This has been my most highly anticipated 2022 release! Ariadne was my absolute favorite book last year hands down. So I can't help but compare the two since I had such high hopes of a similar experience again with Elektra. And, Elektra doesn't quite live up to Ariadne. In some ways it is simply a different beast.

Ariadne followed one character primarily who was basically a really sympathetic, good person. Elektra follows three main characters and the reader does not read with the assurance that these are basically good people. They make questionable choices and go to extremes that the average reader won't relate to. Ariadne was generally a story with darkness and tragedy, but also hope and tenacity. Electra is dark and tragic and melancholic.

What remains the same between the two books is the gorgeous, poetic prose of Jennifer Saint. Her writing is absolutely beautiful. Elektra is still very much women-centered and feminist. Saint's female characters are dynamic and engaged in their own stories. Male characters are not forgiven their faults or given a kind edit. Motherhood is discussed in beautiful, realistic, and varied ways. I adore the way Saint writes about motherhood.

I will read anything Jennifer Saint writes. Elektra didn't quite live up to my experience with Ariadne, but I still loved it. It is more of a 4.5 than a radiating 5 stars though.

I listened to the audio version of this book and thought it was lovely. There are three different readers for the three different main characters. Once I figured out who was who it was nice to be able to tell which character was which based on the sound of their voice. I did have to make myself a cheat sheet in the beginning to keep all the characters, relationships, and cities straight. I wonder if the print version has a map or character list. I feel that would help a lot.

Sexual violence? Yes, mentions of war rape, but nothing graphic or on page. Other content warnings? Grisly murder, dysfunctional family, slavery, classism portrayed, marital infidelity, birth, child killing/eating.

Elektra is in so many ways what I wanted Jennifer Saint’s debut novel Ariadne to be. Yes, it’s also a re-telling of a familiar story in Greek mythology narrated from the perspective of one of the less-celebrated female characters. Where Ariadne tackled the mythos of the Theseus and the Minotaur, Elektra instead explores the perhaps even more widely known saga of the Trojan War. But it doesn’t focus on the most pivotal female character of the epic tale - Helen. Instead, we get to envision the twisted lives of Helen’s sister and niece, as well as the proselytizing princess of Troy, Cassandra.

At its core, this book is an exploration of the unending cycle of hatred and vengeance that plagues Agamemnon's family - from his own tumultuous rise to power, to his wife’s 10-year plot to murder him, to her daughter’s own festering grudge. By allowing both daughter and mother a perspective, it’s so easy to sympathize with both women and their very different experiences with grief. It makes it impossible to find a side to pick, very intentionally so. And Cassandra’s own story - told in a tangential timeline as the war wages in Troy - is no less frustrating to read. We have an incredibly powerful narrator who could be the key to preventing the ruin of her city, if anyone would listen to her. This book gives each of these three characters a voice.

If I could nitpick any aspect of the book, it would be the slight clunkiness in which Cassandra’s perspective is woven into the story here - and its abrupt end. It’s a necessary end, by all rights, but left me feeling adrift. Like I was waiting for one final chapter from her perspective, instead of the ending we get from Clytemnestra's POV. And while this could have been the point, I do feel the conclusion of the novel itself suffered from the same abruptness. It wraps many years, and so much struggle, into so few pages I felt it almost could have been excluded altogether - leaving Elektra and her brother alone in the wake of their matricide. But even lacking a perfectly executed ending, my journey with the book as a whole completely overshadowed the conclusion.

If you come to Greek mythology for sweeping epics and grand battles, Elektra may not be the book for you. It uses these feats of what have gone down in history as heroism to instead tell the winding, bitter tales of the women whose lives are torn apart by these wars. It’s not a happy story, or even a bittersweet but victorious one, but I found that this work resonated with me in all the ways I look for in a mythological retelling. While I was a bit hesitant that Jennifer Saint was an author I wanted to continue with after her highly anticipated debut fell flat for me, Elektra has solidified her status as an illustrator of Greek mythos I can trust.

