I didn't hate this book, but I certainly didn't love it. I read it, I liked it, I moved on. I wanted to get swept up in it and feel a connection to Ariande, but it just wasn't there. I think my expectations were too high, because of my undying love for Madeline Miller's Circe.

I received this novel as an ARC from Netgalley—thank you!

“I would be Medusa, if it came to it, I resolved. If the gods held me accountable one day for the sins of someone else, if they came for me to punish a man’s actions, I would not hide away like Pasiphae. I would wear that coronet of snakes, and the world would shrink from me instead.”

After years of her Minotaur brother devouring human sacrifices in the labyrinth beneath the palace, Ariadne makes a fateful choice, against the will of her cruel father, to save Athens’ greatest hero. This sets the princess on a fateful voyage full of both self fulfillment and sacrifice.

This book really expands a story and perspective rarely told in Greek mythology, centering a character usually relegated to the background—very much in the style of Circe and Patroclus from Miller’s retellings.

I love Madeline Miller, especially the Song of Achilles, so I was really excited to read another myth retelling. The cover of this book is beautiful, and I had high hopes. However, I feel that the story was not hugely compelling and the writing also let it down a bit. The beginning was bogged down by exposition largely provided in summary. I also found Ariadne’s love of Theseus needed significant grounding and development. It did not make me really root for her as a strong, empowered woman character.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint

9781250773586

320 Pages
Publisher: Flatiron Books
Release Date: May 4, 2021

Fiction, Mythology, Greek Mythology

Ariadne is the daughter of King Minos of Crete, son of Zeus, and Pasiphae, daughter of Helios. She is the sister of the Minotaur. When she sees Theseus, the Prince of Athens, arrive as a tribute for the Minotaur, she is horrified. How can he give himself willingly to the monster? She must do something to save him but if she does, what price will she pay?

This is a retelling of the traditional Greek myth with a twist. It is more personalized since the story is written in the first-person point of view of Ariadne and her younger sister Phaedra. The author also included Daedalus and his son Icarus with the wings of wax. I was hooked from the beginning and couldn’t stop reading until I finished the book. If you enjoy mythology, you will love this version.

ARIADNE is Percy Jackson for adults...If you enjoy Madeline Miller's books, you will adore ARIADNE...

My Thoughts
Oh fuck. Oh fuck. OH Fuck. Oh fUCK. OH OH OH.
Head empty. Need more. Fuck.

Oh my goodness! I loved this book! I was hooked from the beginning and so excited to learn more about Ariadne- she is a Greek mythology character that I haven't really heard very much about. From my google searches, the mythology in Ariadne was accurate from the actual legends- like Theseus and the Minotaur, Icarus. I enjoyed the writing, sometimes Greek mythology is hard to follow/ pay attention too. I loved Ariadne from the beginning, even though I wanted to smack her once or twice. By the end, Ariadne was an inspiring character. I didn't want her story to end- especially since I didn't like the ending. However, there was closure (thanks to the epilogue).
One quote that I found that I loved: "I would not let a man who knew the value of nothing make me doubt the value of myself."


Special thanks to NetGalley and Flatiron Books for sharing this digital reviewer copy with me in exchange my honest opinion.

For lovers of The Penelopiad, Circe, and The King Must Die comes a daring new book that narrates the life of Ariadne of Crete, the discarded princess, in her own words.

The book flips between Ariadne and her sister Phaedra's perspective, telling the story of Theseus through the women he used to further his own glory. From this perspective, we see the inconsistencies in Theseus' grand tales of himself as they reflect the larger theme of Greek mythology--women being punished for men's actions.

Saint does a wonderful of bringing Ariadne and Phaedra to life, filling in the gaps that Greek myth leaves behind while telling the tale of the Minotaur. No longer are they the two-dimensional characters that only serve to further Theseus' story. No longer is Pasiphaë the crazed woman defined solely by the compulsion Poseidon cursed her with. Dionysus' maenads are not simply mad women desiring drink. Jennifer Saint brings these women into full color, fleshing them out into three-dimensional characters that are not simply shuttled along by the men in their life.

