Elektra: A Novel of the House of Atreus

by Jennifer Saint

• ISBN10: 125077361X
• ISBN13: 9781250773616
• Publish Date: 3 May 2022 (first published 28 April 2022)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Flatiron Books
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 304
• Language: English

Reviews

[Quirky Cat]

If you love Greek Mythology and retellings, you're probably already aware of Elektra by Jennifer Saint. Elektra is the second Greek retelling Saint has written, the first being Ariadne (which I adored).

Sometimes a family indeed can be cursed. That certainly feels true for Elektra and her family. Her aunt, Helen of Troy, may have caused a thousand ships to sail. But did that do her any good? Her mother, Clytemnestra, had hoped to help avoid the curse but knew it was no avail when her sister disappeared to Troy.

Then there's Elektra's older sister, Cassandra. She's been cursed with the powerful gift to see the future. This is a twofold curse, first for seeing what is to come and second for never having anyone believe here. So, what about Elektra? Is she cursed, or will she find a way to change her fate?

“To what end did I teach them to weave or dance or sing? How did I know I did not raise another child for slaughter?”

Naturally, I went into Elektra with pretty high hopes. I loved Ariadne, so even though I've been feeling pretty burnt out on Greek mythology and retellings, I felt confident that Saint could find a way to charm me again.

That was partially true. I mostly enjoyed Elektra, though perhaps not as much as I had hoped. As always, I appreciate seeing Greek tales from a new perspective – mainly a feminine one. It's refreshing to take their stories into account.

To be clear, this retelling takes some creative license from Greek mythology. I think that's preferred because otherwise, it can get pretty tricky to bend the original tale into something new for us readers. So don't go into this book expecting it to be perfectly accurate – enjoy it for what it is.

Seeing the Trojan war from a completely new perspective was fascinating – that drew me in when many other points failed. If this is something that you've always been fascinated with, I think you'll love Saint's take on the war.

Thanks to Flatiron Books and #Goodreads for making this book available for review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Read more reviews over at Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

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Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this ARC!

 

My 4 stars are a very picky four stars, because while Jennifer Saints writing is insanely good (lyrical but also clean), she cannot make me love or feel sympathy for Elektra. But Elektra has always been a tough character to take on and this was an ambitious project for Jennifer Saint.

 

Yet, I do feel like Jennifer Saint was able to make us understand her a bit more, if not love her. Elektra, is like her mother in that sense, she does not need our sympathy or our love, she condemns her siblings, and like Clytemnestra, gives more time to the dead than those who are alive. Her entitlement is that of her fathers, for example her poor friend who supported her unconditionally was tossed aside the second she could find a suitor of rank. She assumes that Cassandra would have told her wonderful stories of her father, without the slightest thought of the fact that he had killed her family and assaulted her. Elektra belongs to another time, the time where you were supposed to revenge your fathers ghost and be glad that he has slaves (she says that her mother would deny her father the comfort of slaves in that sense*), and a sacrifice for the gods (the sacrifice of Iphigenia) is perfectly necessary and appropriate, and she represents that thought fully. I feel like she can be appropriately compared to Ajax, from the play by the same name by Sophocles in the sense that the death of Ajax can be compared to the death of a particular style of hero. The death of Clytemnestra and Menelaus’s subsequent refusal to support Orestes and Elektra, and also not take revenge for the sake of Agamemnon, feels like the end of the curse, especially with Orestes and Elektra purified as well. But Orestes rules, and Elektra who has demanded this, hides away and presumably never really gains power again. Her hiding away parallels Ajax’s death; and her style of revenge, the ways of the old die with her even if the family line continues.

 

The book has three POVs, Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Elektra, and does a fantastic job of complicating each woman. We have doses of Helen, she is the daughter of Zeus, and entitled to her share of bloodshed, but she’s also kind, warm and loyal, and able to see past the curse of Apollo.

 

*I don’t know what BookBub will allow me to say.