goddesses and mortal heroes whose lives have become legends. She is particularly moved by the story of Perseus and Medusa and the story behind how Medusa became a Gorgon. She is witness to her mother’s suffering brought upon by the birth of the Minotaur conceived as an act of revenge exacted by the gods against her father. She ponders over her own fate in a world where gods and men rule and women have no say in the decisions crucial to their lives and are but pawns in the hands of the men who control their fate. With Ariadne, Jennifer Saint gives voice to the titular princess of Crete, known mostly as a side character in the story of Theseus and the Minotaur, placing her at the centre of her own story for once. The concept has been trialled and tested in Circe, The Silence of the Girls and A Thousand Ships, but Ariadne’s story is one that lends itself perfectly to the same treatment, as even in her original story she’s a female character with a lot of agency. As the brains behind Theseus heroic rescue operation, Ariadne dares to spin the threads of her own faith and stand strong and tall in a world ruled by man, Gods and monsters.

Before Ariadne runs away with Theseus: "Today I would seize my destiny for myself ... My story would not be one of death and suffering and sacrifice." This book is written in a really lovely, effortlessly elegant way that just seemed to flow with ease. It was steady, and really felt like an exploration of the myth when going into it. I could feel myself sinking into the words each time I opened the book, and found myself looking forward to returning.

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My mother, Pasiphae, is a daughter of Helios, the great god of the sun. Unlike the searing blaze of my grandfather, she shimmered with a gentle golden radiance. I remember the soft beams of her strange, bronze-tinged eyes, the warmth of summer in her embrace, and the molten sunshine in her laughter in the days of my childhood, when she looked at me, not through me. She infused the world with her light, before she became a translucent pane of glass through which the light was refracted but never poured forth its precious streams of brightness again … before she paid the price for her husband’s deception. The story broadens, forks,spins, and braids through the perspective of multiple narrators, and the resultis fascinating and unpredictable…A great read.” I loved seeing their sisterhood and growing up in Crete shrouded in shame, ruled over by their tyrannical father. I also loved the exploration of the sisters individual characteristics; Ariadne as the gentler, introspective sister with bravery and cunning when deciding to help Theseus: Phaedra as the outgoing, daring and confident of the two.

When going into this book, I was not expecting the perspective of Phaedra, but I fully loved this too. Phaedra is the younger sister of Ariadne and her story is mostly told by Euripides in “Hippolytus” and Ovid’s “Heroides”. Phaedra is also explored in “Pandora’s Jar” by Natalie Haynes which I read earlier this month. There aren’t as many retellings of Phaedra as there are Ariadne, and I am so glad the author provides Phaedra, as well as Ariadne, with a voice and fully fleshed out characters.What I did not know was that I had hit upon a truth of womanhood: However blameless the life we lead, the passions and the greed of men could bring us to ruin, and there was nothing we could do.” Even though Ariadne does indeed become the wife of Dionysus and have children with him, the dynamic of their relationship doesn’t make any sense either. It was sweet in the beginning, but it soured due to the author’s choice of deciding to hide different aspects of Dionysus from Ariadne. 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 was dull and off-putting, which is something I never could have imagined for the god of wine, revelry, ritual madness, and religious ecstasy.