Thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron for providing an advanced copy on exchange for an honest review. 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.

Ultimately, ARIADNE would have benefited from a dual narrative (a la The Lost Apothecary) or the addition of a third focal character (Pasiphae seems an obvious choice, and there’s certainly enough material there). Ariadne: The Brilliant Feminist Debut that Everyone is Talking About by Jennifer Saint A mesmerising retelling of the ancient Greek myth of Theseus and the. Jennifer Saints Ariadne is a mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Millers Circe. Saint’s writing certainly isn’t at fault this is just a case of thin source material and, I suspect, an unwillingness to depart from it for the sake of better storytelling. I was powerfully tempted to Google what happened to Ariadne and be done with it. While the first 20-or-so chapters of ARIADNE offer excellent balance between narrative interiority and external action, the latter half of the book is slow and plodding, and relies overmuch on Phaedra and Ariadne thinking their thoughts and feeling their feelings. While both writers share a concept – Greek myth, but with the rich interiority of a novel – Saint chose to focus on a character whose canonical presence in Greek myth doesn’t provide sufficient opportunities for plot production. Jennifer Saints novel Ariadne is written from the first person points of view of the main characters, Ariadne and Phaedra.

Jennifer Saint’s debut shows a lot of promise, but comparisons to Madeline Miller will harm this book more than help find its readership. Ariadne / Jennifer Saint / eBook ARC / pub date: / Flatiron Books (US) /fiction (adult) An ancient story of love and sisterhood reimagined, Jennifer Saints Ariadne is a truly masterful debutcompulsive, absorbing and lyrical.

Ariadne jennifer saint summary