Author: Jennifer Saint
Title: Elektra
Year of publication: 2022
Page count: 328
Rating: ★★★★
I enjoyed Saint’s first novel Ariadne, and what can I say, Greek mythology retellings are my crack, especially ones stemming from a feminist perspective that gives voice to the female side characters of the original myths—I just can’t resist them, so I picked this up on release day (since I’d gotten rejected for an ARC, hah). One of my main qualms with Ariadne was that while Saint gave the women a voice, she went for some of the more passive myth versions, so I appreciated that in Elektra, out of the many available versions, the author picked the ones that gave her three chosen POV characters the most agency… even though their fates are, of course, still tied to the fickle whims of men and gods.
“Can’t you see that it just goes on, over and over? The gods demand their justice, but we suffer for it, every time.”
Elektra, princess of Mycenae and one of the most popular characters in Greek tragedies, may be the novel’s titular character, but no matter how you spin and twist her story, her daddy-issues don’t make for a sympathetic character you can easily root for, yet Saint did a decent job at developing her character, even if her motivations and choices can’t be justified. As far as I’m concerned, the star of the novel was Clytemnestra, Elektra’s mother and wife of Agamemnon, who, after being tricked and watching her husband sacrifice their eldest daughter Iphigenia for a fair wind to sail his fleet to Troy, swore that she’d have her revenge upon his return. The third POV is provided by Cassandra, Trojan princess blessed with the gift of prophecy but cursed to never be believed, which allowed Saint to work in the Trojan perspective, as well as offer glimpses of Helen—Clytemnestra’s sister, Agamemnon’s brother’s wife, and the reason a thousand ships sailed across the sea and laid siege to a city for a decade.
“I thought that grief would be like a sea of suffering within me, that it would wrack me with its storms and endlessly replenish my tears, but instead it lodges like heavy stone in my throat.”
The focus of the novel is the curse on the House of Atreus, and the generational cycle of violence, vengeance, and justice through retribution, but the deliciously complex inter-character relationships between these women are the heart of the story, and Saints expertly weaves the multiple POVs together, contextualizing complex themes and morally difficult parts to create a gripping and tragic retelling that still resonates. I felt that the climax and ending, including Orestes’ madness and purification, was a little rushed, but I still liked this more than Ariadne—the prose was simple but lovely, and the narrative well-paced, at least up until the very end. Saint has found a new loyal reader in me, and I look forward to reading her next book, which will be about Atalanta, the only female Argonaut… easily my least favorite Greek myth, so I’m curious to see if she’ll manage to make me care about it.
watercolorstain 