Book review: Adriane by Jennifer saint.

By Arabella Ibels, 7T2

Editors note:
Now here is a book review by one of the new members of the Ubqiue team! Always great to see new faces -J

Aridane is a charming tale of a Cretan princess' life and how it changes for the better, and the worse.

Summary

Everyday Ariadne must wake to hear the heavy breathing of the monster the Minotaur trapped below the palace floors. Each year 14 children from Athens must come to be sacrificed as a show of power and to keep the Minotaur at bay, one of these kids is a young man named Theseus, a prince of Athens. Both Ariadne and her sister Phaedra have feelings for this young man; they agree that they will help him escape. Ariadne goes to confront the creator of the labyrinth named Daedalus who agrees to help her because he feels bad for helping create the murder machine that the labyrinth is. Once Ariadne helped Theseus out they set sail without Phaedra but he promises they will go back for her. They stop at an island to sleep for the night. She and Theseus Share a bed and when morning comes Theseus is nowhere to be found. She’s now stranded on an island for days until the young god Dionysus arrives. She soon becomes a priestess to him caring for his temples on the island. Meanwhile Crete is falling apart with Midas enraged at the fact that the Minotaur is dead and that Daedalus and his son Icarus have escaped. Phaedra is taken back to Athens by Theseus and they get married. And back on the island Dionysus and Ariadne get married. Over the years Phaedra starts to recognize more of Theseus’s lies. Theseus’s son Hippolytus a son he had with the amazon queen Hippolyta comes to live in the palace Phaedra notices that he’s not like Theseus at all and she starts to feel for him conflicted she visits Ariadne on the island and asks for her help only to be told that she is sick they fight and Phaedra leaves. She confesses her love to Hippolytus and Ariadne, knowing she messed up follows but is unable to stop her. Hippolytus says that he found Phaedra as a mother and in her sorrow dies. She holds a note that says Hippolytus and Theseus in a rage thinks that he killed her so he kills Hippolytus. Ariadne heads home sad. Dionysus decides to go to Argos to confront Perseus about the fact he isn’t worshiped Perseus says he will never be worshiped there. So Dionysus asks the women of Argos to join him they don't, so he starts a massacre and Perseus comes to join the fight. Ariadne in a panic runs into the battle to try and negotiate with Perseus but  accidentally looks at his shield that has the head of Medusa and she turns to stone. Dionysus mourns her and turns her into a constellation. 

What I noticed

There's a lot to unpack here. Firstly since Ariadne had to be a fully functioning story of around 300 pages they fleshed it out a lot more than the myth did. Secondly sadly the author added a lot of random plot points that I couldn't really see how they fitted into the story. Lastly the ending went really slowly and there was a whole chapter of a character moping, so that is definitely a negative.

My final review

I enjoyed this book a lot. It was a fun, feminist retelling that had amazing writing! It felt a little slow paced at some times. As a person who loves Greek mythology this felt fresh and new.  The characters don't feel like they have much variation from her other books though. I would recommend this book to people who are into the books ‘Lies we sing to the sea’ and ‘The song of Achilles’ 8.3/10