70000

Good characterisation and an impressive ability to make you feel the very contradictory interpretations of reality among the three protagonists, but it never quite manages to overcome the inherent inertia in having a decade long war seen from the viewpoints of two people left back at home and one person stuck behind the besieged walls. I found a lack of forward momentum until the very end, when events suddenly wrap up very quickly (and, even had I no knowledge of Greek myth, predictably). The ending as a result didn't quite land with me -- admittedly a hard thing to do for a tragedy, especially one with this much foreshadowing. But overall, an enjoyable book, which is no small feat for a novel about three so epically tragic figures. ( )

I liked but not in the same league as Circe and Song of Achilles. I loved the writing style of those two
Read December 2023 ( )

Contrary to the title, this is actually the first person narration of three different women caught up in the events triggered by the Trojan War: Clytemnestra, Elektra her youngest daughter, and Cassandra, Princess of Troy.

The most touching segment of the story is when Clytemnestra is taking her eldest daughter, Iphigenia, to her supposed wedding. Unlike some recent retellings, in this version Agamemnon has not killed his wife's first husband and baby son, so she has no inklings of what might be about to occur.

Cassandra's storyline is also tragic, with her wishing in the end to be killed to end her continual suffering. Only Elektra's point of view becomes wearing, with her self-pitying and uncritical hero worship of her absent father becoming rather tiring. The book doesn't really add anything to the familiar myth: it is a straight re-telling, so although it was a perfectly workmanlike read, it was not exceptional and I would award it 3 stars. ( )

It's no secret by now that I enjoy retellings, especially ones of myths and legends and those focusing on female characters, and with the current burst in Greek myth retellings, I'm certainly spoilt for choice! I had enjoyed Jennifer Saint's previous book, Ariadne, even if I had some issues with it so I was quite curious to see how she would approach a retelling of Elektra's story, one which I thought offered even more potential than Ariadne's.

I saw Aeschylus' original play performed in theatre all the way back when I was in high school and I read Colm Tóibín's House of Names a few years ago, so I knew there would hardly be any surprises in the plot, but I was looking forward to a more feminist take on the story, giving these women more of a voice. This time, the author chose to tell the story through three POVs, giving a voice to Cassandra, princess of Troy; Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon; and the titular Elektra, her daughter. If you're familiar with the original story, you'll know that all three women had the potential for being very complex characters as they slowly move through life to fulfil their tragic destinies. Unfortunately, this book didn't quite bring that out for me.

I did like the idea to have multiple POVs and particularly enjoyed following Cassandra's and Clytemnestra's perspectives. They took up most of the narrative, leaving Elektra's to actually be the least developed point of view, both from a narrative perspective and from a character development one. There was really very little insight into Elektra as a character, with her coming across mostly as a whiny, angry, spoiled child who acts exclusively on the basis of her hatred for her mother and the idolisation of her father. It felt as though she did very little beyond sulking and trying to find ways to hurt her mother.

Clytemnestra and Cassandra were slightly more developed and appeared more complex, which is probably what made their sections more enjoyable than Elektra's. Clytemnestra's grief, in particular, hit hard, as did Cassandra's frustration with her situation. In both cases, the ways in which their being women limited their options were nicely drawn out, but still did little to make this feel more than a more modern way to tell the exact same story. It didn't really feel like a feminist retelling, only like a retelling from a female character's point of view.

I did appreciate the way the author re-wrote Helen's character though! One thing that often annoys me in Trojan war retellings is the constant woman-on-woman hate when it comes to Helen, so I was happy to see that for once she was not described as a mean girl and there were multiple displays of solidarity between women.

I listened to the audiobook for part of this, alternating it with the e-arc, and it definitely improved the experience as all three narrators did an absolutely wonderful job of bringing the characters to life!

Despite my issues with the characters in Elektra, I still really enjoyed the author's writing so I'll be curious to check out her future work to see if this was just a second-book problem.

CW:This book contains mentions of death, child death, war, sexual violence and slavery.


I received an e-arc of this book from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. This did not affect my opinion of the book in any way. ( )