Saint also makes the myth her own by blending retellings together and adding her own details and twists to further drive home her point (such as adding Scylla as Ariadne's sister). The emotion in her prose is real and raw; you can truly feel the agony Ariadne feels as she crawls on the beach of Naxos. It is also a delightful exploration of Dionysus and his origin story, the god so often shifting in the lens of pre-Greek history. She strikes a perfect balance between the happy-go-lucky androgynous twink we all know and love and the darker, mad side of him that made his cult so famous. Saint explores the conflicting experience that is motherhood, of women that cry and women that turn to stone. Her characters are both faithful renditions and a rich, deep cast of humans that remind of our own complicated morality.

You will leave this book wanting more of Saint's storytelling, and I cannot wait for her second book on Clytemnestra and Electra. We need more retellings of the forgotten women of Greek myth and I for one am thrilled to be alive for its revival in modern fiction.

Ariadne by Jennifer Saint is a gorgeous and adventurous mythological retelling that centers the voices of women, a welcome addition to a body of stories defined by and about men. The well-trod tales of Theseus and the Minotaur, the rise of Dionysus, and the death of Hippolytus converge around these women, and yet their oft-forgotten names are typically relegated to footnotes only. This book resurfaces their names for a generation of readers clamoring for a more complete rendering of these stories.

Princess Ariadne spent her youth in Crete hearing only about reviled women and their entanglements with gods and men--the monstrous Scylla, the infamous Medusa, the bestial Pasiphae--and learns too late that these women became legends because of the misdeeds of men. After risking her life to help the heralded Theseus rid the world of her half-brother, the blood-curdling Minotaur, Ariadne experiences just how celebrated heroes punish women who offer indispensable assistance. Jennifer Saint's rendition of the ensuing tale is gripping and devastating, steeped in a sense of dread and well-earned bitterness that allows jewels of Ariadne's joy to shine through despite her circumstances.

Through the book, she and her sister Phaedra alternate perspectives to narrate the high-stakes stories of their lives after being separated by the sea. While Ariadne is stranded on an uninhabited island and left to die, Phaedra is swept away from Crete to become a princess elsewhere as part of a political bargain. Saint infuses both of their voices with such humanity and urgency that their stories feel revelatory: even though I knew how their stories ended, Ariadne and Phaedra both felt so original, with such touching interiority that I found myself in tears at times. Saint’s portrayals of the duo offer complex accounts of femininity and motherhood that make each story feel simultaneously fresh and primordial. While men are typically the favorites of gods and bards who keep myths alive, this book unflinchingly holds men accountable for their omissions.

First there was <i>Songs of Achilles</i> then <i>Circe</i>, followed by <i>The Witch's Heart</i> (among many others). Now, <i>Ariadne</i>.

Her story, from daughter of Minos to wife of Dionysus and from Crete to Naxos to Athens, is powerful. The men at the heart of it are presented in less than kindly lights. Why did Ariadne really help Theseaus? Why didn't Theseaus change the sails on his boat? And what about Medusa? or Midas? This alternative version is a great balancing of the stories.

More along these lines, please. I could see a course examining different versions of these myths and these modern stories telling an alternative side of what we've long read.

eARC provided by publisher via Netgalley.

Let me start by saying that the writing style itself is very nice. That being said, I struggled to get into this book as I felt it was very drawn out. The story of the Minotaur is not a very long one in general, so it feels as if the story has been heavily padded to draw it out into a novel length. Additionally, I didn't really feel that Ariadne was humanized in a way that was very relatable. It almost felt young adult fiction-yin the way she was infatuated with him. Perhaps that's just realism being that she was 18, but I still found it a bit too silly for the levity that greek myths often command. Overall, it's very well written. I would love to see this author's amazing skills in a story with more substance. I just personally didn't find it gripping.

