I was expecting a deep dive into Phaedra's life and viewpoint, but didn't ever really feel immersed in her world or thoughts. I did appreciate the author's emphasis on the lack of power of women in this time period.

Thank you to Net Galley and Alcove Press for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Phaedra is a fully mixed bag of interesting nuance and painful simplicity.

On the negative side, there are far too many PoV characters. I was lost on the minor characters from beginning to end. The plot seems to waver back and forth on whether to adhere to modern or ancient feminist politics, creating dissonance. Phaedra's so-called naivety is not well-handled and repeatedly hammered into the reader.

The way Phaedra treats the concept of gods and the influence of this on society, on the other hand, is an interesting and more unique take. My issue with a lot of retellings is how far they reach to make events un-magical - bending over backwards to make mundame from myth, and then going further by laughing and deriding the notion of magic being real in the text. Phaedra does fall into this trope quite severely, however it walks the line carefully and in a much more nuanced way than most that attempt the same thing. Especially through the eyes of Phaedra herself, whose belief in the gods despite derision truly carries the story, this trope compelled me more than it ever has before.

My favourite part of the book was hands down the relationship between Medea and Phaedra. Medea is one of my favourite mythological characters, and the genuinely heartfelt and logical sounding-out of the murder of her children is not something most writers bother to spend time on. The paralleling of this with the climax of the book was genuinely well-written and compelling.

The setting does seem more inspired by 5th Century BC Greece than the so-called ancient setting it claims to be set in, though to a non-Classicist reader this is unlikely to affect enjoyment.

I would've loved way more exploration of the Minotaur and his relationship with Phaedra and Ariadne, as that was definitely one of the more compelling parts of the book.

3/5

I had high hopes for this, but the POV of all these characters caused it to feel like all the voices blended together. There were times when I struggled to tell who was talking despite having read the name before the chapter. Not much of this felt well-developed or in-depth, and I think there is a way to do a greek retelling and give it depth and justice- this just perhaps wasn't it.

While I love the idea of a retelling of Phaedra’s story through the framing of victim blaming culture and the dichotomy of male and female cultural expectations of the time during which her marriage to Odysseus takes place, the content falls short for me in respect to the writing.

Multiple point of view characters usually appeals to me, but when each narrative voice is near indistinguishable from the last, it leaves an incredibly flat taste in my mouth. And while I can respect focus on character dynamics and the deliberate choice to leave many aspects of the setting unsaid, Shepperson’s omission of these things feels more like oversight than artistic decision.

As debuts and mythology retellings go, Phaedra is fine, but by no means a stand-out as the trend goes. If the niche is your thing, by all means, I encourage you to read and enjoy, but if you tbr is a mile long or you’re picky about retellings, maybe skip this one.

Please check TW/CW prior to reading this book.

Thank you Alcove Press and NetGalley for providing an arc for an honest review.

I really wanted to love this book. Any type of retelling or re-imagining of mythology will always catch my eye so I was really excited to read this book. Unfortunately it just fell flat for me. It had the potential to be a very hard hitting important story to tell. Much like Ariadne and how women tend to be the ones who are forgotten or harmed when it comes to the legends of men. That same idea could have been conveyed beautifully in this book but it was lost in all of the POV's. The character's were not fleshed out enough and they only took away from the overall story. Many of them were unnecessary and didn't add anything substantial to the narrative. I would have loved to have either just heard from Phaedra or Phaedra and Medea.

Thank you to Netgalley and Alcove Press for the digital copy in exchange for my honest review.

If you enjoyed Ariadne by Jennifer Saint or were looking for a new viewpoint on the Theseus and the minotaur myth, this is the thing for you. It tells a very different story.

Narrated by Phaedra, the wife of Theseus, through the killing of the minotaur, the disappearance of her sister, and the ordeal of her life in the lawlessness of Athens.

When the king is away, the women are not safe.

