#androgeous

"She betrays the palace that shaped her, mourns the brother the world called monster, and flees across the sea believing love will carry her into a new life."

Ok then

The sample goes up until chapter 2

"he touched two fingers to her brow and named her Ariadne, uttering the syllables as if sealing them into stone."

It's quite crazy how rare it is to see a retelling where Pasiphae and Minos don't treat Ariadne like trash from the start

"Ariadne would lean into her mother's lap and ask whether gods could love without harming what they touched,"

Girl, you're not even 7 years old. Where this question came from?

"as she answered that the gods were vast and that mortals were small vessels beneath sudden rain."

That's a bad analogy

And Androgeus isn't her only full brother!!

Yes, the bar is set that low

"and in that single glance she felt not only terror but loneliness so deep it seemed older than the palace itself."

Sure girl 😒

"Instead she took her daughter's hand and held it between both of hers, saying that the gods could make a wound from a queen's body and a king's pride, and that children should not have to carry the sins of those who came before them."

Does that read like something Pasiphae would say?

You know, it's quite refreshing to see a book that doesn't beg me to cry over the Minotaur

"The world calls her the girl who saved Theseus and got left sleeping on a beach for it. The cautionary tale. The warning they tell girls so they stay small. She is here to put the ending right."

It's not a warning telling girls to stay small, it's a warning about misplaced trust

"For readers of Lore Olympus, A Touch of Darkness, and morally-grey, villain-era Greek retellings that leave the rage in."

Lore Olympus was trash, refuse to read A Touch of Darkness and there's nothing morally-grey about this book saga

Chapter 2 will be annoying

Why tf these people took a child to hear the Minotaur?

"I did it in the only place my father could not hear, the inside of my own head, which is the one country a girl in a house like mine ever fully owns."

Thea Marlowe, there's a limit in how many times you should repeat the "princess that had a easy life is actually opressed" plot, you know right?

"But I was the clever one, and in a house like ours clever is a more dangerous thing for a girl to be than beautiful, because beautiful get's you married off and clever get's you used."

I mean, if you want to be known for intelligence, you have to accept that people will be telling you to use that ability

"Jennifer Saint's Ariadne is a mesmerizing debut novel for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe."

Bad sign

Dramatic start 😑

"It shone proudly on my neck when we attended Daedalus' wedding, a mighty feast hosted by my father, who was delighted that Daedalus made his alliance with a daughter of Crete—another tie holding him here, allowing Minos to boast about his exalted inventor. Although his wife died giving birth to their son before they'd been married a year, Daedalus took comfort in the baby, Icarus,"

Mother characters are more likely to die in retellings than in the actual myths

"Gods might enjoy mortal skill in hunting or music or weaving, but they were always alert to hubris—and woe betide a human whose skills came close to those of the divine. Something that immortals could not tolerate was to be inferior to anyone in any respect."

They could tolerate mortals being very good at something, just don't brag too much

I'm starting to notice that a lot of Ariadne retellings pretend as if her mother was this kind peaceful woman stuck with Minos instead of the crazy witch goddess who once cursed her husband into ejaculating scorpions