As an avid fan of anything to do with Greek mythology, I was really looking forward to this one. I also really enjoy when myths are retold from the perspective of other characters who’s voices have been unheard or even silenced. Sadly this book didn’t quite give me what I wanted. Helen and Clytemnestra lacked the depth and complexity that I was expecting. It also seems to skim the surface on many big, well-known events. Overall, it just wasn’t the Green retelling for me.

I really loved the premise of this, but felt it didn't quite hit the mark.

Though there was an attempt to balance the mythology with accepted history, I felt this didn't land well. It wasn't clear why we believed some mythological 'facts' and why some were ignored, and where the story diverted from common myth made it hard to follow and understand.

The huge time jumps also made it hard to really engage with the characters as we only get to know them at snapshots in their life. It made their stories feel incomplete.

I did enjoy this one overall and am always overjoyed to read more stories that centralise and amplify the voices of women.

I had read The Shadow of Perseus first, so I knew what to expect from Daughters of Sparta, and I also knew that I was going to love it!

First of all, these books read as historical fiction, NOT as myths. There are no gods or goddesses intervening in the lives of mortals, messing it all up. The mortals are all perfectly capable of doing that themselves.

Secondly, the women are strong in the context of the time they live in, not by our modern standards. Women were completely reliant on their husbands and families; sold off to the men who would most benefit their fathers. As is the case with Klytemnestra (spelt with a ‘K’ here, but it can be a ‘C’ as well!) and Helen.

To be fair, both women have a lot about them. Klytemnestra commits the ultimate two fingered salute to her husband, and Helen removes herself from the possibility of dying in childbirth. There’s also the fact that Helen seems to be constantly searching for affection and love. Denied both by her mother, she doesn’t get those things from her husband either, probably because they never get to know one another. And Paris certainly doesn’t show her love or affection once they get to Troy. She must feel supremely uncomfortable around the other women in Troy once the Greeks turn up and start killing all of their husbands.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the Greek myths where the gods are involved, but I really like this version too. Really very enjoyable, I raced through this book. I’m hoping that Claire Heywood has another retelling in the pipeline!

"Daughters of Sparta" by Claire Heywood is a captivating and richly detailed historical fiction novel that explores the lives of two legendary women of ancient Greece: Helen of Troy and her sister, Clytemnestra. Heywood's writing style is evocative and immersive, transporting the reader to the world of ancient Greece, with all its grandeur, beauty, and brutality.

The story follows the sisters from childhood to adulthood, as they navigate their complex relationships with each other, their families, and the men who shape their lives. Heywood does an excellent job of bringing the two sisters to life, imbuing them with unique personalities, desires, and struggles. Helen is portrayed as a fiercely independent and intelligent woman, who longs for adventure and freedom. Clytemnestra, on the other hand, is more pragmatic and stoic, but equally determined to chart her own path in life.

The novel's exploration of the sisters' relationship is one of its strongest aspects. Heywood delves into the complexities of their bond, highlighting the love, jealousy, rivalry, and betrayal that exists between them. The depiction of their sisterhood is realistic and nuanced, with both sisters portrayed as flawed and multidimensional characters.

Heywood's attention to historical detail is also impressive. The novel is steeped in ancient Greek mythology, culture, and politics, with the events and characters of the Trojan War serving as a backdrop to the sisters' story. The descriptions of the settings, clothing, and customs of ancient Greece are vivid and well-researched, adding an extra layer of authenticity to the story.

The pacing of the novel is well-balanced, with enough action, drama, and character development to keep the reader engaged throughout the story. The alternating perspectives between Helen and Clytemnestra also add an extra layer of depth to the narrative, allowing the reader to see events from both sisters' perspectives.

Overall, "Daughters of Sparta" is a beautifully written and compelling historical fiction novel that will appeal to fans of Greek mythology and ancient history. Heywood's immersive writing style, well-developed characters, and attention to historical detail make for a captivating reading experience.

now THIS BOOK!!

i have read a lot of greek mythology retellings, especially ones about the trojan war, and i feel that often they can get quite same-y and blend into one.

this one absolutely stands out on its own for me, for a few reasons. one of them is that we get the perspectives of clytemnestra and helen years before the trojan war, how their childhoods were and the relationship between the pair. it was fresh reading helen’s life from a more personal perspective, her life as a mother and being the centre of a war. the last thing that i enjoyed (that might be a negative for others), was the fact the war takes up very little space on the pages. it is all about the women!

