This was unique storytelling and the advertising of being great for fans of Circe and Song of Achilles is spot on. The world building was great but I found it lacking in some places where some scenes felt too drawn out. The writing is beautiful and makes certain issues relevant and able to bring them into a contemporary light.

Thank you to MacMillan and Netgalley for the dARC. This review represents my honest assessment of the book.

Narrative voice is everything in a fantasy retelling written in the first person, and I slid right into the skin of Ariadne from Greek mythology in this retelling by Jennifer Saint. Ariadne lives in the palace of her heartless father Minos with a shell of a mother, Queen Pasiphae, and a beloved little sister, Phaedra, while her monstrous brother, the Minotaur, thunders in the labyrinth underneath the castle. I won't retell the whole myth or spoil the novel, but the birth, gruesome transformation, and imprisonment of the Minotaur is what has turned the Queen into a virtual wraith.

Ariadne and Phaedra yearn for a life that is not chosen for them by the King in a strategic royal alliance, and when the hero Perseus appears with the annual tributes for the Minotaur from Athens (in the form of young people to be fed to the monster), Perseus is determined to slay the Minotaur. Perseus promises to rescue the sisters, but one thing the princesses have learned by now is that men, and gods, often go against their word. Tales of heroes are also told, conveniently enough, by the heroes.

I felt that the climax of the novel, in which Ariadne discovers the dark truths of her blissful life on the island of Naxos, didn't live up to its foreshadowing. I was expecting something a lot more horrifying. "Ariadne" is nevertheless a well-crafted novel with strong character development and satisfying family and feminist themes. Saint explores what true freedom and power for women might look like in any civilization, ancient or modern. It might involve not only standing up and fighting for your own destiny, but even demand that women face up to harsh truths that support their own comfortable lives.