Ariadne is another well-done retelling of Greek myths, this one from the point of view of the women involved in the stories. It seeks to redress the ways in which these stories have traditionally been told from the male point of view, and focuses on “the price [women] paid for the resentment, the lust and the greed of arrogant men.” This book turns the tale of Ariadne into a “herstory.”

In Greek mythology, Ariadne was a princess of Crete, daughter of King Minos and brother of the Minotaur.

Poseidon, the powerful god of the sea, had sent a magnificent bull to King Minos to sacrifice to him (sacrifices and praise being very important to the gods), but Minos kept that bull and sacrificed another, inferior creature. Poseidon took his vengeance on Minos by addling Minos's wife, Ariadne’s mother, Pasiphae, into an insane passion for the bull, such that she mated with it. Out of this unholy union the Minotaur was born. The Minotaur, a ferocious creature that was half man and half bull, preferred a diet of human beings.

As Ariadne observed, when gods want to punish a man’s actions, they come for the women. She was particularly affected by the tale of Medusa. At first Ariadne knew of Medusa only as a monster with a head full of snakes who turned anyone who looked at her to stone. Then her handmaiden Eirene told her the real story of Medusa, how she was raped by Poseidon. Athena was angry because Medusa was no longer a virgin, thus offending Athena:

“Athena struck Medusa’s hair and crowned her instead with living snakes. She took her beauty and made Medusa’s face so terrible that it would turn onlookers to stone. And so Medusa rampaged . . . .” Medusa turned people to stone until Perseus chopped off her head, and used it as a weapon against his enemies. Medusa paid the price for a man’s actions.

As Ariadne later concluded, “I had not considered what the gods truly value. . . . What the gods liked was ferocity, savagery, the snarl and the bite and the fear. . . . Our fear. That was how the gods grew great.”

Like a human reflection of the gods, Minos wanted to display his dominance to the world, demanding sacrifices to do so, and wearing his people’s fear and hatred like armor. He conquered Athens and required its people to send a tribute each year - seven Athenian youths and seven Athenian maidens to feed to the Minotaur, who was kept far below the ground in the center of a labyrinth built by Daedalus.

In the third year of tributes from Athens, one of the youth that came was the prince of Athens himself, Theseus. Both Ariadne and her younger sister Phaedra were immediately smitten. They snuck out at night concocting a plan to help Theseus kill the Minotaur and escape, and to take them with him back to Athens.

Theseus accepted the plan and killed the Minotaur, but tricked the girls. He misled Phaedra about the meeting point, and abandoned Ariadne to die on the island of Naxos. Just as Ariadne ran out of food and water, the half-god Dionysus (fathered by Zeus and a mortal woman, much to the anger and resentment of Zeus’s wife Hera) arrived on Naxos, restored food and water and wine to the island, and courted Ariadne.

Back in Crete, Minos had run off to find Daedalus, and Ariadne’s mild-mannered older brother Deucalion took over the throne. Deucalion arranged for Phaedra to go to Athens to become the wife of Theseus. Phaedra accepted, thinking Ariadne dead, and not yet aware of Theseus’s treacherous and self-serving nature. As she got to knew who and what he really was, she was only happy when he left on his travels. Like Minos, Theseus, as Ariadne mused, “emulated the worst of the immortals: their greed, their ruthlessness, and the endless selfish desires that would overturn the world, as though it were a trinket box, and plunder its contents for a passing whim because they believed it belonged to them anyway.”

Back on Naxos, Ariadne was content, and she and Dionysus married and began to have children. Neither she nor Phaedra was aware of what had happened to the other. Eventually, however, they found out, and even reunited, but each negatively impacted the other. In particular, Phaedra sowed seeds of doubt in Ariadne about Dionysus.