Phaedra tells the story of Greece’s first democracy passing a verdict on the crown prince. It also tells the story of how democracy can still fail, and all that’s left to set things right is a woman’s rage.

There are several POV characters to give more background to the story and provide information about women from all levels of the caste system, as well as a night chorus where women share their grievances with one another. Most of the POVs were hard to differentiate, and I found the night chorus, often, badly written. Phaedra’s voice is the one that shines through. I didn’t see the payoff of having all kinds of viewpoints of different women, because it was stealing focus from the main character and not as much detail was given about the others.

I did like the chapters told from Medea’s POV but I wish more scheming had been done with her character. My overall complaint for every character is that I wish I knew them and their motivations better. Even when certain characters died, I wasn’t able to feel for them because I didn’t bond to them. And I think a lot of that is because of the POV bouncing around too much.

While I enjoyed the narrative, I felt that the storytelling fell flat at times, and it really needs a final polish to clarify the voices of its characters and also to catch typos. For example, on page 438 of 561, Theseus offers Phaedra safe passage back to “Athens,” but I’m pretty sure it should say “Crete,” being that they are standing in Athens for this conversation.

This has all of the potential to be a hard hitting tale about all of the things Greek myth glazes over, but it falls short of that. While reading, I felt myself comparing characters to other retellings and thinking “Pasiphae in this retelling is stronger,” or “I like this version of Ariadne better.”

Even so, Phaedra takes a completely new spin on this myth and it’s worth reading.

Content warning: rape, assault, child murder

In a nutshell, Phaedra is a retelling of the Greek mythological story of Phaedra. What I liked most is the witty narrative structure - Shepperson included overlooked voices of women from different classes (princesses, maids, even a chorus of women's voices at night).

I also enjoyed the rapid switch of the narrative views from character to character, each one bringing a different aspect to the journey. As reader, I was felt as being on pins and needles (in a good way!!) to see what will happen next, what's the next point of view.

It is definitely a book that I will recommend reading!

2.5 stars, rounded up.

I love a good retelling of a mythologic character so I was extremely excited to read this. Unfortunately it fell flat for me. This could have been because I was going into it with high expectation due to other retellings I have read, but regardless, I was left wanting more.

The retelling is told thorough numerous perspectives, which don't get me wrong, I love multiple points of view, when they are adding to the plot, these did not. In fact, the numerous perspectives actually added confusion (and not in a good way) and at times I actually got annoyed with the constant changings. It didn't help that I felt like all of the characters fell flat, sometime I was surprised about due to how rich the mythology is. I felt like more effort was put into trying to get the feminist point across than to actually develop the characters.

If you are looking for another author like Madeline Miller or Jennifer Saint, this is not the book for you. If you are looking for a myth retelling that's main focus is getting the feminist point across without adding much to the myth and without compelling characters, you might enjoy this more than I did.

I received this ARC from the publisher and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This one felt flat for me. I normally love Greek mythology and retellings but this felt a bit juvenile. There were too many point of views in my opinion. If you have multiple POVs it is important to really flesh out each character, give them their own distinct voice, personality, thoughts, etc. and I didn't feel like we got that here. The formatting and editing also need another look.

Thank you so much to NetGalley and the publisher for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Phaedra follows the trend of many mythological retellings, telling a famous story from a female perspective. This highlights many of the injustices of the time, and the true tragedy of life many endured.
Something that lacked for me was the worldbuilding. I love mythological retellings because I feel like I’m transported to a different time, and that is something that fell short for me here.
I also was not a huge fan of the multiple POVs. Some of the perspectives felt unnecessary, and it didn’t feel like each had their own voice. I yearned for more of Phaedra’s point of view, for she was my favorite part of the book! Overall, I did enjoy the trial aspect of the story.

TW/CW: Sexual assault, murder, brutality, sexism, violence, teen marriage

REVIEW: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley and am voluntarily leaving an honest review.

