This was a really interesting view of the story of Ariadne which is actually one of my favourite stories from Greek Mythology. I enjoyed the different point of view and it was a fairly easy read. I would recommend this for those that need a slight introduction or those that want a more in-depth story but have already read books like Circe or Song of Achilles and want something more in-depth and something that hasn't been explored a lot as fiction.

I've been loving Grek Mythology recently and as soon as I saw this I knew I wanted to read it.

However this one just fell flat to me and I just could not get into it or gel with the writing style. I sadly had to dnf.

Maybe I've just overloaded myself of Greek mythology recently?

Book from my all-time favorite Genre- Mythology. I was very thrilled to see my ARC request approved for this title.
Even though I am not much into love stories, Ariadne's had my interest.

I love Ariadne's character, however, this book failed to build that. I wish her story started rather from an earlier age. Her childhood, her little achievements, and struggles, how she was chosen to be the Highest Priestess of Crete, her mother, her brother, etc, etc. Because there is soo much to her life than Dionysus
Similarly, an exhilarating character like Dionysus was very flatly introduced and pulled.

Further, the core focus of the story was the love they had for each other, which too felt dull. Their physical intimacy was justified but that in itself doesn't feel "Love".

I tried hard but couldn't finish this book. Seemed more like an Erotic love story, rather than a mythology love story retelling.

Hate to be a critic here, the author's hard work shows. It is just not gripping as expected or as it could have been.

Thank you to NetGalley and the Publishers for providing me with an e-ARC in exchange for my honest review.

'Ariadne Unraveled' is a Greek mythology retelling of Ariadne, high priestess of Crete, and Dionysus, God of wine. Ariadne has vowed to never fall in love because of her duty to relieve her husbands over to the Goddess she serves, Artemis, after only a few years. I am a big fan of Greek mythology and retellings so needless to say, I was thrilled to read this.

There were good and bad parts of the story for me. For me, the characters lacked depth. I would have enjoyed a lot more insight into their thought processes and because of this, things seemed to happen very suddenly and out of nowhere. I did like that all the characters were flawed, some more so than others, in one way or another. The love story between Ariadne and Dionysus takes of right from the start. This surprised me because of her vow to not fall in love because of her duties to Artemis. Ariadne is usually a minor character in Greek mythology so it was nice to see her take center stage. I really enjoyed the strong feminist messages in the story in a typically male dominated world. This book doesn't shy away from the rape culture that is often associated with Greek mythology. Consent and rape culture are explored here. There is also good representation of Sapphic love. It is refreshing to see the diversity. The writing style was a bit confusing for me as well. I felt it read like a YA book but there were a decent amount of vivid sex scenes throughout.

All in all, this was enjoyable but I really wanted the characters to be more developed than they were. It was hard for me to invest in them. I think people who love Greek retelling will really enjoy this. People who enjoy feminist themes and themes of Sapphic love should also enjoy this book

Something about this book fell flat for me. I enjoyed it in a sense, as I do with all Greek Mythology books, but it was a little dense and sometimes I had to take a break from the information pour outs.

I love mythology, and was really looking forward to this book, but I feel like it fell flat. The writing was uneven - it varied between archaic and modern to a degree that made it hard to read in some places. While the romance aspect was interesting (who doesn't love a retelling?), it just didn't make up for the rest being uninteresting.

4.5 stars

This has been a very complex and dense read.

As, I guess, it is with any Greek myth. Now imagine a re-telling.
There are a lot of characters, a lot of scenes, a lot of moments that are important and that bring the hero and heroine to their destiny.

I did find this book a bit hard to read but I guess it's only natural to be written in a specific tone, in a certain vibe that resembles those ancient times.

It's greatness and what I liked the most was what the author intended, to give Ariadne agency. This is a story for our times. For despite how many stories we know about the Greek goddess, here the hero is faithful, their love undying and their connection and family life what we would crave in these modern times. It's an extraordinary hero's journey of how Dionysus is accepted as a god, and Ariadne's own heroine's journey that, despite her agency, is still the hard journey of a mortal woman in any time, a bit at the favor of gods.

I loved the feminist passages and questions that rose about the women's place and duties, and I found it interesting how the goddess perception changed for Ariadne. I felt in the end a meeting between Ariadne and her past goddess would have added more of a closure, but it may have made this book into something else.

Along with this thought provoking ideas, the writing shone wonderfully especially in moments where the powerful ones demonstrated their gifts, when what we call magic would unleash into the pages. Especially Ariadne's descent, her powers and Dionysus transformations were a work of beauty and imagination.

All in all, a powerful, dense read, meant for our times. A book worth reading for anyone passionate about the goddess, the Greek Myths but searching for a bit of feminist infusions.

I received a copy of this in exchange for my honest opinion.

