"Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice every year. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the ...
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"Ariadne, Princess of Crete, grows up greeting the dawn from her beautiful dancing floor and listening to her nursemaid's stories of gods and heroes. But beneath her golden palace echo the ever-present hoofbeats of her brother, the Minotaur, a monster who demands blood sacrifice every year. When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives to vanquish the beast, Ariadne sees in his green eyes not a threat but an escape. Defying the gods, betraying her family and country, and risking everything for love, Ariadne helps Theseus kill the Minotaur. But will Ariadne's decision ensure her happy ending? And what of Phaedra, the beloved younger sister she leaves behind? Hypnotic, propulsive, and utterly transporting, Jennifer Saint's Ariadne forges a new epic, outside the traditional narratives of heroism and glory that leave no room for women"--
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Add this copy of Ariadne to cart. $15.10, new condition, Sold by Book Outlet rated 5.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Jefferson City, TN, UNITED STATES, published 2022 by Flatiron Books.
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New in new dust jacket. New, Publisher overstock, may have small remainder mark. Excellent condition, never read, purchased from publisher as excess inventory.
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New. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 320 p. In Stock. 100% Money Back Guarantee. Brand New, Perfect Condition, allow 4-14 business days for standard shipping. To Alaska, Hawaii, U.S. protectorate, P.O. box, and APO/FPO addresses allow 4-28 business days for Standard shipping. No expedited shipping. All orders placed with expedited shipping will be cancelled. Over 3, 000, 000 happy customers.
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Entertaining enough of a story, I rounded up and gave it a 3 star, but 2.5 would be more honest. I found that it was held down by a pretty drab and unappealing center. The beginning of the book is a pretty straightforward, but fun and well-described retelling of the minotaur myth. The book mainly centered around Ariadne and her sister, Phaedra. Their characters consistently filled to the brim with angst against men, the constant in Greek mythos of women's wrongful suffering at the hands of the gods for wrongdoings of men being repeated ad nauseum. If you thought that meant you were in for some great, interesting, strong female characters achieving things or at least doing much of anything, well, you'd be mistaken. The entire book is through their lens of being fairly unremarkable women, while men hurt them left and right. Ariadne mostly sits on her island being a mother while her husband travels the world, Phaedra assumes her role as a politician while her husband travels the world, while they brood over how unremarkable their lives are and their relationships. There you have it. That's over half of the book and a huge chunk of the development. I get that a lot of it is supposed to make me feel for them, and I did, but at a point I found myself thinking "alright, please just do something."
This really sort of dull and monotonous character development ultimately left me feeling pretty distant and indifferent. Phaedra's story ultimately ends in tragedy that ironically sort of reverses the "women suffering because of men's mistakes" concept, then Ariadne's ends in a tragedy that directly exemplifies it. This part was great. I felt much more involved at this point, and actually found myself wanting to know more again. In the climax of the book, I felt sort of touched and sad from the tragedy. Despite the improvement, I was definitely left wondering how much better it would have been if I hadn't just drudged through the sagging meat of the book.