Phaedra is the story of the youngest daughter of King Minos of Crete and her ill-fated marriage to Theseus of Athens.

This is not a bad book, but I thought it compared poorly to Ariadne, which it very strongly mirrored in the first half of the book. The second half was a bit different, and grabbed my attention more. The book was well written, but tended to jump around too much to different viewpoints and different people with different motivations.

One of my problems with this book was that it had too many points of view. I lost count of how many there were (at least six or so) and some of them I cared about more than others. I would have liked to hear more strictly from Phaedra’s point of view, as this was intended to be her story.

The author was attempting to make a point about sexual assault and the way ancient women were mistreated, which is surely a good and important point to make. But I think this book went a bit overboard and pushed the part a bit too hard. It also felt that the pacing was off, as the first part really dragged while the last part – especially the trial – seemed very rushed.

While this was not a BAD book, I would recommend Ariadne before this one, because it was simply a more straightforward and less brutal read.

I am a sucker for a good Mythology retelling and this one was no different. I currently read the book Ariadne and then I read this book after. I love that we are seeing the characters through a trial and going more into who Phaedra is and what she went through!

“Justice is sometimes a mistreated woman. What should happen isn’t always what does happen.”

Sometimes there is so much injustice in a novel that I have to read in short spurts to keep myself from getting upset and worked up about it. Especially when that injustice mirrors the real world, whether in the past or present.

This is exactly that kind of book. Over and over and over, women are brutalized and mistreated and ignored and silenced. They are objects to own rather than humans with autonomy and value. They exist only to serve cruel men. So while I get the point of the message, decrying this sort of mentality, I’ll admit this was a really hard book to read.

I enjoyed the different perspectives and points of view throughout the book, especially seeing how twisted the accounts become with all of the court gossip and political spinning. The world building left a bit to be desired, and for readers that are new to Greek mythology, I think this would hinder some of their understanding of place and character.

Overall I felt that the plights of females were compelling, and the events tragic, but I didn’t enjoy the book enough to revisit it in the future.

“If they are the heroes, does that make us the heroines? We keep going, we persevere, we ask for nothing, and we get even less. Where are our stories?”

CW: Rape, child death, murder

Thank you so much to Alcove Press and NetGalley for providing me with an e-ARC; it is greatly appreciated.

I actually did not realize this is considered an adult book until after I finished it. Based on the writing this 100% comes off as YA. Re-reading the description of the book, I definitely see why this would be considered adult, but I feel that the description gives false expectations for the book. Saying that Phaedra, "sparks an overdue reckoning" is misleading, as the very opposite happens...and then the book ends.

I was really looking forward to reading a story from Phaedra's POV, but instead we must also read the POV's of a multitude of other characters. Out of 56 chapters in this book, only 17 are Phaedra. There are characters that really added nothing to the story, and I found myself bored while waiting for it to return to Phaedra's point-of-view.

Speaking of the cast of the characters, everyone comes off as quite one-dimensional. We are only ever shown one aspect of their personality, so everytime that character pops up that is the only thing ever discussed about them. For Phaedra it's painting, Hippolytus is riding horses, Theseus is democracy, Medea her children, etc. We never really explore deeper as to who these characters are.

Unfortunately, I also found the plot to be lacking. Once Phaedra is in Athens she rarely leaves her rooms, so huge amounts of time pass by without anything happening. A good majority of the book is simply conversations that Phaedra has with a few characters in her bedroom. As the book revolves around one event, there isn't anything else that happens that is really of any interest.

Which brings me to the main topic of this story: rape. The description of this book makes it seem like the oppressed women are going to be heard, and perhaps get some justice, but that doesn't happen. Almost every page of this book talks about the brutalization of women. Every man is a rapist, and every woman has been raped. I was expecting some sort of uprising, or mass court hearing where women were going to tell their stories, be heard, and gain back some power for themselves. Yet Phaedra is the only one to speak. The other women remain nameless voices in the night.

