Book Review: "Ariadne: A Novel" by Jennifer Saint

I must have been on a mythology kick after reading Nikita Gill's book because I found myself drawn to the book that I am reviewing today. I remember parts of this story from the wonderful Myths and Legends podcast that I listen to frequently but this book expanded on the story and told the story not from the prospective of our hero ("hero" is in hard bunny ears quotes, per the usual when it comes to a lot of men/half men half gods in mythology) but from the perspective of our two main female characters - Ariadne and Phaedra.

Ariadne and Phaedra are sisters, and daughters of the terrible King Minos of Crete. If you dig deep into your knowledge of Crete you may remember it as the home of the Minotaur. Through a terrible agreement between King Minos and the government of Athens, 6 Athenian youths (6 of each gender) were sacrificed every year to the terrible Minotaur who was trapped in a impenetrable labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur is the half brother of the princess because, well, gods and goddesses are jealous and terrible and petty and these things happen. (Also if you're like "Why does the name Ariadne sound familiar?" I would say "Hell, good memory - it's the name of Elliot Page's character in Inception - you know the girl who designs the mazes and levels. GOOD CALLBACK CHRISTOPHER NOLAN. I SEE YOU).

Theseus is a prince of Athens who has taken the place of one of the condemned youths and Ariadne is instantly smitten by this man who has made this sacrifice and his steady, calm nature. She finds him in his prison cell the night before the human sacrifices are to be pushed into the pitch blackness that is the labyrinth so that they can get hunted and eaten by the beast. He woos her and she agrees to help him and he promises to whisk her away from her privileged but terrible life in Crete to be his bride in Athens. Ariadne insists that her little sister comes with her and Theseus agrees - they work out an escape plan, from the labyrinth and then from Crete where they all go to Athens and live happily ever after.

It...all very nearly goes to plan. Kinda sorta.

The main thing that I liked about this book is that we get to hear from the women in these stories, usually the women are just the props used by the gods/men in these sorts of stories and they are not much more than "oh wow, yeah it's too bad the gods are awful and petty". It also is told in rotating chapters between the two sisters. It started really strong but then kind of petered out for me towards the end. However, it was a fast read and held my interest most of the time. If you are a fan of mythology this would be a good one to pick up!

What I've been reading...

 F*ck Feelings: One Shrink's Practical Advice for Managing All of Life's Practical Problems by Michael Bennett and Sarah Bennett. Funny name, serious topic. Here's what I liked the most about this book, in each of the different chapters (f*ck communication, f*ck parenting, f*ck assholes) they talk about the things that we FEEL like we should be able to control about the topic and then what we ACTUALLY can control. We think that we have far more control over circumstances than what we do. Then after you get on the same page of what we can actually control we can be more realistic about what we can expect from ourselves and other people. Like "stop letting hurt feelings and anger control your decisions". So much easier said than done, right? A quote that I really liked from the titular "f*ck feelings" chapter was : "if some people don't want peace, stay out of the way of the bullets". Like, for real. Some people just want to watch the world burn.

The Dangers of Smoking in Bed: Stories by Mariana Enriquez. This author also wrote the amazing "The Things We Lost in the Fire" so I was thrilled that this, just her second work, was a another book of super creepy, kind of south american gothic horror. (If you were left cold by the very popular this past year "Mexican Gothic" and were looking for something a little more mature and scary I highly recommend this collection.) I had to make myself slow down and savor these stories, I was so excited I wanted to read through them as fast as I could because I couldn't wait to see what was next!

Murder in Amsterdam by Ian Buruma. I was excited to read this book on vacation but ended up feeling very meh about it. What I was hoping for was "Man, the Netherlands is a country made of a lot of immigrants which makes for some tension and weirdness especially after this murder so let's talk about the tension in a super progressive country that still has some old prejudices that it struggles with". But it was more like "Let's talk about these 3 specific politicians in depth and how they are liberal/conservative/antiMuslim/proimmigration whatever". So, wasn't quite what I was hoping for. I did learn some fun Dutch words though, which is always a plus.

Deacon King Kong by James McBride. My boss mentioned that while she was waiting for her first grandbaby to be born that she read this book and really liked it. She was really excited about it and said I should read it so I said I would pick it up (can you tell I'm a recovering people pleaser? And I really like my boss?) so I did. I tend to avoid the big famous book club book choices (they get so much publicity, they don't also need me to read it) and this was one of Oprah's so about as big as it gets - but it wasn't a book I would have picked up on my own so that's always a benefit. It was a pretty fast read, I found myself getting a little bored and had the big plot twist figured out pretty early but the characters were varied and interesting and there's 2 little background love stories that I really found myself cheering for their success. Hopefully my boss and I chat about it soon so I didn't read it "for no reason" haha.