Thank you to the publisher Macmillan Audio for providing an audiobook ARC via NetGalley for an honest review.

This retelling of the Trojan War through the eyes of three women - Clytemnestra, Princess Cassandra and of course, Elektra - is so beautifully done. And even though this is a story that has been told through the ages, the author breathes new life into it by giving voice to these three women. The writing is truly masterful and the narrators are so talented. I loved listening to this book so much!! It is absolutely spellbinding.

This was STUNNING! I loved seeing this side of mythology and have quickly become a Jennifer Saint fan. For someone who absolutely didn’t like the mythology section in English during high school, this book really turned the tide! Insightful, tender, strong. Loved it.

I was given an eArc of the audiobook of this title in exchange for an honest review.

First off, the audiobook knocks it out of the park, definitely recommend picking up the audiobook if possible. It's a very internal monologue heavy book and all of the narrators give beautiful emotional performances.

I feel like this book was written specifically for me. I'm a huge fan of the Oresteia and in particular the main female characters of the work who get very little screen time. This novel dramatizes various scenes from the myths that typically get little screen time such as the sacrifice of Iphigenia from the point of view of Clytemnestra and the sacking of Troy from the point of view of Cassandra. It also successfully plays off of the readers already knowing what's going to happen in order to build a mounting sense of dread. In particular I enjoyed the mother daughter relationship between Clytemnestra and Electra, it was written in a very human way where both characters felt completely justified in their actions.

I will say I did not like how the death of Cassandra was written and the book dragged at parts. But overall, a wonderful piece.

Despite being written by a different author, I'd say this book is almost a companion to The Song of Achilles.
Unfortunately It just wasn't for me. I think I'm just not a fan of historical fiction. Also, Elektra (the character) was a god damn nightmare and I dreaded every one of her chapters.

This felt like a retelling that didn't add much to the original mythological tale. There was such a great opportunity to use the female characters and tell a different story and instead we just get the female's point of view, in relationship to the men in their lives. They have little to no agency, are completely flooded and preoccupied with the men in their lives, and it just felt a bit boring because there wasn't anything new. I'm also dramatically bored with how so many retellings choose to focus on the feminism aspect of the mythology yet don't retell any of the slaves' perspectives or stories to be better, with the exception of Song of Achilles.

On an audiobook note, very early in the book it stops telling whose story each chapter is which is incredibly difficult to parse out. I'm very familiar with Greek mythology so after a few moments I was able to tell who was who, but there's absolutely no way most people would know what's going on, so I very much hope that this will be remedied in the final version. I would have still recommended this audiobook despite my own feelings on the story if this hadn't occurred, because people love these retellings, but I would never order this for my library knowing it's set up so confusingly without each chapter starting with the name of who is speaking.

Deliciously decadent drama, mythological mystery & murder, ethereal epic war, barbarous brutality, gods, heroes, warriors, and strong women all play a part in this beautifully written retelling of the stories of Elektra, Odysseus, Agamemnon, Clytemnestra, Helen, and Menelaus and the Trojan War. In a true companion book to her 2021 book "Ariadne," Jennifer Saint's writing is compelling and spell-binding. As a fan of all things mythology, this book will be highly recommended by me - and I look forward to her next novel.

The story of Troy from the perspective of the women in the tale.

Honestly if I hadn’t just read A Thousand Ships I might have enjoyed this more. It wasn’t bad just very similar, maybe a bit less emotional/gruesome.

If you haven’t already read mythology focused on the ladies this is a good one.

Another fantastic retelling of Greek mythology from Jennifer Saint! I loved Ariadne and enjoyed Elektra just as much, any future retellings by Saint are definite auto-reads for me. I love that the stories/perspectives she chooses to tell are ones that are not as well known so it feels like something new, not just a rehash of the stories we’ve heard many times/ways…and she does such a fantastic job of really fleshing the characters out and bringing the stories fully to brilliant, and often brutal, life.

