Elektra

December 1, 2021

Having triumphed with her internationally best-selling debut, Ariadne, Saint turns to bold Elektra in a story ultimately involving a triumvirate of women. Clytemnestra ignores insinuations of House of Atreus violence and is betrayed when Agamemnon sacrifices their daughter, Princess Cassandra goes unheeded, and Elektra longs to see her father yet wonders if she's doomed to repeat her family's bloody history. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

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Starred review from March 21, 2022
Saint (Ariadne) returns with a brilliant feminist revision of the Greek myth of the House of Atreus. As in the Aeschylus plays, the lives of three powerful women intersect through war and vengeance: Cassandra, daughter of the king and queen of Troy; Clytemnestra, wife of Agamemnon; and Elektra, daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon. In alternating chapters, each woman relays her own story and is treated to generous and bold character development. Cassandra, kissed by the god Apollo, receives the gift of prophecy and is disregarded by her family despite the fates she sees for them. Agamemnon wages war against Troy beginning with a treacherous act that Clytemnestra cannot forgive. Clytemnestra soon bears Agamemnon’s son, a child she finds difficult to love because of his association with Agamemnon, and joins forces with her nephew, Aegisthus. Saint enriches the tense story with psychological depth, showing, for instance, how Elektra simmers with resentment of her mother and Aegisthus for their betrayal of Agamemnon. The author also does a splendid job managing the timeline, with rich and sustained scenes and seamless jumps. Out of a canonical myth, Saint has built a commanding story of rebellious women.

April 15, 2022
The tale of the Trojan War told by three women who have their own battles to fight. Elektra is just a girl when her father, Agamemnon, leads the largest Greek army ever assembled to wage war against Troy. She pines for his return as she comes of age over the decade it takes for Troy to fall. Her mother, Clytemnestra, seethes with rage, grief, and, above all, the desire for vengeance for what her husband is willing to sacrifice for this war of vanity. Meanwhile, in Troy itself, Cassandra watches the daily horrors unfold. Try as she might to warn her people of the devastation she sees coming, she can't overcome her reputation as a madwoman. The novel is told from the first-person points of view of these three women, and, at first, trying to sort out all the names and family histories, however familiar, feels like the homework assignment it once was. But with the pieces in place, author Saint animates the three women and sets them off. Clytemnestra, the most fully realized, propels the narrative forward with a fresh, raw depth of emotion for a story that's been told through the ages. Elektra's and Cassandra's sections can feel repetitive, but they tend to be shorter, which quickens the pace. Together, these voices show how three very different women understand family, the costs of war, and how to exercise their power. While Helen, Clytemnestra's twin sister, has some nuance in this version, it seems odd that Saint chose not to take the opportunity to animate the perspective of the legendary beauty who incited the war. Nevertheless, the women whose perspectives are represented are riveting. Royals, revenge, curses, and prophecies done right.

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Starred review from March 15, 2022
Saint's electrifying follow-up to Ariadne (2021) tells the story of some of the most iconic women of Greek mythology. Clytemnestra is hopeful that new husband Agamemnon is the final link in the bloody curse that shadows the House of Atreus--but then she is gruesomely betrayed. Cassandra, princess of Troy, refuses Apollo's advances and receives an infamous curse: while she can see the future, no one will ever believe her prophecies. And Elektra, a young girl idolizing her father and waiting for him to come home from the war, is bound into a cycle of violence that is fated to continue. The toll of the Trojan War, the unfeeling gaze of the gods, and the power-hungry violence of men all fall disproportionately on the shoulders of these women, and Saint's vivid writing brings their pain, love, and grief to the page in short, intense chapters that make the novel difficult to put down. It's an emotion-laden story of revenge and rage driven by loss and fills a gap by giving Clytemnestra a voice. Both readers who know the Greek myths well and readers who only know glimmers of the story will enjoy this new, epic retelling, perfect for fans of Madeline Miller's Circe (2018).

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