Elektra
A spellbinding reimagining of the story of Elektra, one of Greek mythology’s most infamous heroines, from Jennifer Saint, the author of the beloved international bestseller, Ariadne.
Three women, tangled in an ancient curse.
When Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon, she ignores the insidious whispers about his family line, the House of Atreus. But when, on the eve of the Trojan War, Agamemnon betrays Clytemnestra in the most unimaginable way, she must confront the curse that has long ravaged their family.
In Troy, Princess Cassandra has the gift of prophecy, but carries a curse of her own: no one will ever believe what she sees. When she is shown what will happen to her beloved city when Agamemnon and his army arrives, she is powerless to stop the tragedy from unfolding.
Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s youngest daughter, wants only for her beloved father to return home from war. But can she escape her family’s bloody history, or is her destiny bound by violence, too?
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Community Reviews
Originally posted on Cyn's Workshop
Jennifer Saint once again astounds with Elektra, delving into her relationships not only with her father Agamemnon but also with her mother Clytemnestra, and even her brief encounter with Cassandra.
Storytelling
As much as I liked Elektra, I unfortunately did not love it as much as I did Ariadne.
My biggest problem with this book was that we didn’t really get to see and understand Elektra’s relationship with her father, Agamemnon.
There is one brief scene when we’re first introduced to Elektra and Agamemnon. Her father gives her a dagger shortly before the war of Troy begins, and after that, she doesn’t see him again.
The rest of the story focuses on Elektra’s confusion about why her mother, Clytemnestra, hates Agamemnon so much. Her older sister is dead, and Elektra rationalizes this by thinking that her father had to sacrifice her sister to ensure a favorable wind that would bring honor back to their family. I wanted more depth in this area. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Elektra’s relationship with her father, Agamemnon, because we only get that one scene. It didn’t provide enough context to understand why she was so loyal to him or why she was determined to stand by him.
In contrast, we learn why Clytemnestra turned against Agamemnon; we see her feelings of betrayal regarding his actions. Clytemnestra’s anger—as a mother, wife, and woman—resonated with me as a reader. I completely empathized with her, and I really believe the story itself should have been titled Clytemnestra instead of Elektra. We gained much more insight into Clytemnestra’s perspective than we did into Elektra’s or Cassandra’s.
Another issue I had with this book was Cassandra’s perspective. While I appreciated her viewpoint and wanted more of it, it felt unnecessary within a story titled Elektra, as Elektra has very little interaction with Cassandra. If the story had been titled Clytemnestra, then Cassandra’s perspective would have fit better. There’s a particular scene where Cassandra and Clytemnestra meet; it’s significant because Cassandra knows she will die by Clytemnestra’s hand. During that encounter, an understanding passes between the two women: Clytemnestra is no longer the villain who kills her husband’s slave or mistress. Instead, she is saving Cassandra from slavery and torture—a cruel life.
I liked that moment, but again, it feels unnecessary considering the focus was supposed to be on Elektra. Ultimately, I feel we didn’t understand Elektra’s devotion and loyalty to her father as much as I would have liked. From the beginning, she shows no understanding or empathy towards her mother. Instead, she is headstrong and insists on being loyal to her father. I would have liked more development in this area so that I could connect with her better.
Final Thoughts
Elektra is a great book. Jennifer Saint masterfully transforms traditionally villainous characters into relatable figures, evoking empathy and creating a strong connection between the reader and these mythological characters.
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Another great mythological retelling that focuses on the women of the Iliad in Troy and highlights their struggle amongst men.
Jennifer Saint once again astounds with Elektra, delving into her relationships not only with her father Agamemnon but also with her mother Clytemnestra, and even her brief encounter with Cassandra.
Storytelling
As much as I liked Elektra, I unfortunately did not love it as much as I did Ariadne.
My biggest problem with this book was that we didn’t really get to see and understand Elektra’s relationship with her father, Agamemnon.
There is one brief scene when we’re first introduced to Elektra and Agamemnon. Her father gives her a dagger shortly before the war of Troy begins, and after that, she doesn’t see him again.
The rest of the story focuses on Elektra’s confusion about why her mother, Clytemnestra, hates Agamemnon so much. Her older sister is dead, and Elektra rationalizes this by thinking that her father had to sacrifice her sister to ensure a favorable wind that would bring honor back to their family. I wanted more depth in this area. I would have liked to have seen a bit more of Elektra’s relationship with her father, Agamemnon, because we only get that one scene. It didn’t provide enough context to understand why she was so loyal to him or why she was determined to stand by him.
In contrast, we learn why Clytemnestra turned against Agamemnon; we see her feelings of betrayal regarding his actions. Clytemnestra’s anger—as a mother, wife, and woman—resonated with me as a reader. I completely empathized with her, and I really believe the story itself should have been titled Clytemnestra instead of Elektra. We gained much more insight into Clytemnestra’s perspective than we did into Elektra’s or Cassandra’s.
