Elektra

Since reading Ariadne, I've been very excited for this book, especially because this one has some familiar storylines. I've actually been in a reading slump for a while, but reading something which I liked felt very nice.

I really liked the author's writing even more in this book - it's very poetic and beautiful without being full on purple prose and that's the exact kind of writing I enjoy. The author covers a very long timeline with many necessary time skips but I have to appreciate how seamless she makes the transitions, not just in timelines but also the different POVs. And as with what comes in retelling Greek mythology stories from the women characters' perspective, there's a lot here which makes us feel indignant and furious, but also sympathetic at times and I marvel at how masterfully the author created this variety of experiences for us through her words. But the pacing might feel a bit slow for some readers, however, it wasn't much of an issue for me.

While the book may be titled Elektra, we get her story as well as those of her mother Clytemnestra and Priam's daughter Cassandra. I think my most disappointment with this book was that I did not like the character of Elektra at all. Not to say she isn't written well. She is portrayed in a way that evokes strong emotion in us and I like that. But it's not easy to read a whole POV when you dislike that character. Elektra is a person who has this image in her head of her father and will do absolutely anything to keep up that image, including justifying his cruelty and brutality. I could see why she became that way though - her sister's sacrifice doesn't register much with her because she was too young at the time and it's easier for her to reconcile with the strong and loving father image than one who kills his daughter for the purpose of a war. Her mother's neglect compounds this feeling in her and then her life becomes all about waiting for her beloved father and later, getting the revenge for his murder. I don't know if it was just her naïveté or if she was truly her father's daughter, believing in his supremacy over anything else and justifying any cruelty to maintain it. It was hard to sympathize with her even when she was mostly deprived of both her parents' love and affection for such a long part of her life.

Clytemnestra on the other hand, is like a foil to Elektra. She is also driven by grief and revenge to such an extent that she forgets that she has other living children. Her life becomes a tomb to her dead daughter and she doesn't think beyond killing Agamemnon. We feel both pity towards her for her plight but also sad that she is basically stuck at that single awful day. It is also hard not to sympathize and agree with her when she feels grief not just for her dead daughter, but for all the women of Troy who are brutalized by her husband and his men during and after the war. Her story proves though that revenge doesn't really bring peace but I could still appreciate the way her character arc resolves.

Cassandra is a less significant character than the other two because she is not much in a position to do anything, and her POV is mostly to just give us a way to know what's happening in Troy. And she is probably the one character on whose behalf I felt most indignation because she is cursed just for not giving consent and her life since then is very difficult. I truly can't imagine how it must feel to know the destruction the future holds but no one is ready to believe you. I knew she would ultimately not have a good outcome and while she finally got something on her own terms, I wish she had got some kind of acknowledgment from atleast one person in her family that she was right all along. It just made me feel very sad for her.

We don't really get much detailed portraits of any other characters. But it's hard not to notice how King Priam and his family know that things are gonna take a bad turn, but never do anything about it and just remain willfully ignorant so that they can have a semblance of happiness with their newly reunited son Paris. Agamemnon is not necessarily a bad person initially but his nature is not much suited for peacetime and has a need to assert that he is the ruler above everybody. Aegisthus is definitely a slimy one who takes advantage of a mother's grief and becomes a ruler without doing much himself. Orestes is the unlucky one in the sense that he is deprived of his mother's affection due to her grief but is instead fed the greatness of Agamemnon by his sister, leaving him not much choice but to avenge a father he has never met. But his character arc was another one which I thought had a satisfactory resolution.

In conclusion, this was a very interesting look at what was happening in the background of the Trojan War through the perspective of three women who couldn't do much about it except wait for it's conclusion. I definitely recommend if you are looking for some lovely writing but with a languid pace which allows you to simmer in the emotions that the prose and characters evoke. I can't wait to see what the author writes next.

4.5

” ‘The bards sing of you, too.'
One woman, daughter of Zeus, at the heart of their story. Troy was about one woman, for me at least. My daughter, the first of them all to die.”

Não vou marcar essa resenha como spoiler pq a história é bem conhecida. Fica a seu critério se vai ler a resenha ou não!

