While I received a copy of this audiobook in exchange for a review, all opinions remain my own.
I requested this book because I loved Veronica Roth's divergent series and this one just sounded amazing. Lets just say, I hope this one is part of series as well because it left me on a cliffhanger. I hate books that do this. Each novel in a series (regardless of their status in the series) should be able to stand alone as a story. When I finished this book, it felt unfinished to me, like I was still waiting for something to happen. Left me with some disappointment. Don't get me wrong, the part of the story that I did get, it was amazing. I loved it, I want more, but I wanted it to be more complete.
My review: 3.5/5 stars

The world-building was detailed and fascinating. The book takes place in a future dystopian society where life is precious and dangerous, and all of humanity is at risk of perishing.
Veronica Roth faithfully follows the basic story of Antigone but places it in this frightening world. Her characters are well-written and heart-wrenching. This story is definitely a tragedy, but since it's based on a Greek tragedy that shouldn't be a surprise.
I highly recommend this.

I received this as an ebook and didn't sink into the story. But the audiobook sucked me right in! The performances were fabulous. I read the characters with more of a CW or angsty teen vibe, while the performances made it more comparable to a darker, older story comparable to CIRCE. I personally am just not in the mood for YA stories, so the audiobook was perfect for me.

I enjoyed this story. I loved the overarching feminist themes and the character's sacrifices. Also, I found the love story to be beautiful and well-developed in such a short space.

It's a very fast read, and one I would recommend if you enjoy retellings, dystopias, and science fiction. It had a dark, layered feel , with a fast pace. Enjoyable.

I received this audiobook and ebook in exchange for an honest review.

I received this as an audio galley to listen to for free in exchange for my honest review. Thank you to NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for giving me access.

A Greek retelling mixed with science fiction, yes please! This was a short read and I wished it was longer...that was really the only negative thing about it. We needed more information at some points and if we goth that, this novella could have easily been a full novel. But as always, Roth does an amazing job at world building and creating story that you want to dive into.

I felt that the retelling of Antigone was done well but within this world that Roth built - I wanted more out of the story!

There was a few POVs that were only used a time or two and if those were either used more or not at all - that would have helped with the story.

There was a lot of themes going on within this new world that Roth created that I felt could have either been left out or flushed out more.

This is a super short book and if you like mythology and/or retellings - it was worth the quick read - I just wanted so much more out of it!

𝐑𝐄𝐀𝐃 𝐈𝐅 𝐘𝐎𝐔 𝐋𝐈𝐊𝐄
• Mythology Retellings 🏛️
• Dystopians 🛰️
• Multiple POVs 🔀
• Civil Disobedience ⚖️
• Very Short Books 📖

Thanks to NetGalley & Macmillan Audio for this ARC for my honest review.

After reading this novella I really want to go back and re-read the original Antigone by Sophocles. I recall enough elements to see how Roth reimagined the story in a dark post-apocalyptic future, capturing the themes of morality, family, and fighting against unjust law. The addition of their home being the only surviving city on the planet only adds to the underlying threat, as there is nowhere else for the heroes of the story to go. Wonderfully narrated by January LaVoy and Dion Graham, this is a short but gripping read you won't want to miss.

I'm a huge fan of retellings, and I have fond memories of reading Antigone. Roth's writing tends to be hit or miss for me, and while I enjoyed this book, it wasn't one of my favorites. Overall the story was well-written, but it tended to drag a bit and take awhile for things to happen. Despite this, the ending felt very sudden and rather abrupt. I do applaud Roth for her ingenuity and skill in crafting this story, and I thought the narrators did an excellent job

3.5 out of 5 stars



Thank you to Netgalley and Macmillan Audio for allowing me to read an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.



Arch-Conspirator is a re-telling of Antigone set in a dystopian future. I really liked the way Veronica Roth created the world. The narrators January LaVoy and Dion Graham were really good.

I loved the idea of retelling Antigone because I can honestly say I have never seen this done before. I also want to say that I really do like Veronica Roth's writing but for some reason this one just didn't click with me as much as I wanted it to. Though well written I felt that the story was slow. It felt like it took a long time for things to happen and then when they did the story was almost over.

I guess this sounds like I didn't enjoy the book and I really did, I guess I was hoping for more.

Thank you to NetGalley, MacMillan Audio, Tor Books, Veronica Roth, Dion Graham (narrator), and January LaVoy (narrator) for the opportunity to read and listen to the audiobook of Arch-Conspirator in exchange for an honest review.

Arch-Conspirator is a retelling of the Greek play, Antigone, by Sophocles. This retelling takes place in a far future where only one city remains standing on Earth. The rest of the world is a wasteland. Those who die have their genes stored in the Archive, the way humanity is kept alive in this society.

