Elizabeth Saint delivers another great mythology retelling. The story is told the perspectives of three very different women, Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and Elektra. The timeline jumps periodically as it traces the lives of these women from the events that shaped their childhood to their tragic adulthoods. This just serves to lend the story a rich depth of character and bring these women to life. The Trojan War and the fall of the house of Atreus are both stories familiar to most, but hearing it told from these perspectives was a very enjoyable alternative to the original source material. This book is a slow burn, building up tension, as you know that tragedy is just around the corner, and you can’t help but hope these women will somehow avoid their fate.

I love this author and the book but I found the narrator for Clytemnestra boring to listen to.

I enjoyed Cassandra’s voice.

This retelling was gorgeous! I wasn’t very familiar with the three women in the story but was familiar with the major mythology surrounding each of their stories. From the very beginning I was enraptured with the writing and the story. I knew instantly I was going to love this book! I loved the three female perspectives in this story and how we see that they are all interconnected. The author writes beautifully and really portrayed these age old tales stunningly! I listened to the audiobook that I received as an arc from NetGalley and I highly recommend it as the voices were stunning!

If you’re a fan of Greek retellings then you HAVE to pick up this book!!

From the moment I tuned in to Elektra, I was instantly captivated. Jennifer Saint's Greek retelling follows three women whose lives are upturned by the Trojan War: Cassandra, the seer cursed to never be believed; Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon (who the book would probably have been named after if she didn't have such a difficult name); and the eponymous Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon's youngest daughter. In the tradition of an epic, Elektra spans several decades, beginning when Clytemnestra is a young woman about to be married and ending years after her death. The novel takes on a dreamy tone as it sails through time and space, creating an atmosphere perfect for an entrancing read.

Cassandra and Clytemnestra are both phenomenal characters, with the former acting as our window into a besieged Troy. In this retelling, Cassandra's curse is a punishment from Apollo after she refuses his advances. Contempt for women is a recurring motif in this story, but it's handled well enough that it never takes the reader out of the story. We see Cassandra agonize over her visions while gaining insight into fabled characters such as Cassandra's parents, King Priam and Queen Hecabe, her brothers Hector and Paris, and Helen, Clytemnestra's sister and the woman who, along with her lover Paris, helped trigger the decade-long war. Helen is one of the few people who is kind to Cassandra and does not believe that she is mad, but we never get to know her as well as the other women. She agrees to marry the Spartan king because she does not wish to leave her home, but is then willing to abandon her family for Paris. When she is finally asked directly whether she chose to leave with him or not, she prevaricates by claiming the Greeks would have found a reason to wage war on Troy without her. Maybe it's true, but it also comes across as a way for the author to avoid having to reconcile Helen's decisions with the way she is characterized here.

Clytemnestra is the true protagonist of our story, and she is one of the most well-written characters I've read in ages. Devastated when Agamemnon slays their eldest daughter as a sacrifice for fair winds on the voyage to Troy, Clytemnestra vows revenge on her husband, determined to avenge their daughter. Even in the depths of her rage, Clytemnestra is an exceptionally empathetic woman, finding herself unable to hate Helen for what she did, commiserating with King Priam after Hector's death, earning the loyalty of slaves, and even expressing anger on behalf of Briseis, the woman Agamemnon took as prize of war. Briseis is not the only one of Agamemnon's slaves to earn Clytemnestra's pity: in this version, Clytemnestra kills Cassandra out of mercy, freeing the seer from her agony at last. The only person Clytemnestra can't forgive is her husband.

Yet this book falls short of a full five stars due to one glaring issue: Elektra herself. Saint is able to humanize the other women in the cast, but she never quite manages to make sense of titular character. Elektra easily shrugs off her sister's murder, never believing that her father would think to harm her as well. She idolizes Agamemnon, whom she has not seen since she was a young child, and will not hear a word against him. When Clytemnestra expresses empathy for Briseis, Elektra is furious that her mother would dare question his right to conquest. She sees Cassandra arrive home with her father and thinks that Cassandra must feel honored to be a king's bed slave. She convinces her brother to murder their mother, and never experiences a moment's remorse, believing that she has finally avenged her father--a man who, again, Elektra has not seen in a decade and was too young to have truly known. Is Elektra supposed to be delusional? Perhaps, but after establishing that Agamemnon's line has been cursed by violence and vengeance, there is little indication that Elektra was wrong to continue the cycle of revenge, or that--much like her mother--she may be the next victim. Elektra was a difficult character to understand or connect with, and some of her later decisions--most notably how she uses and discards her lifelong best friend-turned-husband--make her hard to even like.

Even if the book's namesake fell flat, Elektra is still one of the best fiction books I've read during the last few years. I would recommend it to anyone who loves Greek mythology, or just anyone who simply enjoys complex, introspective characters.

