Elektra: No.1 Sunday Times Bestseller from the Author of ARIADNE

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There is a certain amount of repetition but given that each of the narrators tells the story from different vantage points, nowhere did I lose interest. When I had seen all those suitors clamour in the hall for Helen, I had believed they were there because they loved her, but I had been wrong. If you’re desperate to read every single book written about the Trojan War, then absolutely read Elektra.

Thank you Netgalley and Headline for sending me an e-arc of this book in exchange for an honest review. If you're familiar with the mythology, you will see things coming, but it doesn't lessen the painful impact. Many of her actions and motivations might not feel justified but she is her father’s daughter and is unapologetic in her quest to avenge her father’s death and willing to sacrifice and bear the consequences of her actions.Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon, King of Mycenae of the House of Atreus, mother of Iphigenia, Elektra and Orestes. Clytemnestra’s hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister, Helen, is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. It might be different if, for instance, Saint had swapped Elektra for someone farther removed from Clytemnestra so that it felt like three women coming from three vastly different places rather than leaving Cassandra as such an outlier.

She also doesn’t seem to care about others around her- especially how she treats her friend Georgios and has a weird Oedipus complex about Agamemnon. The interest was also mainly in the second half of the book, and completely absorbed me at the end with a more than satisfying ending as the characters wrestle with their moral dilemma and thirst for revenge because that was what tradition dictated. ElektraThe youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin.

I found Elektra really hard to sympathise with at times- she is a selfish character and her empathy for others is hardly there. Firstly, I absolutely adored this book, even more than Ariadne, but then I’m not surprised as in this novel Saint tackles some of my favourite mythological women and one of my favourite cycles. Her second novel, ELEKTRA, comes out in 2022 and is another retelling of Greek mythology told in the voices of the women at the heart of the ancient legends. My huge thanks to Headline Audio via NetGalley for giving me a chance to listen to Elektra by Jennifer Saint, I have given my honest review.

A good book is when you immerse yourself into reading and are simply absorbed by the story, which is the case for me.I feel like Saint's retellings just follow the original texts too closely, but that's on me, not her. This could have been stronger had it been a more in depth story focusing solely on Clytemnestra or Cassandra but the three POV’s made the story weaker and more surface level. If you don’t know much about these legendary tales then this would not be a problem, but for me I wanted a bit more originality in the whole story and I wanted more twists to a story I already knew. Next we have Cassandra the princess of Troy who upon refusing the god Apollo’s advances was cursed to be able to foretell the future but never be believed.