This retelling, setting aside, is pretty close to its play of origin in terms of plot. With more precursor than the play, the novella is told from a number of character perspectives, including Antigone, Kreon, and Haemon, to name a few, played by two excellent audio narrators: Dion Graham and January LaVoy. Getting their first-person perspectives is rather intriguing as to the way it helps the reader see and understand the reasons for the characters actions in a depth the original play can't quite reach.

After the death of her brother, with her uncle Kreon naming him a traitor for killing his own kin, Antigone's brother is meant to be a warning display to the people. Antigone, betrothed to Kreon's son Haemon, hopes her uncle will then find mercy for her desire to set her brother to rest properly. In this rendition, she seeks to lay him to rest so that his genetic makeup will be saved in the Archive. Her parents are already dead--murdered--and now her brother too. She wants her family's line to live on.

Seeking to help her brother rest in peace, while stealing a syringe of genetic material, sets Antigone up for her own demise. While a trial is sought, that is not what she gets.

An amazing retelling that really makes the play of Antigone more intriguing. I like the pulls from the original source material, but I also thoroughly enjoy this far-future dystopian society. The display with genetics ties into heavy topics in the field of science in the world today. There is a lot to say about feminism and women's choices in this novella as well. It is great to see such modern connections with a Greek classic. At three hours for the audiobook production and a mere 128 pages for the novelal, Roth's storytelling is captivating, and Arch-Conspirator is an all-around enjoyable read.

This book may be small in length but not in impact! This is an action packed, quickly paced story that will keep you engaged and guessing until the very end. I was completely engrossed. The ending felt a bit abrupt and utterly shocking, but I think upon reflection that was the point. Were they really doomed from the start? Read to find out!!!

Roth does a great job at staying faithful to the original play Antigone, but sets it in a dying world. The curse on Oedipus’ family dared to have natural births in a world where all women must give birth but they and their spouses go to an archive where the genetic material of dead people are used to make new babies after a good amount of gene editing goes on first. Antigone, her twin Polynices, sister Ismene, and brother Etiocles will be familiar to those who read the play. Roth makes a few changes to the timeline of the play, but the actions of the characters here have a deeper basis and serve to editorialize major issues in our world.

Roth does a good job at getting us to empathize with the characters as well as understand their motivations… but Creon is still the antagonist and largely unsympathetic.

A short but good novel.

Thank you to Macmillan Audio for providing an ARC of this audiobook, narrated by Dion Graham and January LaVoy.

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth is a futuristic and imaginative retelling of Antigone, but one that ultimately misses the mark.

Roth tells the story of Antigone, and her defiance of tyrannical power, in a futuristic setting--the last city on Earth. For some general contextual knowledge about this story (and slight spoilers for those unfamiliar with the story of Oedipus, but I deem it necessary for the context of Antigone), Antigone and her siblings are originally children born of an incestuous relationship between mother and son. In Arch-Conspirator, Roth removes the element of incest and instead leans heavily into the idea of genetic modification and preservation. Where in a world where the average human is born from this scientific process, Antigone and her siblings are naturally born of their parents (who are unrelated), and this is what lends the titles of "outcast," "strange," or "abnormal" to Antigone and her siblings. I thought this was a really clever way to weave in the original elements of the story while also creating something new.

Like other modern retellings of classical stories, Roth breathes life into these classical heroes and villains, and she gives voices to other characters who otherwise would have remained in the background. She executes this in a first-person narration of several main characters, and while I like the concept, I thought a more limited perspective, or at least a third-person narration would have worked better for such a short novella. The world created here is very intriguing, and I do wish we learned more about it and spent more time within in it. The last city on Earth is surrounded by a bleak and barren wasteland that no human can survive. Humanity is near extinction and these people are doing all they can to survive. In the midst of the city, however, is a ship that serves as their last hope-- a final refuge for those remaining.

While she stayed very true to the events of the original story, which overall worked well, I felt that other than reimagining the setting and altering the circumstances that spark the events of this story, Roth did not expand much on the story. Perhaps those are the limitations of a verbatim retelling, but I would have loved to have seen a different ending. As much as I liked the setting of the book, it was not enough to save this for me.

Overall, I did like this retelling. I think it will be a great read for people who are familiar with the original story, but it will also assuredly find an audience among those who enjoy apocalyptic and futuristic settings. I do look forward to reading more from Veronica Roth in the future, however, because I find the questions her stories present about life and humanity to be quite impactful.

Not for me...I did not enjoy the narrator and was not familiar enough with Shakespeare (like I thought I was) to appreciate or enjoy this story. Might have been better consumed in a book not audio.

