Of course I love any Greek mythology, and this one did not disappoint with its creative take on Phaedra’s encounter with Hippolytus and the ensuing tragedy. The characters seemed consistent with how they had been then, but the word choice made the story so accessible. A beautiful retelling of this tragedy!

Phaedra is the daughter of a king, the granddaughter of a god. Life on Crete is good for her and her family. But when the Athenian tributes arrive, one man will change the course of her life forever. Theseus, prince of Athens, comes to Crete and brings nothing but destruction in his wake her brother dead, her sister missing, Phaedra is chosen by Theseus as his bride and his hostage and taken with him back to Athens. Athens is a dangerous place where men claim the bodies of women and though she may be a queen to the men of Athens Phaedra is a woman to be claimed and Hippolytus, son of Theseus, will be the one to claim her.
Laura Shepperson’s Phaedra reimagines Euripides Hippolytus, an Ancient Greek tragedy in which the wife of the heroic Theseus accuses her stepson of rape. Shepperson reinterprets the story with a feminist lens and while it differs greatly from its source material, it is still a story worth telling. My only qualm with this book is to the current publishing trend of naming Greek myth retellings for a single woman yet having the story retold by a cast of different characters.

The premise of the book is interesting - as are all retellings from the previously overlooked woman’s perspective - but it was very difficult to figure out what the book is about. The constant back and forth. Made me wonder why it’s called “Phaedra”.

I absolutely loved this book. This was a well done mythological retelling about Phaedra, a cretean princess turned Athens queen. The writing was beautiful and I loved the additions of the Night chorus to the story. This was an overall great book that told a story I didn’t know and made it easy to read and help my attention. This is definitely a favorite mythological retelling book for me.

2.5 Stars

A retelling of the mythological character Phaedra in which the author attempts to throw back the veil on convention and uncover/connect often-overlooked female characters and events.

It offers a contentious alternate version of the classic tragedy casting Phaedra in a distinct light and ferociously highlighting women’s challenges and frustrations within a patriarchal society.

The outcome is a not-too-subtle feminist tale that left me feeling uncomfortable rather than empathetic.

On the face of it, this should have appealed to fans of Saint, Miller, Barker, et al., and at times there was some very engaging character dialogue and interaction. However, I wouldn’t place it at the giddy heights of 'Ariadne' or 'Circe'.
It felt rushed; the characters could have been more rounded, and the plot fleshed out. The narrative was occasionally superficial and more appropriate for a YA audience.

My thanks to NetGalley and Alcove Press for granting this e-ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you Alcove Press, NetGalley, and Laura Shepperson for an ARC of Phaedra in exchange for an honest review!


This book was an interesting take on Phaedra’s story, to say the least. I think the author makes some interesting choices and stylistic changes to what we traditionally know about Phaedra. I think to enjoy this book, you really have to distance yourself from the classical texts and accounts of these characters. Unfortunately, I ended up not liking this book due to a variety of reasons.

This book is separated into two main settings: Crete and Athens. Shepperson rushes through Phaedra’s life in Crete with such speed that the plot, background, and characters are affected which subsequently impacts the rest of the novel. Phaedra’s relationships with the characters at this stage are quickly glossed over and we don’t even see a solid interaction with her sister before Ariadne takes off.

With the characters themselves, I thought the personalities the author chose for them were an interesting take, however, over the course of the book, these characters reveal themselves to be so one-dimensional. Most of the male characters are bad — and that is their only character trait which frames them as comical villains. I feel like there was such an opportunity to explore the complexities in the male characters and their dynamic with the women. It feels like the author is vilifying these characters to avoid exploring their complexity to instead present this feminist take in the cheapest and fastest way possible. However, I did enjoy how the author explored the anguish of women and their voices in the novel in face of a patriarchal society.

I am not a fan of Phaedra’s characterization in the book, who stays pretty much the same throughout the entire novel. I am also a bit confused about Phaedra’s age, as her character development and personality stay for the most part one-tone throughout the book.

The author made some stylistic changes by including a variety of point of views in the book. However, these point of views were from such minor characters who all shared similar voices and whose characters offered not much to the plot except to provide more information to the reader surrounding the plot. Some of these POVS chapters only appeared for a chapter or two as well which reinforces the feeling that they offer not much to the plot or reader.

Throughout the story, the author barely describes the setting or background and instead rushes throughout the plot with such breathtaking speed that the characters and their dynamics are glossed over and are shown without much personality.

In short, this book, for a variety of reasons, was flat to me in every way possible.

This work examines the mythology of Phaedra, who married Theseus after he slew the minotaur and her sister disappeared. She is naïve and hopes that her new life will be easy, but she soon draws unwanted attention from her stepson. This work continues to follow Phaedra’s story, her demands for justice, and the struggles of women during this time.

I had high hopes for this work – it promised to be an intense examination of Phaedra’s story and the roles of victims in Greek mythology. The author did do an excellent job at showing the dichotomy between male and female expectations, roles, and beliefs during this time. However, the rest of the work fell short. There was no description of the setting or exploration of worldbuilding, which created a bland backdrop for this story.

The story is told from the POV of many different characters. However, it was all told from the first-person view of these characters, and unfortunately, they all sounded and felt the exact same. There was nothing different or unique in Phaedra’s tone versus Xenethippe’s tone versus Kandake’s tone, etc. If it weren’t for their name at the beginning of their section, there would have been nothing to differentiate the characters. Similarly, none of the characters were alive. They all felt flat, with no real emotion conveyed, which made it impossible to connect to them or the story. This was especially unfortunate as the author set up this story to have the tone of a tragedy. The character development was also lacking. Phaedra’s didn’t go beyond her being naïve and liking painting, and she had the most development out of all the characters.

