As Princesses of Crete and daughters of the fearsome King Minos, Ariadne and her sister Phaedra grow up hearing the hoofbeats and bellows of the Minotaur echo from the Labyrinth beneath the palace. The Minotaur – Minos’s greatest shame and Ariadne’s brother – demands blood every year.
When Theseus, Prince of Athens, arrives in Crete as a sacrifice to the beast, Ariadne falls in love with him. But helping Theseus kill the monster means betraying her family and country, and Ariadne knows only too well that in a world ruled by mercurial gods – drawing their attention can cost you everything.
I’ve seen this book compared with Circe about a million times, so I’m going to start by doing the same: Yes, this is similar to Circe in its premise. But it’s much less dense and verbose, and it’s also more in-your-face with its « women suffer the consequences from men’s actions in Ancient Greek mythology » underlying theme.
Ariadne is a great read, one that I preferred to Circe for its writing style, and I’d recommend starting with this one as more of an introduction to the theme. It also verges more on the genre of young adult and might be more fun for a younger audience.
All in all, a really nice read with a lovable, broken heroine who observes the world she knows and tries to find the common themes with more or less accuracy.