This is another of Greek classics novel that represents the female characters and tells their stories in the backdrop of the Trojan war. The story focuses on two sisters of Sparta - Klymnestra and Helen. Klymnestra marries Agamemnon, king of Mycenae whereas Helen’s fate remains in Sparta with Menelaus until she runs off with the Trojan Paris. The stories are told in chapters from the viewpoint of each woman.

First of all, I'd like to thank NetGalley and Hachette UK for granting me early access to an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I gave this book 4 stars.

TW: Sexual abuse, physical abuse, psychological abuse, being lied to, being forced to do things you do not want to.

This is a new adult or adult mythology retelling of the story of Sparta and Troy told from the women's perspective. Helen and Klytemnestra are the pricesses of Sparta and told from an early age that they have to marry the appropriate candidate chosen by their father, and so they do. But, what will come of their lives? Will they see each other again? Did their view of live and the world change throughout their experience?

I was expecting a story pretty similar to Circe in the sense that we'd see female rebellion and independence in a time where that was not really a possibility. However, this was far from what I found.

I strongly belief that one's expectations for a book should never determine your rating, so I tried to be faithful to this, because that isn't the book's or the author's responsibility.

I felt the writing style was quite YA, although most topics are adult, but it was quick and easy to read despite how hard it was to face the reality of those women.

This work shows how women were treated in the Greek culture, how they were told they could not marry someone they loved because, either their father chose the most suitable candidate for them or several suitors would participate in tournaments and the woman was forced to marry the winner. They also had to do as told by males and had no right to talk or do anything unless the man gave them permission to do so. Many of them, hence dreamed of being loved and/or having a pretty different life to the one they were obliged to follow, so some tried to make this real and this book demonstrates that what is said to have happened, was simply the result of the oppression women were suffering.

I find these topics essential in books, so we can understand what their situation was like, how far we've come, and reflect on the fact that many women are still living like that in many parts of the world.

Another topic that is shown as a secondary one, but not of lesser importance, is slavery. Those in the 'lower layers' of society would be considered objects that nobles could decide on and do with as they pleased. They existed merely in order to do what others didn't want to or, on the contrary, demanded. Their feelings, as those of women, were not taken into account, if others thought they had them, even. So they were not humans.

Despite being plot driven, characters are deeply developed and show evolution of lack thereof for plot purposes. They were real, full of flaws and led me to believe everything that happened to them because their feelings and thinking processes were perfectly portrayed.

I highly recommend you read this book if you're not triggered by the contents.

Greek myths are great stories, that’s why they have survived so long. In the versions I read growing up women were beautiful and virtuous or mad and bad, to be fought over or ridiculed. I love modern focus on the mythical women making them seem like people not cut outs. The Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood tells the story of Helen and Klytemnestra. I confess that a day of my holiday was devoted to them and little else got done, a day well spent.

I loved this book! It's perfect for any beginner wanting to get into greek mythology, and also a great recap for anyone who already loves the story. I'm a huge fan of Helen and Clytemnestra's story, and this is definitely one of my favourite retellings. It gripped me from the beginning, and didn't put it down until I finished. I can't wait to read Claire's next book!

I really enjoyed this feminist retelling of two often overlooked/dismissed women in Greek Mythology. We follow them from childhood through to the adult lives chosen for them. This read very much like a historical fiction novel, as opposed to the more fantastical retellings out there, but it was beautifully written and is definitely one I’d recommend.

trigger warning
<spoiler> mention of suicide, stillborn, rape, torture, child neglect, child rape, slavery, kidnapping </spoiler>

You know the story: Paris steals Helena, the most beautiful woman in the world, and thus starts a chain of events that leads to the Trojan War. This is the story of both daughters of Sparta, Klytamenstra and Helena, who were sisters.

Since the goodreads tags are misleading, let me get this out of the way: This is not a fantasy novel. The events recounted here are based on Greek myths, but there is no magic. Yes, there is belief in gods, but I was surprised at how small a role the gods actually play in this story as it is told here.