Another issue I had with this book was Cassandra’s perspective. While I appreciated her viewpoint and wanted more of it, it felt unnecessary within a story titled Elektra, as Elektra has very little interaction with Cassandra. If the story had been titled Clytemnestra, then Cassandra’s perspective would have fit better. There’s a particular scene where Cassandra and Clytemnestra meet; it’s significant because Cassandra knows she will die by Clytemnestra’s hand. During that encounter, an understanding passes between the two women: Clytemnestra is no longer the villain who kills her husband’s slave or mistress. Instead, she is saving Cassandra from slavery and torture—a cruel life.
I liked that moment, but again, it feels unnecessary considering the focus was supposed to be on Elektra. Ultimately, I feel we didn’t understand Elektra’s devotion and loyalty to her father as much as I would have liked. From the beginning, she shows no understanding or empathy towards her mother. Instead, she is headstrong and insists on being loyal to her father. I would have liked more development in this area so that I could connect with her better.
Final Thoughts
Elektra is a great book. Jennifer Saint masterfully transforms traditionally villainous characters into relatable figures, evoking empathy and creating a strong connection between the reader and these mythological characters.
See more reviews at Cyn's Workshop and follow me on Facebook | Instagram | TikTok | Twitter | Tumblr | Spotify Podcast | YouTube | BookBub | Goodreads+ | LinkedIn
Sorry, but I am Team Clytemnestra on this one. I enjoyed the story but Elektra was selfish and annoying. She showed no respect to her friend, who literally flipped his life upside down to save her.
I must admit I enjoyed Ariadne more, and other myth retellings even more so. Something about this book just didn't strike me well, the rhythm was shaky and limping, and I found especially Clytemnestra's inner thoughts just annoyingly spelt out. However, I love seeing a myth from a different, especially feminine, perspective, and would skip this book.
Somehow managed to make three of the most interesting women in greek mythology (two of them my personal favorites!) deeply boring. What could have been a compelling, emotional, multigenerational family saga of murder, warfare, and political ambition/machinations is instead a boring, straight retelling, nothing added. Major important plot points and exposition are given in long paragraphs-long dialogue.
Elektra is whiny, so up her father's ass that she's somehow completely unable to feel any sadness about her sisters brutal murder, but also is able to justify and even support her father taking literal sex slaves? And not only justify, but manage to hate her mother for daring to express sympathy (or acknowledge that they are... you know, humans) for the women Agamemnon has wronged. She was honestly annoying to read.
Cassandra is a non-character. Her POV chapters are just convenient exposition, she isn't really given any agency, her character just kind of... drifts along commenting on what's going on around her until she dies. Probably the worst part of this story is that she asks Clytemnestra to kill her.
Clytemnestra.... I will give Saint credit in that I think her portrayal of Clytemnestra in the first half of the novel is one of the better I've seen. I think she did a good job making this character sympathetic by really getting into her grief and anger. However, after the murder of Agamemnon I just don't think the character was written particularly interesting. She basically just waits around for the scene when she'll eventually be killed. She's just kind of.... there?
I don't know. Maybe if I didn't love this story so much I wouldn't be so disappointed by Saint's version. But since I've been obsessed with this particular myth since I read the Oresteia in college, that I can't really forgive an author making it.... kind of boring.
My final thoughts are - you can't really just call something a 'feminist retelling' just because it centers around female characters. Its not feminist to craft a narrative that takes three iconic female characters and flattens them to one-dimension. It's not feminist to center a story around three women and then give them no agency, no real emotion, no real characterization. It's also not particularly feminist to name your book after the POV character who justifies the murder of her sister, the taking of women as literal sex slaves/spoils of war, and hatred of her own mother because she just... loves her daddy so much.
Can you call it a feminist retelling if ancient greek playwrights gave these women more complexity and agency than you did?
Elektra is whiny, so up her father's ass that she's somehow completely unable to feel any sadness about her sisters brutal murder, but also is able to justify and even support her father taking literal sex slaves? And not only justify, but manage to hate her mother for daring to express sympathy (or acknowledge that they are... you know, humans) for the women Agamemnon has wronged. She was honestly annoying to read.
Cassandra is a non-character. Her POV chapters are just convenient exposition, she isn't really given any agency, her character just kind of... drifts along commenting on what's going on around her until she dies. Probably the worst part of this story is that she asks Clytemnestra to kill her.
Clytemnestra.... I will give Saint credit in that I think her portrayal of Clytemnestra in the first half of the novel is one of the better I've seen. I think she did a good job making this character sympathetic by really getting into her grief and anger. However, after the murder of Agamemnon I just don't think the character was written particularly interesting. She basically just waits around for the scene when she'll eventually be killed. She's just kind of.... there?
I don't know. Maybe if I didn't love this story so much I wouldn't be so disappointed by Saint's version. But since I've been obsessed with this particular myth since I read the Oresteia in college, that I can't really forgive an author making it.... kind of boring.
My final thoughts are - you can't really just call something a 'feminist retelling' just because it centers around female characters. Its not feminist to craft a narrative that takes three iconic female characters and flattens them to one-dimension. It's not feminist to center a story around three women and then give them no agency, no real emotion, no real characterization. It's also not particularly feminist to name your book after the POV character who justifies the murder of her sister, the taking of women as literal sex slaves/spoils of war, and hatred of her own mother because she just... loves her daddy so much.
Can you call it a feminist retelling if ancient greek playwrights gave these women more complexity and agency than you did?
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