But Eirene did not tell us of Perseus today. Instead, she told us how Medusa had gained her crown of serpents and her petrifying gaze. It was a story I might have come of late to expect. No longer was my world one of brave heroes; I was learning all too swiftly the women’s pain that throbbed unspoken through the tales of their feats. Saint’s immersive novel thrusts the reader straight into the heart of Greek mythology with this wonderful reimagining of the story of Ariadne.” What am I supposed to take from this? That it's impossible for Ariadne to break out of the suffering that men (and gods) cause in creating their legends? She certainly doesn't try - the woman is so passive that she knows nothing about the world or about her own husband. It would be better to write this as a tragedy and show an active heroine who tries to break out of the fate set for her, and who chooses Dionysus because he is interesting and powerful. I’d watched him construct the dancing-floor; I was an eager girl, hovering over him, impatient for it to be done, not appreciating that I was watching an inventor at work whose fame would ring through the whole of Greece. Perhaps even the world beyond, though I knew little of that—indeed, I knew little of what lay beyond our palace walls. Although many years have passed since then, when I remember Daedalus, I see a young man full of energy and the fire of creativity. While I watched him work, he told me how he had learned his craft traveling from place to place until his extraordinary skill attracted the eye of my father, who made it worth his while to stay in one place. Daedalus had been everywhere, it seemed to me, and I hung on his every word when he described the scorching sandy deserts of Egypt and the impossibly distant kingdoms of Illyria and Nubia. I could watch the ships sail from Cretan shores, their masts and sails built under Daedalus’ skilled supervision, but I could only imagine what it felt like to cross the ocean on one and feel the boards creaking beneath my feet while the waves hissed and crashed against the sides.

Athena was angry,” Eirene went on. “A virgin goddess, she could not stand for such a brazen crime in her own temple. She must punish the girl who was so shameless as to be overpowered by Poseidon and to offend Athena’s sight so vilely with her undoing.”while this isnt the book i was expecting - i figured this would solely be a retelling of the minotaur, but actually follows ariadnes entire life (the minotaur is only like the first 25%) - but thats because i wasnt familiar with ariadnes story in depth. i really enjoyed getting to know more about her outside of her fathers kingdom. i found her relationship with dionysus fascinating and the alternate perspective of theseus refreshing. When the Greek hero Theseus arrives with a collection of Athenians to be sacrificed to the Minotaur Ariadne becomes infatuated. She sees an opportunity to stop the slaughter of innocents and take control of her own fate. Though the ending fell extremely flat to me and was ultimately disappointing, the writing itself wasn’t completely terrible, (it certainly wasn’t great, and to compare this book to Madeline Miller is hubris and punishable by the gods) and the first half as it followed the myth was alright. Ariadne’s viewpoints of how unfair it is that gods always target women for the acts of men are really the only thing that would be considered “feminist.” So that saves this book from having a one star rating, but it’s still a 1.5, and because it has been my most disappointing read of the year, and still inspires rage whenever I think about this book, I’m rounding it down to one star, as it deserves. As a young woman, however, I danced alone. The tapping of my feet across the shining wood created a rhythm in which I could lose myself, a whirling dance that could consume me. Even without music it could muffle the distant rumble that groaned beneath our feet and the skitter of tremendous hooves far below the ground at the heart of the construction that had truly cemented Daedalus’ fame. I would stretch my arms out, reaching upward to the peaceful sky, forgetting for the duration of the dance the horrors that dwelled underneath us.

The exploration of the darker side of the Dionysian cult was quite good but I felt the ending was incredibly rushed and the chance to show Perseus as a completely different kind of hero was lost. Because Saint did a great job of characterising the male villains. We'd had the cruel ruler Minos, the ladies man and fame hound Theseus, then the immortal reveller Dionysus, followed by the austere horse lover Hippolytus (less a villain, more a simpleton), it was a chance for us to finally get a middle of the road hero who was strong but also a good ruler. I know Saint tried to imply that Perseus and Ariadne unravelled all of that with a single glance but I don't think it worked. I also think the handling of the final showdown was poor. Dionysus is supposed to be welcomed to the city after the death of Ariadne through a deal brokered by Hermes. I feel like that would have been a strong point to make again about how women are the collateral damage in so many of these Greek myths but Saint didn't seem to want to take that route. The UK edition is gorgeous, but better as a decoration, and not to read. I wish I hadn’t read this book and was blissfully unaware of its terrible contents.An ancient story of love and sisterhood reimagined, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne is a truly masterful debut - compulsive, absorbing and lyrical. Saint breathes new life into the forgotten women of Greek mythology with a novel that's both incredibly absorbing, and full of heart.' - Kate Lowe, author of The Furies Pasiphae was beautiful, and her divine heritage had made her a magnificent prize to Minos in marriage. It was her very delicacy, her refinement, and her sweetness that had made her his boast and must have made her degradation seem so very delectable to Poseidon. If you had anything that made you proud, that elevated you above your mortal fellows, it seemed to me that the gods would find delight in smashing it to smithereens. One morning, not long after Pasiphae’s ruin, I reflected on this. As I was combing through my little sister’s silken tresses, a gift we shared from our radiant mother, I began to weep, fearfully regarding each golden curl as bait to those divine colossi that strode the heavens and could snatch up our tiny triumphs and rub them into dust between their immortal fingers. A beautiful epic…In a world ruled by temperamental, petulant gods, Ariadne is a shining beacon of female strength and courage—making this a story that’s impossible to forget.” Some of the characters were portrayed in the typical mythological manner, assholes and douchebags and oh-look-at-me-I-am-a-big-bad-god-I-can-do-whatever-I-please kind of situation, but that was expected. Hell, it's even encouraged, because in this way we can all agree to hate the same characters over and over again. And let's face it, hate unites us <3 But when I thought of Scylla, I thought of the foolish and all-too-human girl, gasping for breath amid the froth of waves churning in the wake of my father’s boat. I saw her weighed down in the tumultuous water not just by the iron chains in which my father had bound her but also by the terrible truth that she had sacrificed everything she knew for a love as ephemeral and transient as the rainbows that glimmered through the sea spray.