With how this book ends I honestly do not understand the purpose of it. I get that this is a Greek tragedy, but with minimal plot and no character growth I am struggling to care. We simply stayed surface level on a topic that should have been delved into so much deeper. There were sparks in the beginning that led me to believe we would be heading for some serious and well needed discussions, but it just never happened.

Here are those quotes:
"It was not until ten summers later, when Theseus was to come to Crete, seeking power beyond what we could give him, that I was to learn the truth: that any man can throw words up into the air, and it is women who must pay when those words land."

"I know that history will judge me, but history is written by men."

Such promise ! Overall this is an unsatisfying story that really should have gone all in if it was going to deal with such a serious topic. I was looking for Phaedra's perspective in a feminist retelling, but instead got multiple perspectives on how large and annoying a table was.

This book is great! Would definitely recommend. Thanks so much to NetGalley and the publisher for the ARC.

First, thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me a copy of this ARC in exchange for an unbiased review.

Like most retellings of Greek mythology, Phaedra contains gore, murder, suicide, and rape so tread lightly if any of the aforementioned topics are triggering.

Phaedra follows the trend of many Greek Mythology Retellings in shifting the focus into that a female perspective which offers a brutal and heart-wrenching depiction of the well known mythologies being shared. Phaedra is depicted as a victim of her circumstances instead of the typical depiction of her being an unhinged adulteress seducing her stepson. It provides a unique take on the story and the characters within it and makes you want to root for Phaedra to find some semblance of a happy ending. It addresses many prevalent issues pertaining to women's rights and consent while tackling Phaedra's complicated family dynamic. That being said the characters lacked a bit more depth and I found myself sympathetic to them not because of who they were but because of the tragedies that befell them. Overall, I found it to be an entertaining addition to the newly popular emergence of Greek Myth Retellings.

Phaedra
By Laura Shepperson

CW: sexual assault, domestic abuse, suicide, and murder

This book was interesting. I am both an avid reader of Greek mythology and the popular genre of re-envisionings, whether feminist rewritings or otherwise.

My rating for this book is to give it 4-stars [⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️]. However, I offer this with some caveats.

My initial impression was to give it a 3-star rating as almost every character in this book is unlikable.
- There are no happy endings.
- Death and murder and sexual violence are endemic.
- Every single male character that is developed to any extent is not only untrustworthy, but is also a violent thug and out to protect only his own interests.
- The only outcome is the perpetuation of patriarchal power.

But then, this is hardly the author’s fault. The Greek myths themselves are steeped in & glorify these types of toxic masculine behaviours and traits.

Assessing the book more closely, there are several aspects which led me to rate it more highly:

1. Book layout – the narrative structure is presented to resemble that of the tragedies of classical Greek theatre. Hence the action of the book begins with the Prologue, followed by the Parados or Chorus, and then there are 3 Episodes or Acts that are interspersed with the Stasima (comments/interjections of the chorus presented in song). Ultimately, the narrative ends with the Exodos/Exodus where the chorus recounts the moral of the tragedy. The author also follows the traditional format of Greek tragedy in print, by including a dramatis personae to introduce the cast of characters.

2. The Night Chorus – the Chorus in this book are played by the combined voices of women that cry out in the night. They call out to one another, offer warnings and advice, reveal truths and foretell what is to come; they commiserate and console, rejoice and lament. They are Furies and Muses. They are the whisper network of women which has existed and operated throughout time.

“I lay listening to the voices until sunrise, when they faded away. And as my hand brushed my cheek, just before I fell asleep, I realized that my face was wet with tears. I didn’t know these women, but I felt that we were sisters. I had shared their darkest nights and would wake a wiser woman.”

3. The Trial – the narrative is structured around the event of a trial. Phaedra (Princess of Crete and wife of Theseus) has brought charges of rape and serious infringements of Xenia against Hippolytus (the son of Theseus). The trial’s events and final outcome reflects and echoes numerous aspects of the proceedings, perspectives, and reactions to and against contemporary trials of men for sexual assault and sexual violence. I thought the author was especially deft at representing this.