Ariadne and Dionysus had a bigger problem of course, about which they often spoke: he was immortal, but she and her children were not; would he still love her when she was old? Would he be able to bear the pain of their loss? Dionysus always wondered why “mortals bloomed like flowers and crumbled to nothing.” How, he asked, could everything they once were be extinguished so completely and “yet the world did not collapse under the weight of so much pain and grief?” But he also concluded this was the source of the appeal of mortals - “human life shines more brightly because it is but a shimmering candle against an eternity of darkness, and it can be extinguished with the faintest breeze.” As for the gods, he explained to Ariadne, “their passions do not burn brightly as a mortal’s passions do, because they can have whatever they desire for the rest of eternity. . . . Nothing to them is more than a passing amusement, and when they have done with it, there will be another and another and another, until the end of time itself.”

Eventually the evanescent nature of humans got to Dionysus:

“Being a god and loving mortals means nothing more than watching them die. I know that all too well. . . . Can you blame me for thinking it better to garner the love of a thousand mortals instead, to hold the adoration of a city instead of one consort’s frail, mortal flesh?”

Ariadne mused: “ . . . if I had learned anything I had learned enough to know that a god in pain is dangerous. . . . What was I to do now that my god-husband was ravenous for the company of all the women of the world, now that the love we had built together seemed to cause him only pain?”

She soon finds out, and the story ends, like many Greek stories, tragically for the women involved.

Evaluation: Saint’s writing is excellent and evocative of the style of Greek mythology. She gives the usual obeisance to Homer in his use of the expression ''wine-dark sea'' in the Iliad and the Odyssey. But she adds a similar construction of her own that works even better when Ariadne says of her baby: “he slept, milk-drunk and dazed, against my skin.”

The inequalities for women that Saint draws attention to are, unfortunately, timeless - still today women are blamed for their own rapes (“she must have been asking for it”) and men are feted as heroes when often their deeds were dependent on the contributions of women. While many of the injustices recounted in the book are perpetrated by men, Saint doesn’t address the fact that some are by female gods. Although they are angry over misdeeds of men, they too blame other women instead of the men. And yes, still today, when men are unfaithful, wronged women often direct their hatred at ‘the other woman” rather than at the men who betrayed them.

Saint also depicts more general and timeless matters that affect everyone: relationships between families and between partners, the importance of trust, the conflicting joys and pains of children and the guilt it inspires in mothers (but not so much in fathers) and the challenges of aging. These are all issues that remain of importance and interest, making this book an excellent choice for book clubs.

Absolutely LOVED this. Move over Madeliene Miller, there is a new mythology-retelling author in town! I have always loved the story of the minotaur (and have always actually pitied him) along with Theseus and Ariadne, and delighted in the skillful depiction of this beloved myth while giving Ariadne her due - she's finally seen as the heroine I always new her to be. Well-rounded characters and exquisite writing make this book unputdownable.

This is a great feminist retelling of Greek myths. It pushes us to view these myths through the eyes of the women in them. The world building is absolutely beautiful and I think the book was paced very well. The feminist themes force us to not only want to stand up for ourselves, but look inward at our own complacency when we’re comfortable.

Princess of Crete, Ariadne was daughter of King Minos and sister to the Minotaur. She learned too late the true character of heroes and gods and lived a tumultuous life because of it. However, in the end of it all she was able to create a safe place for women and children.

I enjoyed reading this e-arc so much I’m planning on buying a physical copy as well. It’s a story I want my daughters to read.

Ariadne was the perfect book to read after A Thousand Ships. Another retelling of Greek mythology that focuses on the women whose lives are upended by the exploits of the heroes and warriors.

Once again, I love that the author has found a way to tell this story from an alternate perspective while remaining faithful to the spirit of the classical mythology. Subversive storylines for subversion's sake are boring. This novel held tight to my attention even though I knew how the story would end.

As a princess of Crete, Ariadne has heard many stories of gods and heroic men. When a young hero arrives at the palace, she performs her own heroic deed to help him defeat her monstrous brother, the Minotaur. But as her life is derailed by the man the world sees as a hero, Ariadne learns there is little room for women in the world of Grecian heroism.