There was only one scene of the story that I found compelling. After the conclusion of the trial, Theseus approaches Phaedra and makes demands of her to redact her story. His responses and the way he thought and responded concerning the assault on her were very well written. Similarly, the way she thought and reacted to the situation was also well written, creating an interesting, realistic, and emotional scene.

On to the technical aspects. The formatting of this work was abysmal on the kindle. New paragraphs started in the middle of words, sentences, and even dialogue. Page numbers, sometimes with the author’s name, sometimes with the book’s name, appeared in the middle of random pages. There were also many errors throughout the work, including some sentences beginning with lowercase letters, awkward wording with unclear meanings, and convoluted run-on sentences. This work doesn’t appear to have been edited.

Unfortunately, I can’t recommend reading this work and was disappointed by it.

I received a complimentary copy of this work through NetGalley. All opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Thank you to Netgalley, Alcove Press, and Laura Shepperson for providing this copy. My thoughts are my own.

A new fresh voice for retelling Greek mythology. The author choice to make Phaedra as MC is interesting. She basicly hidden under her famous dramatic family members. That's why the chance to read her book, dive deep through her mind and understand her action is fill me with so much expectations.

I can feel Phaedra growing stronger in each stage of her life. But I need more spark in the narrative style. Actually I wish to see more of depth in characters development and could feel extra connection with other pov in this story. I wish more.

This one was a ride! You’re probably here because you enjoy reading Greek myth retellings, so I won’t bother telling you that the story is made richer by a general knowledge of the background mythology. But I just did. And it is.

Laura Shepperson takes some liberties with timeline and specific events, which I think work in her favor and aren’t horribly distracting from the original plot lines for these Ancient Greek characters. Given the history of oral tradition, these tweaks are fully within her right as a creator, and they serve to enrich the stories and possibilities of historically one-dimensional personas.

Phaedra is a meek, influenceable young woman in Crete at the beginning of this story. She matures quickly in the face of her unfortunate experiences in Athens, closing the narrative as a bold, determined woman who has made difficult choices. The extra perspective of Medea is interesting, and I enjoy that most of the POVs in this novel are from women, who rarely have much of a voice in traditional Greek mythology.

This story packs a punch. Straight to the gut, sometimes. Though it is not especially graphic, it does contain significant violence toward women, so be forewarned. It is the backbone of the story, so expect the “ick” feeling to last the duration of your read. I think this makes the story more powerful though.

Thank you to Alcove Press, Laura Shepperson, and NetGalley for the opportunity to read and review this ARC!

From the description, it’s obvious that this is another book that is trying to jump on the bandwagon of Circe’s acclaim. So you cannot blame me if I have judged the book from the same perspective.

The book follows Phaedra, a controversial and tragic character from Ancient Greek history. While she makes for an excellent choice as a portrait of a misunderstood character, the author fails to give her character much substance other than the bare essentials of empathy, one hobby and being naïve. She never grows out of it. Hippolytus’ portrayal is pretty fleshed out but does not grow either.

The writing left me very dissatisfied. The language is bland and does not do justice to the content at hand. There wasn’t any geographical exploration. The scene setting was poorly executed.
The chapters follow multiple PoVs which can get a bit confusing and annoying at times. Medea’s povs, dialogue and role until just before the end of the book was fairly redundant and frustrating to read.

What the author gets right is making the reader empathise with the women - Phaedra, The maids, Medea. The suffering, anguish and the helplessness is reiterated with brutal honesty and interesting modes like the night chorus.
The book offers a breathtaking reasoning for Medea’s infamous actions which fit in so well into the psychology of the narrative. Her cryptic dialogue throughout the book pays off in the end.

Another splendid part of the book was the political machinations. Trypho and his train of thought as a politician is really satisfying to read. I really appreciate the way the main story arc fit into the politics of the Ancient Greek court.

Thank you for the ARC.

Phaedra by Laura Shepperson is a great historical fiction and retelling of the classic Greek mythology story of Phaedra…finally shining light on one of the many misunderstood characters of times past.

I really enjoyed this narrative and retelling of sorts of one of the underserved, and sometimes misrepresented, Greek mythological characters, the infamous Phaedra.

I am a fairly new fan of Greek mythology and have only within the last few years jumped onto the fan base bandwagon. So of course I was excited to read, and find out more about, Phaedra. Such a complicated, intricate, flawed, and at times sad, life. The author does a great job in creating a fascinating narrative. A narrative that gives strength, guts, fortitude, and determination not just to our main character, but to a whole group of women that history has glossed over. Now, they too have a voice.

5/5 stars

Thank you NG and Alcove Press for this wonderful arc and in return I am submitting my unbiased and voluntary review and opinion.

I am posting this review to my GR and Bookbub accounts immediately and will post it to my Amazon, Instagram, and B&N accounts upon publication on 1/10/23.

Phaedra was an enjoyable read. I love any retelling and this didn’t disappoint. I haven’t heard this version of Phaedra’s story before (usually it involves a false accusation which is then followed by her suicide). However I thought this book was well written and I was drawn in from the first page.

I’m a big fan of retellings, fantasy and mythology especially. Year after year they end up being some of my favorite reads. I thought this retelling of Phaedra was good. I wouldn’t put it quite on the same level as Circe, Kaikeyi, and Ariadne though I did find it to be throughly enjoyable and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys these types of stories.

Absolutely fantastic retelling of Phaedra’s story. This book is a s good as Ariadne, and the other myth retellings .