The story moves through the different perspectives of Elektra, Cassandra, and Clytemnestra at different points in their lives but most of the story happens through the arc of the Trojan War. For Elektra being the title character, she has the least ‘screen time’ of the three which is honestly ok cause she’s kind of the worst, so I think Saint made a good choice in not giving her more focus than she did. It’s just enough to get to know and understand her, but not so much that her immature and kind of spoiled personality could veer into grating instead of ‘love to hate’…I kept waiting for her to redeem herself and become “better” some how, mature and grow up, something…because that’s what we’re so used to in stories, right? So I actually loved that she never did, because that’s reality…people don’t always magically become better people who make better choices. And all of that’s not to say that you don’t also feel bad for her and understand how she ended up like that, because it’s written so well that you are able to sympathize with and dislike her simultaneously. Same goes for Clytemnestra who I felt was more dynamic overall. She does terrible things but with the depth and perspective we’re given, you can still feel for and understand her at the same time. Cassandra’s perspective probably tore my heart out the most of the three, I would have happily read an entire book just of her story.

I really enjoyed that the audiobook was narrated by three different women (whose performances were great - especially Clytemnestra, she was excellent!) and I found their voices distinctive enough from each other that I didn’t have any trouble telling which character was currently narrating and it helped keep the story flowing without having to break for any other kind of signifiers.

Fingers crossed for more retellings being in the works because I love these and absolutely want to read more!

This was AMAZING! I read it in under 24 hours. The multiple POVs made the story fly by. I know very little about Greek mythology beyond the big guns, but I could tell this was going to all intertwine at the end and I couldn't wait to watch the story unfold. I feel like women are often forgotten in the stories of the ancient Greeks, okay and throughout history, so it was so refreshing to read about three important Greek women. I was a little surprised that it wasn't more focused on Elektra, which I assumed would be mostly about her based on the title. But I really did enjoy learning about all three women. The stories told here are beautifully written, lyrically even. I really liked that the story of the Trojan war itself was in the background giving room for the focus to be on these women. The stories of these women deserve to be told and remembered just like the stories of the Gods. I will absolutely be buying and reading anything that Saint puts out.

Three very different women were all brought together by one event, the Trojan war. Clytemnestra, the wife of Agamemnon, and her daughter Elektra on one side of the war and Cassandra, princess of Troy, on the other. Their lives changed drastically when Helen of Sparta, the most beautiful woman in the world, was taken to Troy sparking an all-out war that would span more than 10 years. A story full of tragedy after tragedy, Saint weaves together the tales and history of three very different women at the heart of Ancient Greece.

**My biggest complaint is with the audiobook and not the book. There absolutely should have been the announcement of each character at the start of each and every chapter. When you have multiple POVs like that, it gest to be very confusing for listeners who aren't familiar with the Greek myths, like myself. Sometimes it took half the chapter to realize who we were talking about.**

Thank you to Netgalley & Macmillan Audio for the early access to Elektra!

Thank you NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for this audiobook for a honest review.

I really did enjoy this book and I haven’t read anything that had dealt with Elektra. The narrators did a great job telling the story. However, in the beginning of the book (the first couple of chapters) they specified who were the characters and then you were on your own trying to figure who was who. This made it slightly confusing for me. I also wanted to see more from Elektra. We didn’t get that until the end of the book. This book went into great depth and detail about the ladies point of view during the war. I think Jennifer Saint’s writing is great.

I was so excited to read Elektra by Jennifer Saint. I had not read any books that retold Elektra's point of view- although I have read an absurd amount of Greek myth retellings (and I love them).

I have mixed feelings about Elektra by Jennifer Saint. I enjoyed the novel, but I don't think it delivers what it promises. Based on the title, I expected the story to center Elektra. Yet, she doesn't become relevant until the last fourth of the book. Even then, her character is flat and- for me- not compelling at all. I think Saint really missed the opportunity to develop the character and give us a real glimpse into her relationships and mindset. All the details that could have given Elektra some weight are vague and brief (probably because 75% of the novel is spent in Troy unnecessarily). Elektra's mother, Clytemnestra, is given much more attention. I enjoyed her character, and certainly saw more depth there.

