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Ariadne
409 pages
A hypnotic, transporting reimagining of ancient myth that pulls forgotten women from the shadows and places their desires, betrayals, and hopes at the beating heart of the epic.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like stepping onto a sunlit dancing floor that hides a dark, echoing labyrinth beneath it. The narrative moves with a propulsive, hypnotic rhythm, sweeping the reader from the golden innocence of childhood tales into the tense, high-stakes reality of defying gods and betraying kin. It is an utterly transporting experience that balances the grand, epic scale of Greek mythology with the deeply intimate emotional landscapes of the women who have historically been sidelined. The prose wraps you in a mythic yet urgent atmosphere, exploring the heavy costs of love, sisterhood, and the desperate striving for a better world. It will deeply satisfy readers who devour feminist retellings that finally give voice and agency to the forgotten heroines of antiquity.
- Mood
- transporting
- sun-drenched
- shadowed
- tense
- Tone
- hypnotic
- epic
- earnest
- mythic
- Pace
- propulsive
- Themes
- reclaiming forgotten voices · sisterhood and abandonment · the cost of defiance · sacrifices made for love
- The writing
- Hypnotic and transporting, weaving mythic grandeur with an intimate, character-driven focus.
- The arc
- Moves from the golden innocence of childhood stories to the tense, high-stakes reality of betrayal, culminating in an uncertain quest for a better world.
- Who it's for
- Readers who crave feminist retellings of classic myths that center the emotional lives and agency of the women left in the margins.
Content notes
- blood sacrifice
- betrayal
- monster violence
- family betrayal
About the book
Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid’s stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne’s decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind?
Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, one that puts the forgotten women of Greek mythology back at the heart of the story, as they strive for a better world.
Description from Open Library.
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