This novel does a great job of centering women in Grecian mythology, and as someone who wasn't super familiar with Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, I really enjoyed the journey. I feel like it could have veered farther from established mythology, and the pacing/perspective shifts were a little off. But still a transporting and epic journey, whether or not you're familiar with the mythology behind it!

Loved, loved, this book. Ariadne, Phaedra, Theseus, and Dionysus are compelling characters. I will say Dionysus was my personal favorite to read about. The authors writing style flows so smoothly I couldn't put it down.

Women are the forefront of this story. Ariadne and her younger sister Phaedra are very different people. Ariadne was more of a passive character, while Phaedra was an active character. Ariadne was content living a blissful life on Naxos, wheras Phaedra tried to defy to social expectations of women in Athens.

My complaint about the book is the pacing. I think the pacing was too quick around the last quarter of the book as everything seems to have happened abruptly without much build up. Without spoiling the ending, I will say I was really sad since I was hoping that it would've been a happy ending. Anyone familiar with Greek mythology knows Ariadne's story has many versions and variations.

With that said, I understand the ending to Ariadne and Phaedra's stories since it fits with the narrative of women constantly being puished for a man's crime. Pasipahe, Scylla, and Medusa are the tragic examples Ariadne draws upon.

This book is one of the best additions to the current cannon of re-told Greek myths from the feminist perspective of the marginalized female voices. Saint's prose does lack some of the lyricism of Madeline Miller, but her storytelling is strong and will keep the reader engaged.

Readers of Miller and Natalie Haynes may find that some of Saint's passages as the woman realizes both her prior victimization and current power are a bit ham-handed because we've seen this developed many times. However when Saint focuses on the female experience in this myth and lets the story unfold, her novel is strong and engaging- capturing both the beauty and the sordid ugliness of the ancient myths.

Ariadne was an excellent choice. My students often mix Ariadne and Arachne, which won't be a problem after reading this book. Ariadne's fame lies in her helping the hero Theseus navigate the Minotaur's labrynth and destroy the monster. However, this actual event is a very small portion of the action of the novel. Instead, she captivates us with the Minotaur origin story, finding moments of sympathy and human connection as the monster is born and devolves into something much less than human.

Saint's characterization, particularly of Theseus and Dionysus, are what really sell this book. Saint shows us Theseus through Ariadne's eye s and those of her sister Phaedra, and we understand the romantic appeal of this hero, his outer and inner beauty. Theseus is, of course, later cast as a villain, but he retains his manipulative charm, and the reader can't help but feel as betrayed by him as Ariadne. The god Dionysus, who is Ariadne's savior and focus of her life after she leaves Crete, is the most dynamic and interesting of her characters. Percy Jackson fans will expect Mr. D- the fat, old grump. This Dionysus is a young god, a beautiful happy party boy. He's the frat guy with the heart of gold who saves the girl from the roofie. Over the course of the novel, he settles into his godhood and like the young alcoholic who vows never to become what his father was, he of course morphs into something almost worse because he cannot bear the mortality of those he loves. That is the real tragedy of the novel because of what Dionysus could have been if he had let love save him instead of destroy him.

We seem to be in a renaissance of female forward retellings of Greek mythology and I am here for it! I've loved Greek mythology for a really long time but tend to get annoyed with the men of the mythology (ask me my opinion of Clytemnestra & her putz of a husband sometime).. Jennifer Saint is adding to the new feminine retellings with her story of Ariadne, sister of the dreaded Minotaur. However, this story is not only Ariadne's but it is also her sister Phaedra's. We see how the sisters react to the conception and birth of their younger brother Asterion, also known as the Minotaur, his eventual imprisonment in the Labyrinth and his slaying by Theseus. While both sisters have a hand in Theseus' conquering of the Labyrinth and the Minotaur their treatment after is entirely different and their lives diverge. Ariadne is betrayed and left for dead on the island of Naxos and eventually becomes the spouse of Dionysus and lives an idyllic life. Phaedra is given to Theseus as a prize/wife and leaves Crete for Athens. where she finds that the hero Theseus is not exactly heroic. As Ariadne and Phaedra live their separate lives they find each other years down the road and like most Greek mythology tragedy ensues. I really enjoyed this retelling of the story of Theseus and the Minotaur through Ariadne and Phaedra. I received and ebook from NetGalley.