Cassandra, daughter of King Priam, is also part of the novel. Although I probably enjoyed her parts the best, I do not think she should have been given her own POV in this novel. For me, she made the novel convoluted. Cassandra's storyline takes you away from Mycenea, where Clytemnestra and especially the title character Elektra could have used more attention. I wish we would have known Cassandra only from Clytemnestra's perspective and their intention.

Now, the audiobook performance was fantastic!

There have been several good modern retellings of Greek Myths which I have enjoyed and Jennifer Saint's latest is among them. I enjoyed the narration, but agree with another reviewer that (especially early on), the novel would have been easier to follow with some audible indicator (announcing the new character) when the POV changes.

First line: Mycenae is silent, but I can’t sleep tonight.

Summary: Told through three female voices of the Trojan War, the reader is transported into the world of Ancient Greece and one of the most famous wars of all time.

Clytemnestra is the sister of Helen and wife of Agamemnon. Her sister is taken by the Prince of Troy, Paris. As her husband prepares for war at any cost Clytemnestra is shattered by his choices.

Cassandra is a princess of Troy but cursed by the god Apollo with visions of the future. However, with this power comes the disbelief of everyone around her. She sees the future of Troy but cannot do anything to stop it.

And Elektra is the daughter of Agamemnon and Clytemnestra. The war has taken everything from her. She knows that her family is cursed but is she destined to break it or follow in her ancestors footsteps?

My Thoughts: When I saw that Jennifer Saint was doing another Greek retelling I was beyond excited. I loved Ariadne! It was a story I was unfamiliar with and it reignited my interest in the Ancient Greeks. Similar to Ariadne is the story of Elektra. I had never heard of Elektra or Clytemnestra since I have not read The Illiad by Homer. I think now I will have to pick it up. I remember reading and enjoying The Odyssey in high school.

I liked Cassandra’s storyline the most. She was an instrument of the gods who is mistreated by her family even as she continues to try and save them and her city. But the other two characters, Clytemnestra and Elektra, drove me crazy. Both were driven by revenge and hatred. I know that this was their roles in the myth but it was just so much that I really despised both of them. Saint did a good job of making them unlikeable but I could also understand their anger to a point. They had both been hurt by someone they loved.

I hope that Jennifer Saint continues with these retellings because I will be there for all of them!

FYI: Lots of murder and blood!

Magnificent. That’s the best way to describe this book. It blew me away. I read Ariadne last year, and Elektra is my favorite of the two. Fans of Circe and The Song of Achilles will love this one and recognize a lot of the same myths.

I was immediately swept up by Saint’s gorgeous rolling atmospheric prose. All of the Greek myths I had learned about in school were brought to life here in a way textbooks and Ancient Greek plays never quite achieved.

This story is a feminist retelling of the Trojan War from the perspectives of Clytemnestra (wife of King Agamemnon), Elektra (their daughter), and Cassandra (cursed priestess and daughter of King Priam of Troy). I loved how Saint centered the perspectives of three women who have typically been side characters in Greek tragedies.

Cassandra has the gift of prophecy and can see the horrors of war that are coming, but she is cursed by Apollo to have no one believe her visions. Clytemnestra is a woman consumed by vengeance against her husband for the horrible act he committed. And Elektra yearns for her father’s affection and anxiously awaits his return from war.

Cassandra was my favorite character. She was also the least bent on homicide and vengeance. I was rooting for Clytemnestra during most of the story, and I thought Elektra was the least likable of the three. Elektra’s obsession with her dad was a bit too much (hence the Electra Complex), and her disregard for her sister’s fate and her mother’s grief seemed heartless. (Side note: I love unlikable characters!)