Electra is a prefect follow up to Ariadne. Saint managed to capture the same magic a second time around. This narration is very well done and enhances the story. It made me want to go back and reread Ariadne on audio.

Saint takes such care with these classic stories and updates/adapts them in a beautiful and meaningful way. I adore a retelling and the best ones are those that add just a little something new. Saint's examination of Elektra, Cassandra, and Clytemnestra's lives and choices felt classic yet modern in a way that made their choices so relatable even in. extraordinary circumstances.

I absolutely loved this audiobook!

Being able to listen and hearing this story formo three different POVs.

I would rather actually read the book the next time, so much is going on that at one point it was difficult to keep up.

All in all, I really enjoyed Elektra.


Thank you so much NetGalley and Macmillan audio for this audiobook in exchange for my honest review.

𝔼𝕝𝕖𝕜𝕥𝕣𝕒 𝔸𝕦𝕕𝕚𝕠 🎧 ℝ𝕖𝕧𝕚𝕖𝕨

𝐓𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐠𝐡𝐭𝐬:
I have been a fan of Greek mythology for some time, so when I saw this retelling, I instantly wanted to read it.

The story is exquisitely atmospheric, you can feel the devotion that Saint has for these characters and the work that has gone into to narrating their stories.

This one was a little harder for my to follow on audio; so it took some rewind ⏪ but I will definitely get the physical copy now! Each character is extremely well written - Overall, a very passionate beautiful story!

Thank you @netgalley & @macmillan.audio for letting me listen to this audio in return for my honest review. #Netgalley #MacmillanAudio #Elektra

Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

4+ stars. Jennifer Saint's writing is so poetic and has so much emotion in it, I have really enjoyed everything she has done so far. The audio narration was wonderful. The book has three different POV narrators and they had three different voice actors for each which I really enjoyed - it brought another level of depth to story and audio.

DAUGHTER OF SPARTA but more court drama

I really enjoyed this Greek story, focusing on the women often overlooked in legend. I enjoyed the world and intrigue, but I couldn't quite grasp onto a specific character to root for. ELEKTRA felt like a sprawling epic, but without the central, propulsive thread or a riveting character to carry the story. I'd have either preferred a focused, character-driven story or one with a stronger narrative thread. Felt a bit wander-y.

Highly recommended for anyone who enjoys upmarket stories of the ancient world, though. I think my ambivalence was largely a voice issue or just personal lack of connection.

I thoroughly enjoyed this Greek Mythology audiobook! I love most things Greek Mythology and this one did not disappoint. It's a trojan war retelling told from women's perspective and even though I've read several in that category I learned new takes on that myth and the characters surrounding it. I highly recommend for Greek mythology fans and strong female character fans.

The story of Elektra (Electra) has been told many times throughout history, from the great Sophocles to Voltaire and even, most recently, by Eugene O'Neill. Her story is worthy of being told time and time again, and Jennifer Saint did a beautiful job in her descriptive prose. Readers will walk away from this book understanding Elektra and her relationships, especially with her mother, Clytemnestra. Elektra and Clytemnestra had a fiery relationship, and I felt terrible for both of them for being so blinded by their love-- one for her children and one for her father, beset to make deadly decisions. I would recommend Elektra to those that love Greek mythology and its retellings, especially from the feminine perspective.

PS The narration on the audio version was superb!

This intriguing tragic story follows three women all bound to suffer from the curse on House Atreus. Clytemnestra, loyal to her children, plots revenge against her husband after the death of one of her daughters. Princess Cassandra of Troy, cursed by Apollo to see the future, but never to be believed when she speaks, desperately tries to save her family and people. Elektra, daughter of Clytemnestra, is fiercely loyal to her father and is fueled by hate for her mother to avenge her father. This story is an insightful mythology retelling about family, revenge, and tragedy. I really enjoyed the 3 different point of views. The were beautifully woven together by the author. The narrator did a great job. Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the opportunity to listen to this read in exchange for a review!!

Elektra: A Novel of the House of Atreus is a fantasy retelling of Greek mythology by Jennifer Saint. The ebook version is 320 pages. I listened to the audiobook, which clocks in at ten and a half hours and is narrated by Beth Eyre, Jane Collingwood, and Julie Teal. We follow three characters with first-person points-of-view.

Clytemnestra is the sister of Helen and the wife of Agamemnon, the king of Mycenae (of the house of Atreus). Her deepest hope is to stop the curse on their house, a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. But then Paris steals her sister Helen away to Troy and Agamemnon raises an army to get her back. Cassandra is the daughter of King Priam of Troy, cursed by Apollo to foresee the future while nobody believes what she says to be truth. She knows that the city will fall, but is powerless to stop it. Elektra is the youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon and hasn't seen her father in many years due to the war. Will she be able to sidestep the curse that has plagued her family?