A great retelling of the myth of Perseus, King Minos, the monster Minotaur, through the eyes of the women that were affected by the heroes, kings and gods that ruled their lives. This is the story of Ariadne and her sister Phaedra, born into royalty, and the paths and choices they made with often devastating results. A dynamic story of love, betrayal, family and ultimately following one's road; which often led to destruction.
If you read Greek myths as a child, this will be an eye-opening back story of the often told tale of heroes and gods and their foibles and the women that loved them and the results of loving an all-too flawed man/god.
A good book for those that loved Millers's "Circe" and "Song of Achilles"

Thank you very much Netgalley for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Women always pay the price for the actions of men. Before, there was no room in the legends of male heroes for the women who they harmed to have stories of their own. But this book changes that.

Ariadne, granddaughter of Helios. Daughter of Minos, King of Crete, and Queen Pasiphae. Sister to the feared Minotaur and the headstrong Phaedra. Helper of the famous hero Theseus and overshadowed by his "glory". I have to admit that I knew nothing about Ariadne's (or Theseus') story before reading this book, save for a passing knowledge of the legend of the Minotaur and simply knowing the name "Ariadne". I'm very glad this book changed that.

First of all, the writing in this book was breathtakingly beautiful. I had to slow down in order to be sure I didn't miss a word of what was on each page. Every sentence felt like it was crafted so carefully that I wanted to be sure I absorbed every last word. It's amazing that this is a debut novel, and it was also obvious how much the author cared about Ariadne and Phaedra's stories.

I was definitely in the target audience for this novel, being a HUGE fan of Madeline Miller's Circe. Because the book was written in the first person, it immediately transported me into the mind of Ariadne (and later her sister, Phaedra). Both Ariadne and Phaedra have strong, complex, yet very different personalities, and both change and grow throughout the book in a realistic way. Although this book does focus primarily on its titular character, her sister Phaedra is also a big part of the story, and an interesting character to follow in her own right.

This book raised so many emotions in me, ranging from despair and rage to relief and hope. I'm very thankful to Jennifer Saint for writing this book and allowing us to follow the beautiful yet tragic lives of Ariadne and her sister.

I couldn't give this book less than 5 stars. I will absolutely read the next book Jennifer Saint writes!

Jennifer Saint's Ariadne is a formidable new force in mythological retellings. It follows Ariadne and Phaedra, princesses of Crete, from the birth of their younger half-brother Asterion (yes, the Minotaur) to their subsequent separations, marriages, and tragic ends.

Comparisons to Madeline Miller, Margaret Atwood, and Pat Barker are definitely warranted -- this is a well-written woman-centered story that breathes life into mythical characters. Saint raises questions of women's autonomy and her characters acknowledge and challenge their own limitations in a world that disproportionately punishes women. Saint is not a fan of Theseus, and I loved her depiction of a boastful, manipulative hero rather than a perfect, dashing one.

Though Ariadne is the titular character, there are chapters with her younger sister Phaedra's perspective, mostly concentrated in the middle of the book. I would've enjoyed more chapters from Phaedra's POV beginning earlier, since it was slightly jarring to jump into her mind after spending the first third of the novel exclusively with Ariadne (maybe the title partly misled me). I did enjoy spending about 2/3 of the book after the famed Minotaur slaying & labyrinth escape; Ariadne's story doesn't end with her abandonment by Theseus, and Phaedra comes into her own far away from Crete.

4.25/5: A wonderful novel about mythological women that treats its complex characters with respect. Perfect for fans of Circe, The Penelopiad, The Silence of the Girls, and The Children of Jocasta. Just like other Greek myth retellings, it will probably make you sad.

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher (Flatiron Books) for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!