4. Aside from Phaedra, the author rewrites and offers some extremely engaging depth to the tales of the Minotaur and to Medea (as an aside, Euripedes’ Medea has always been my favourite of the Greek tragedies!).

In the end, I’d caution anyone who has difficulty reading the topics I warned of above. This book does not soften the tragic tale of Phaedra, nor does it offer any hope for change. It presents everything in stark, brutal language. But that is the way of Greek tragedy. However, if you’re prepared to accept that, then you’ll enjoy this book.

For myself, I will certainly be purchasing a hardcopy to add to my collection of Greek myth retellings and I’ll be watching for further offerings from this author.

I’d like to thank NetGalley and Alcove Press for allowing me access to an ARC of this novel in exchange for my honest review.

Phaedra, princess in Crete is sent to Athens to be married to Theseus, the song of King Ageus. Once arriving in Athens, Theseus becomes King after his father jumped to his death. Phaedra, having been given more freedoms in Crete, is not adjusting well nor receiving respect as Queen in Athens. As maids and men in the court begin to whisper, the story unfolds.

This was my first book about Greek mythology and I think this book was well written, though may have been better written from one POV vs the many characters in the story. There is no distinct tone or "voice" change in any chapter so you really need to read the chapter titles to know who is speaking.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC in exchange for my honest review.

CONTENT WARNING: blood, gore, murder, suicide, rape

In the last few years, I have read some incredible mythology retellings, and they’ve become kind of irresistible to me. I’m not very well versed in Greek mythology, but I’m always intrigued in learning more about them, and seeing differing views on stories that have been accepted for many years, usually placing the males in the story in the forefront and in the best possible light. However, in recent years, retellings have changed the focus of the stories to place the women in the center and tell their stories, rather than that of the men.

While I’m not familiar with Phaedra’s story, I did check it out quickly before starting the story. All versions seem to paint her as a seductress, and fault her for the events of the story. However, this book flips the script and makes her an innocent victim, not at fault for the events, other than pushing for justice for herself and the other innocent victims in the castle.

We get a lot of different POVs—various women throughout the story, and at least one male character. They definitely provided a good perspective to the story, but all of the viewpoints had a major failing. Mainly, that they all sounded the same. It was impossible to differentiate who was speaking, because all of the different characters had the same voice, same speech patterns, same patterns of thought, despite the differences in class, place of upbringing, gender, etc. Without the name at the beginning of the chapter, I couldn’t figure out who was narrating.

It brings out a lot of the discussion surrounding consent, women’s rights, and a rape trial, as well as the politics involved in changing a monarchy to a democracy and the pushback involved, but there was a lot going on in the story. There were family dynamics discussed on both sides—for Theseus and Phaedra, and the massive dysfunction that is rife in Greek mythology families.

However, we never really get to know the characters in depth. Phaedra is never really portrayed as anything more than naïve. We barely get to know Theseus at all, and the most we learn about Hippolytus is that he’s devoted to horses and Artemis. As for the rest of the characters, we learn even less about them. I found it endlessly frustrating, and while the story was intriguing, I would have liked to get to know the characters in greater depth. Overall, this was an interesting read, but it didn’t quite meet the high bar that was set for mythology retellings that I’ve come to expect.

This book is so so good. I loved this telling of the well known tale of Theseus from the eyes of Phaedra.
There is a trigger warning which may be well known but for those who don't know she is raped.
Phaedra is unwilling to remain quiet about the assult. She speaks up and the story navigates how truth, her truth is seen by the men of the city who gather to determine the truth while the women who have no vote are in the shadows but we hear they voices.
This is a powerful book. Such a great read

I just reviewed Phaedra by Laura Shepperson. #Phaedra #NetGalley