I'm a big fan of classical mythology--so much so that it was my minor in college. This story leans more towards the Aeschylus version of the myth (as in his Oresteia trilogy) than the Sophocles or Euripides versions, while still being significantly different than any of those three. Most of Greek Mythology is told from a male point of view, so I really love it when feminist retellings show up on my TBR. This book focuses on the life of three particular women and their views before, during, and after the Trojan War. Even though the title of this book is Elektra, we spend the majority of the first half of the novel with Clytemnestra and Cassandra. Elektra is a heavier presence in the latter half of the book.

Tropes in this book include: retelling (Trojan War)

CW: war, attempted sexual assault, child death, murder, death

Special thanks to Macmillan Audio, Flatiron Books, and NetGalley for providing an audio galley of this book for me to review. All opinions contained herein are my own.

Jennifer Saint has a gift when it comes to breathing new life into ancient Greek stories. Once again she has delivered an alluring tale steeped in the classic mythological stories we all know but wrapped in a new package that makes it feel like a fresh, new story.

Although the title is Elektra, this story focuses on Clytemnestra and Cassandra as well. The intricate relationships and psychology between these females really come to life in Saint's story making you see the reasons behind some of the unfortunate choices that these women had to make in a world ruled by powerful men.

A delightful read that I will definitely revisit again and again.

A story of cyclical stupidity as foretold by generational prophecy, and narrated mostly by 2 women who have a truly impossible lack of self awareness (given their extreme understanding of literally everyone and everything else), as well as 1 woman who is unfortunate enough to have all the awareness that the other two are missing.

Kind of a frustrating read, even though that was the point. 3.5/5

Overall, I definitely enjoyed Elektra more than Ariadne.

The title - Why call it Elektra when it focuses on three different women? Very strange choice since Elektra’s story is completely dull and meaningless until the very end.

The main characters - I liked that we heard the stories from the POV of three female characters. I felt connected to Cassandra & Clytemnestra and understood their pain. Cassandra’s point of view was most interesting to me, as I’ve always wanted to know more about her story. I actually wish more time was spent in this book building out her story and POV. As a mother, I understood Clytemnestra’s pain, and it was so well written in this book. Her character is very well developed, and I feel that she is by far the most dominant character in the book. I felt no connection to Elektra. Her obsession with her monstrous father was almost creepy. Elektra annoyed me and I couldn’t understand the decisions she made.

The plot - Elektra is a classic story told from alternating points of view. Elektra’s storyline was incredibly boring. But the rest was very good and gave enough of a mix of action and drama to keep me interested. Since Helen is the biggest factor in the Trojan war (and such a well know character), I did miss her POV and wish we could understand what she was thinking during all of this instead of multiple characters just guessing at her thoughts and intentions.

Comments on the audiobook - The audiobook version was difficult to follow because it switched between the points of view without stating which character was speaking. Additionally, some of the names sounded similar on the audio, making it even harder to follow the plot. I had to rewind it a few times to make sure I got the story straight.

Thank you to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for allowing me to review this audiobook!

"Elektra" is an extremely well-crafted story that reimagines the myths of the House of Atreus through the perspective of three women, Clytemnestra, Elektra, and Cassandra. The author does a fantastic job of putting the reader in the shoes of these three women and getting us to understand what could have been going on in their minds. Jennifer Saint excels at both examining the details of what these women's lives and experiences would have been like, as well as tying their stories to the greater context. If you are new to the House of Atreus stories, there may be a bit of a barrier to entry as a lot of elements from Greek mythology and history and thrown at you right off the bat, though the other does try to provide overviews of the most key elements.

There are three narrators for this book and they work wonderfully together to bring the piece to life. I've listened to audiobooks that used multiple narrators before and those have felt gimmicky and generally turned me off from the audiobook version. It is the complete opposite here; the three narrators serve to differentiate the characters well enough and their performances manage to mesh together well; switching narrators between chapters is not jarring at all. My one critique of this element is that Elektra and Cassandra's narrators have fairly similar voices, and it was not always clear who I was listening to at the start of a new chapter, especially when coming back to the novel after putting it down for a while. The story does provide plenty of context to help figure out who is speaking, and listeners will pick up on the difference in their presentations before too long. Overall, an excellent story that was well delivered.

I love Greek myth and have adored recent retellings. I was super excited for this book but honestly, I don’t really know what was happening half the time. I feel like I now need to go research more of the characters to understand the story better. Which is not something I expected. With Lore, secret lives of gods and monsters, and Song of Achilles, I didn’t have to go learn the stories because they were pretty well done. I think the three POVs just muddled things for me personally.

The voice acting for this audiobook was absolutely perfect! The emotions of the characters were felt through the narrator's portrayal of them in the best of ways.

Fully a 5-star read-- I struggled at first to learn the characters, but the time spent was worth it. A retelling of the Trojan war, this is an exciting book full of gods, fallible humans, tragic miracles, and complex family dramas. I am already recommending it to others.