While listening to the audiobook, it took me a beat to get used to which narrator belonged to which character. But when I did, I became fully immersed in the stories and phenomenal narration.

Saint breathes life into ancient Greek myths. She dusts them off and offers a fresh feminist perspective from women who never had the center stage. I can’t wait for her next book!

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

Okay, so this isn't a negative review of the book itself or Saint's writing, but of the audiobook itself. I fervently believe that I would have enjoyed ELEKTRA a lot more if not for the choices made in the production of the audiobook itself, so I'll start off with my big beef with it:

We have a multi-POV book focusing on Cassandra, Clymenstra and Elektra before, during, and after the Battle of Troy. For the narration, there are 3 different narrators, but those narrators sound very similar in the way they speak. None of this was EXPLICITLY bad. But when you have a multi-POV book, there's usually an indication at the beginning of each chapter where the POV shifts of which character is speaking. Even in audiobooks that have a male and female narrator this is a thing, but not in Elektra. You get that for the first 3 chapters and then you are on your own. If you haven't memorized which narrator belongs to which character yet, you are out of luck. This was a horrible choice and ruined this book for me. I was so confused and half the time I had no idea who was speaking or what was going on. You can't just make these assumptions, especially for those of us who are hearing impaired and have a hard time with depth perception. Because I was completely disconnected from the story in this way, I couldn't rate it any higher, even though the moments that did suck me in (which because of the narration issue, didn't happen often) were well-written, and I found some of the characters to be compelling. I also loved the fierce feminist rage that laces these pages and how Saint has brought about the agency, involvement and loss women faced in these stories.

But yeah. I am being generous because I like Saint and her writings, but the choices made in this audiobook are a disservice for readers like me.

When I saw the audio of this available on NetGalley I figured I would give it this one a try. I haven’t read anything else from this author but I’ve heard good things about Ariadne so I hoped I would be safe. I liked her writing and I thought the flow of the story worked well. There were a few parts where I found myself unsure which persons perspective I was in but I was mostly able to track it. All 3 women have their own narrator so that was really helpful. I would maybe recommend reading this one with your eyes instead of your ears if that’s an option for you. The audiobook is good I just caught myself needing to back up a few times because I missed something. Mostly a me thing but figured I would share my experience.

If you like Greek mythology retellings you will like this. Check it out if that’s your thing. Thank you to NetGalley, Flatiron Books, and Macmillan Audio for the advance copy of the audiobook. Release date is 5/3!
This will be posted on my Instagram @katebrownreads as well. Will update with link once posted.

4 stars

Saint's second mythological retelling with a more modern, fem-friendly perspective, is even more successful than her last. If you're interested in the topic and/or have the slightest inkling of who the titular character is (and you don't need to be a buff because Saint is going to paint enough of a picture for even those with the most basic understanding to succeed here), queue this.

I've been teaching Great Myths and Legends at the college level for nearly two decades now, and I'm a devoted Miller fan (and constant teacher of her works). So, I found myself somewhat expectedly underwhelmed by Saint's first effort, _Ariadne_, because I couldn't quite separate that outrageous character development I'm used to from more of the explication that appears in Saint's work. I enjoyed but did not love the first one. But, I found myself much more engaged in the stories and perspectives of these women.

Folks who have the opportunity to pick up the audio version should. The narration is fantastic. Clytemnestra comes across as - well - completely reasonable, and that is due to a mix of stellar writing and performing. The person who narrates Elektra captures the secretive, questioning, vulnerable qualities mixed expertly with Elektra's passion for vengeance. Perhaps the best modern moment she needed but did not get is learning to "Let It Go" with Elsa, but wow. Saint and the narrator really highlight the complexity behind what seems like Elektra's immature and somewhat basic desire to avenge her father (and really herself...that life she *should* have been living).

I came into Saint's work a pleasantly surprised skeptic last year, but with this most recent installment, I'm finding myself a legitimate fan. Of course, I'll be sharing a strong recommendation that my students and all interested parties pick up this one (especially the audio version where available).