Unfortunately, I could not finish this book. I'm not really certain why. Something just did not appeal to me. I didn't like any of the characters, which is unusual because I love Greek mythology. This book just failed to hold my interest. Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for allowing me the opportunity to read this book, I"m only sorry that it wasn't for me.

I couldn’t read this book before its release, but I really wanted to. I had a busy fortnight, I had to work and study for my finals. So, I can’t give an actual rating. However, I’m considering buying the book in the future.

3.5 stars rounded up.

I loved how each of the Gods and Goddesses were woven into this retelling, but something was just missing for me. A beautiful plot from start to finish but didn't have the same level of excitement I have come to love from this genre.

Ariadne Unraveled
A mythical retelling

by Zenobia Neil

Thank you Victoria Editing and @Netgallery for the ARC copy in return for an honest review.

Ariadne, The Princess of Crete, abandoned on the Island of Naxos by Theseus, was said to be the lover of Dionysus.

Ariadne Unraveled, is at its core a love story. In an act of revenge against his sister the Goddess Artemis, Dionysus sets out to spoil her High Priestess Ariadne, not expecting to fall in love. With Ariadne’s life under threat if their relationship continues, Dionysus vowing revenge must abandon the Cretan Princess and seek to prove himself among the Gods of Olympus.

The retelling of Greek Myth has become an increasingly popular genre and with such beautiful and lyrical references available to draw from, it is an arduous task.

Credit to the author, it was evident she had done plenty of research. The tale included ample back story and characters, and the exploration of female sexuality interesting. But, while it ticked along at a good pace, I found it hard to stick with. The writing was often flat, one dimensional and the story lacked quality world building or character development. As a reader I felt impassive and unconnected to the cast.

In a market laden with beautiful stories of Greek hero’s and heroines, Ariadne Unraveled unfortunately felt mediocre at best.

Ariadne Unraveled by Zenobia Neil (thank you, NetGalley, for the review copy) is a retelling of the myth of Ariadne and Dionysus. The novel opens with Ariadne waking up on the shores of Naxos realizing that Theseus has abandoned her, then goes back in time to tell the story of what brought here there and follows her forward through the aftermath of Theseus’ flight back to Athens without her.

Things I liked about the novel:

It invited me think about how connected the ancients were to the natural world, to the cycles and rhythms of the seasons. This is fairly rare among novel retellings that I’ve read this year and generally.

The way Neil reimagines relationships is interesting to think about, not only Ariadne and Dionysus’ but also Pasiphae and the bull’s, Minos and Poseidon’s, Ariadne and Theseus’. Neil draws on Cretan prehistory and ancient myth in a thought-provoking way.

The novel does not try to force linearity and rationality into the at times very different narratives that have come down to us. Dionysus’ portrait across ancient sources can vary wildly (pun intended). Neil draws on a range of source materials, but she lets the contradictions sit rather than tidying them up into a coherent narrative.

A few observations:

Neil doesn’t always seem in control of the story. This is especially the case with the characterization of Dionysus. Reading this novel made me appreciate, once again, how difficult it is to create a coherent narrative around such different versions of the same figures and stories. I appreciate that Neil didn’t force it; at the same time, it can feel like random versions of Dionysus are plopped into the story without comment, leaving me wondering why it’s there and what, if anything, we’re meant to make of Dionysus’ various guises.

There’s a fair amount of generalizing out of the specific, an example being sentences like, “The promise of a man was worthless.” I dare say many of us make these kinds of generalizations often enough; I’m sure I do, anyway. Perhaps it’s because this kind of rhetorical move is so rampant these days that it feels past time for a gentle reminder (to myself as well): Anecdotes are not evidence of a pattern. And while I’m here: Correlation is not causation.

There is quite a bit of very explicit sexual content. I won’t say it had no purpose, because it likely contributed to item one under things I appreciated about the novel, but it was not for me. If it is for you and you enjoy myth retellings, I recommend this novel..

I really wanted to like this book, but I couldn’t connect with the characters or writing style. That doesn’t mean it’s not a good book, of course—everyone has different tastes so if the description appeals to you, give it a go.

3 stars for Ariadne Unraveled. I'm a huge greek mythology/retelling fan so I was excited to get my hands on a copy of this book. The baseline of the story was pretty enjoyable. It started out quick with some insta-love which is not my favorite trope but I plowed on. It goes on to retell the story of Ariadne and all of the side characters in an interesting way. Zenobia does a great job of incorporating all of the different characters and putting her own unique spin on it. Unfortunately, the writing was just kind of lackluster beyond that to me. I still found it enjoyable and would recommend to greek mythology fans but I wasn't as blown away as I wanted to be.

Copied from by blog post on Instagram.com/abbeyreadthis
Posted on July 11th, 2021
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Ariadne Unraveled by Zenobia Neil
* This ARC was provided to me by Victoria Editing Co-op through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review!

