Ariadne Book Review

Title: Ariadne
Author: Jennifer Saint
Type: Fiction
Published: 2021
Pages: 386
TW: Violence, Murder, Sexual Assault, Misogyny

“The stories of Perseus did not allow for a Medusa with a story of her own.”

Ariadne was the March pick for Amy’s Book Club and I was at first apprehensive about what a Greek mythology pick would be like! Ariadne is Jennifer Saint’s feminist retelling of the story of Ariadne and the various characters on the periphery of her life. She was brought up as the princess of Crete and was used to the scandal that her brother The Minotaur had caused. Then one year everything changes when Theseus arrives and not only defeats the monster, but promises Ariadne a new life too. But is everything too good to be true?

As someone who enjoys reading mythology retellings I know that certain liberties are taking when authors choose to retell stories as they often either don’t make sense or wildly contradict other characters’ stories. Ariadne is no different and having just read Stephen Fry’s Heroes, it was fascinating to see the differences between Fry’s versions and Saint’s. Most notably, The Minotaur is actually barely in this tale and instead we hear a lot more from the women in Ariadne’s life like her sister Phaedra.

Initially I really enjoyed this book – the writing is beautiful and I loved how Saint was trying to prove the strength of the women in these stories. However, once I had the book club chat, I have to agree with something that was brought up… while Ariadne was a pillar of strength in her own mind, her actions didn’t really match up. Whether that was just contradiction or perhaps that Saint could only deviate from the original source so much, I’m not sure, but it did somewhat dampen the feminist power of the book.

That being said, I think the female power shone through most in Phaedra and I really enjoyed her parts of the story. While there is a lot of tragedy in the book, there are moments of joy as well and the relationship (at least initially) between Ariadne and Phaedra was one of them.

If you have read Theseus’ story or at all familiar with it, then this is a fantastic way to allow you to see a different perspective. Feminist retellings are becoming all the more popular and I look forward to reading more of them!