A review by velokei
Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

This book was an attempt to ride off of Circe’s success, with ‘fans of Circe!’ Will love this plastered on the cover. Fans of Circe love the lyrical writing and the feminist retellings, they don’t love this. They don’t love characters like Phaedra who randomly do a 180 and feel like a different character at the end. You go into this thinking that Phaedra is a girlboss, she really isn’t at the end. I just hate when people try to ride off of other authors success when the book has no flair. This felt like reading a Wikipedia article rather than someone’s passionate piece of literature. There were one or two good quotes that gave me hope for this book, one about deciding future for yourself instead of letting a man do it for you— But if you only have one or two memorable lines in your book, can you really say it’s good? I’ve given three stars because  I suppose that Saint has potential to do better, but she needs to not leach off of the success of Miller.