As you may know, my comfort genre is mythological retellings. I fell in love with them this year, and applied for this ARC because I felt like it would be a great fit for me! I found this story entertaining and easy to keep reading, however, I feel like it was not written at an advanced level. There were many times the writing fell flat because instead of the author showing us readers through description and character interaction (with environment, other characters, etc), the author told us flatly and left nothing to be imagined. This novel lacked imagery in so many large sections so the style of writing felt uneven and underdeveloped thus making it read like an advanced rough draft.

(SPOILER in these parentheses only: a major example of this underdeveloped description is the scene where Thalia is transformed into a leopard and instead of giving a ton of imagery on this fantastical transformation, it happens within a few sentences.)

I do want to say that for me the strong point in this novel was Neil’s authenticity of ancient Crete and her descriptions of the culture. There are random moments of eroticism that in today’s culture would be taboo to talk about, but for the Cretans it was normal and acceptable. The women walk around topless and femininity and the feminine divine is embraced strongly and Neil is not shy in depicting this. Reading felt more authentic because of Neil embracing these dynamics of life in Crete.

This greek myth retelling was full of magic and desire, and the culture was rich in the cities depicted. The main characters, Ariadne and Dionysus, as well as side characters are given strong personalities and that made for entertaining relationships with one another. I just wish this novel had a more constant and steady level of imagery so that this plot could really come to life and feel less detached and rushed.

2.5/5 stars.

Unfortunately, I did not have it in me to finish this book and I put it away around 40%. I am a big fan of Greek mythology and I love mythology re-tellings. For this reason, I was very excited to pick up this one. What I got was insta-lovestory and smut with characters from mythology, rather than a further exploration of the myth. It felt flat, I felt nothing for those characters (some of them also came off as rather unlikeable, which I don’t think was the goal), which resulted in me not really being interested in continuing with the story. The writing did not sit well with me either.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC of this book.

Ariadne Unraveled is the first restelling of the story of Ariadne I have read so far. I appreciated the desire to cast her into the main character role rather than a side character to Theseus and the Minotaur.

I think she told the the story well, based on the original myth, but I didn't really find anything unique about this retelling. The overall narrative simply felt like what it was, a retelling of the classic story.

The story is told quite well, but it was just a little too straightforward and factual seeming for my taste. I need more emotion and deep thought when I read retellings, or else, it just feels like I am rereading the original tale once again.

I would have wanted more of a build up to Ariadne and Dionysus falling in love. Instead, they gave in to lust within the first few pages and not much seemed to emotionally develop from there.

Overall, this is written well, but it reads more like a semi-erotic history book rather than a story I want to dive into.

Thank you to NetGalley for providing an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was an interesting read. Like most people, I only know Ariadne as a "side character" in the myth of the minotaur, and I love that Neil brought her to the forefront. (Seriously, why are 98% of women relegated to the backgrounds in Greek mythology?? I know, men wrote them...) This is an exciting and entertaining story, there is always something happening. However, that sometimes made it slightly difficult to read- I like a little "down time" in a plot, to make the exciting episodes that much more. In any case, I think she brings Ariadne's story to life well. And also, Dionysus- I appreciated that he got the full treatment, too. He is far less of a caricature here than in other myths and stories.

The reason I docked a star was how sexually graphic it was throughout the entire book. There are trigger warnings at the start to warn you, so I wasn't surprised by its presence, but I didn't expect it to dominate the book. Because of it, the story felt a tiny bit one-dimensional. Still, a fantastic retelling of an oft-ignored figure!

3 stars
I'm kinda disappointed with this book. It wasn't bad but I expected more of it.
It was also too insta love for me and I felt like the characters weren't well developed which made me not enjoyed this as much as I wanted to.
A shame because I love the tale of Ariadne and Dyonisius, I wished I liked this more.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for the chance to read this book in exchange for an honest review

Ended up having to put this book down a lot as it just was not my kind of book.
I was so excited going into this book as it was based on one of my favourite couples from Greek mythology- I absolutely love Dionysus and Ariadne and the multiple myths and plays surrounding these characters.

I usually love picking up a myth retelling too but this just did not hit the mark for me. Straight away there is instant love; I can understand the instant lust, but the instant love? No. Especially when Ariadne realises her love for Dionysus (which happens early on in the book) ... it just came out from nowhere. There was no development for the shift in emotion and was too sudden for this to portray any real depth.

The writing style of this is also something I couldn’t enjoyably read. It was almost YA/middle grade but then random sex snippets would be put in; it just was a bit jarring to read.
I also found that the characters just weren’t that developed and had sudden emotions and not much chemistry? It made it difficult to believe in and understand their love, especially when the characters would constantly just get with other people. I think I wanted more emotional depth, rather than something that appeared superficial.

I do like that this novel contained scenes of sapphic love and showing all the facets of love that the god Dionysus partakes in.