Eu ameeei essa leitura demais. Estou adorando esse hype de recontos das mulheres da mitologia escrita por mulheres. Em elektra, vemos como as consequências de decisões tomadas pelos homens as afetaram irreversivelmente.

Clytemnestra, filha de Leda e Tyndareus, irmã da belíssima Helen. Sua filha é morta pelas mãos do próprio pai como sacrificio para Artemis, antes do mesmo partir para Tróia. Desde então ela nunca mais conseguiu ver o marido da mesma forma, e promete se vingar assim que ele voltar.

Cassandra, fiila de Hecabe e Priam, esta mora em Tróia. Muito fiel à Apollo, acaba recebendo dele o poder da profecia. Ela se recusa a deitar com Apollo e ele, para castigá-la, determina que apesar dela ter o poder da profecia, não haverá ninguém que acredite no que ela vê.

Elektra, filha de Agamemnon e Clytemnestra, irmã de Iphigenia e Orestes, é muito conectada ao pai e continua ao lado dele mesmo depois do que ele fez ao partir para Tróia. Será que ela vai conseguir se libertar do desejo por sangue que amaldiçoa a família e seguir em frente?

Nesse livro, podemos sentir a dor que Clytemnestra sentiu quando Iphigenia foi sacrificada, mesmo que para muitos, isso foi justificado por possibilitar que Agamemnon e seus homens conseguissem viajar para Tróia. Conseguimos ver como Cassandra se sentiu excluída da família e de todos a seu redor por prever a destruição que está vindo e ser vista como uma louca. Também vemos a confusão de Elektra, extremamente leal ao pai e que ao longo da Guerra de Tróia cresce ao lado de uma mãe fria que está apenas esperando pelo momento da vingança.

O livro cobre o antes, o durante e depois da Guerra de Tróia. Só a guerra em si são 10 anos, e em nenhum momento senti que a história se arrastou demais ou foi rápido demais. A escrita em si também é muito linda. Só não dou 5 estrelas porque queria um pouco mais da Cassandra.

4.5 ⭐️
This was surprisingly good!
I've read Ariadne quite some time ago but I didn't really like it (I'm not even sure if I finished it tbh).
So I wasn't going to pick this book up but me being weak when it comes to Greek mythology I did anyways and I DON‘T REGRET IT!

I liked the different perspectives describing the Trojan war as well as their personal lives.
I loved Cassandra and Clytemnestra (wasn't so fond of Elektra)
I even got chills when reading some parts of the book (how Agamemnon sacrificed something for fair wind)

Overall, I would definitely pick this up if you're into Greek mythology and into feminism (or either one of those)

I really love Jennifer Salt's retellings, after falling in love with Ariadne I was super excited for Elektra. It was a good book, not a great book. It lacked something for me, it fell flat of the sparkle of Ariadne and perhaps just over repetitive of each woman's desire.

Cassandra's story line felt so squashed in, Elektra's so one dimensional but Clytemnestra's did evoke emotion, I felt conflicted with her, she felt tangible and alive. Overall, I did enjoy but I don't think I will reread it quickly, or maybe at all.

The story of the book is very captivating and interesting yet the author failed to keep me captivated and interested all the way through. I am a huge fan of Jennifer Saint's previous book, Ariadne, this one didn't live up to that one's beautiful writing. Reading a split perspective book can sometimes be confusing but this one was especially confusing with there being 3 different perspectives. The beginning started off very strong and lost me in the middle and the end as well. I probably would've enjoyed it more from one perspective. All that being said it is still a well written book and I did enjoy a lot of it. There are some really beautiful lines and I enjoyed hearing the story of the Trojan war from a women's perspective and from the Trojan perspective. Clytemnestra's storyline was the most interesting by far for me followed by Cassandra and then Elektra so for Elektra to be the title character was odd for me. Elektra was very one dimensional and by the end I didn't know much about her besides that she loved her father and wanted revenge on her mother. I went into the book excited to learn about Elektra as I didn't know really anything about her and I think the book could've benefitted from a title change as it would suggest it's Elektra's story when it was really the story of at least 4 people.