Things I knew before this book:
—SOME of the premise of Antigone. But only the basics.
—That Veronica Roth is a ruthless creator willing to kill her darlings (and I love her for it)

Still, I hoped it wouldn’t end as it did? Without hope, I am nothing. So fuck me I guess.

I really enjoyed this. I liked that despite being short, it conveyed a whole world and society like ours but distant. I liked the ease with which it held itself, never info-dumping for the sake of it; slowly introducing the reader to new concepts without clunky exposition. I liked that every character had at least one POV chapter—I think that was instrumental in allowing the reader to care for each (most—Fuck you Kreon) character in only a short time.

The tragedy of modern society filled with a story from ages ago. Perfect. I really appreciate this trend of telling classic stories against a backdrop of our poisoned climate and ruthless leaders. “Tell Me My Name” by Amy Reed had a similar effect on me. I also appreciated that although this society had backpedaled on autonomy and rights, the characters didn’t accept that. There was a clear “this is wrong” vibe throughout the story. The discrimination came from the government—not the people.

A powerful retelling about the choices we make and those we don’t. And the morality between the gaps.

I listened to the audiobook which isn’t available in the Goodreads editions (Wish we could input our own HINT HINT—I can on Storygraph). Thanks to Netgalley for the audio-ARC.

Arch-Conspirator by Veronica Roth is a retelling of the Antigone story. This novella has all of the names from the original play - Antigone, Polynices, Eteocles, Ismene, King Creon, Queen Eurydice and Haemon. One of the difficulties with the audiobook is keeoing the names straight. It was hard at times with such unusual names.
Roth sets the story is a dystopian world where most of the planet has been damaged. Women are prized for their ability to bear children, but the children are genetically engineered first - there are no natural births allowed. It's sort of a Handmaid's Tale/Aeon Flux combo.

Wonderful audiobook performance from January Lavoy and Dion Graham. They both add so much to the emotion of the story.

An interesting approach to a Greek myth by Roth. I highly recommend the audiobook for this one.

I was super pumped for this book because the Divergent loving girl in me was excited to read something by Veronica Roth again! Overall the book was fairly interesting, with complex characters and a curious plot line that had me wondering what Veronica would do with this Antigone retelling. The author does try to tie in politics into this novel, using topics that are on the hot seats now in real time, and while I think that was great - she seems to be stating the obvious and not really adding any insight or more to the conversation, I found it lacking in that respect :(

I did enjoy the book, but it seemed everything happened so quickly and ended so abruptly. I wanted more and at the same tome I didn't. I think I wanted something more or different from this book than what I got. Perhaps this novel wasn't for me, and that's okay, it was an interesting read and something I might enjoy later on in life!

Thank you NetGalley for an eArc in exchange for an honest review!

Excellent and impactful novella. Some parts felt a bit disjoined (why its not a full 5 star), but overall I was captured by the story and its characters. It is a cleaver dystopian spin on the story of Oedipus Rex. There is doubtlessly potential for a full length novel, or even series here if the author wanted to pursue it. But as a novella, it does what it needs to do.

Thank you Veronica Roth, NetGalley, and Macmillan Audio for my audio advanced review copy. My opinions are my own.

Arch-Conspirator is out on February 20th, 2023.

Plot - 4
Writing and Editing - 4
Character Development - 3
Narration - 5
Personal Bias - 4
Final Score - 4

This was a short dystopian retelling of Antigone. It is a very interesting concept but I do not feel like it was executed as well as it could be. There were too many disparate narrators. Each change took you out of the story rather than continued you. This book had a lot of potential but ultimately was a little bit of a let down.

"A city of seven districts:
Seven houses crumbing on a thieving street.
One's got no fire, one's got no heat.
One's got no water, one's got no meat."

This dystopian/scifi reimagining of the classic Antigone introduces us to a world of wastelands, the opportunity for immortality, yet somehow the potential end of humanity. When Antigone loses someone close to her, she conspires to follow through with his last request. But when that conspiracy goes sideways, others in her life conspire to keep her safe.

This impactful retelling of Antigone was a look into a future in which none of us would want to be. We got to hear the story unfold from several characters' viewpoints. Roth tried to do a lot in a very short story, and I'm not sure she was entirely successful. I wanted more. I wanted more fleshed out stories, more action, and more emotion. I like the basis of trying to explore women's rights and bodily autonomy, but it just felt rushed and incomplete. However, I'm glad to have read this new take on an old tale, and think I may go read some Sophocles now. This was a 3.5 rounded up to a 4 for me.

This is very hard to rate since the story that was there was intriguing and well written but it started very abruptly and in the mix of the story and I felt very disjointed on what was happening. The end was satisfactory but it almost felt like it had just started. In my opinion as a short story this needed about 100 more pages to work up the storyline and make it great.