Second, if you're looking for a tale that is visibly set in Acient Greece, reflect the culture of the different people, go look somewhere else. The book starts with this short note about when the book is set and why, and I still ask myself why bother if you don't tell the story like it is set in that period? The only in-depth descriptions are of Helena, Paris, and the treasures he brings to Sparta as a gifts. We learn that the person who is queen spins purple cotton. End of descriptions.
This would have been <i>the</i> opportunity to highlight how colourful antiquity was, because the remains we have today have been washed of their colours simply by having been around for a while, and then the Victorians went and polished off the last remains of colour. That Greece and Rome were all white marble is one of the greatest myths that annoy historians.
You could have gone into food, music, the fabrics the women are weaving all the time because it takes ages to make a piece of clothing by hand.

But no, if you set the story in a warm climate, this could have been the middle ages for all the pointers that were given. The only distinguishing parts were names and gods.

Same problem with the sisters. We have two povs, but they feel the same. What changes is who married whom and where the pair lives, the names of their children. The narration was the same, and since it was boring, the different povs just melted into each other.

Another issue I had was the tip-toeing around heavy topics. If you pick a topic like the Trojan War, there will be sensitive topics, and especially in the 21st century I'd have expected to be at least told what's up. Instead the author danced around certain situations, phrasing everything as vague as possible, until the very end. If that is to mean that only in the end the protagonists realised how things stood, it failed. Badly.

Last but not least, it felt like a writing excercise that wasn't even fun. You have the different plotpoints that had to go in there, and often, it felt quite forced, without natural flow from one event to the next. After an important point had been made, the author celebrated by taking the lazy route of timejumps. You could have worked with the text as such, but the author chose to convey passage of time by headings.

Listen, as a reader I didn't have fun, and as an archaeologist I didn't have any, either.
I picked it up because I thought it might be fun to read something set in this certain time period, but it didn't even feel like it was set then and there.
I would not recommend this book, but then, most readers will have less knowledge about the original stories than I do. I felt this book simply rides on the wave that was started with Song of Achilles and Circe, which I also disliked. Maybe I should just give up and re-read Percy Jackson.

The arc was provided by the publisher.

The face that launched a thousand ships.... This was a fascinating look into the ancient world, told from the female perspective - the view we so rarely get to hear. I'd heard of course of Helen of Troy, but had no idea about her sister Klytemnestra and the sacrifices she was forced to make for her younger sister. This book moved at pace, and included all the details of life in ancient times that help humanise the characters.

The book is told from the alternating pov’s of Helen and Klytemnestra. I liked the first part, which concentrating on their childhood and getting to know the characters. The Trojan War part was shorter and felt somewhat rushed.

I liked Klytemnestra’s chapters much more than Helen’s. Helen came out as a spoiled, thoughtless, and silly girl to whom things “just happened”.

There were some parts of the mythology missing that left some gaps in the story. There is no wooden horse, instead, the city is just suddenly sacked without really explaining how this came to be. How did the soldiers get inside Troy? There were no mentions of Kassandra’s visions, which are a huge part of Kassandra’s story. Although, it was nice seeing the friendship between her and Helen.

Despite all this, I quite enjoyed the book. Just not as much as I thought I would.

As much as I appreciate the idea of giving a voice to Helen and Klytemnestra I think that is entertaining but it misses some of the tragical grandeur of these characters, two tragic and complex women who incarnate beauty as cause of ruin (Helen) and revenge and betrayal (Klytemnestra)
I enjoyed the story, found it entertaining but somehow it's missing the grandeur of the myth. It's good attempt to make them real woman but you lose the grandeur.
We are talking about them because they are part of our archetypes, they're part of the founding myth of Western Civilization.
Cassandra is my pet peeves. She's another strong female character, the woman who say no to a god. It would be enough for a great character but the one in this book is bland at best.
I liked how the author describes the life of women of that age, that was my favorite part.
I wanted to love this story but I couldn't as I missed the force that turn these women into myths.
Not my cup of tea.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

Daughters of Sparta recounts part of the lives of Helen and Klytemnestra, two of the most infamous mythological women. Despite their bad fame, I've always liked both of them and so I was ecstatic to receive an arc of this book.

The first half of the book focuses on Helen and Klytemnestra before the war of Troy, and it was probably my favourite. I think the author did a very good job setting up their characters and showing how their experiences shaped their personalities, making their subsequent actions believable and sympathetic.
The second half was fine, but I wanted to see more of Klytemnestra ruling alone as queen. In general, I think the shift in her character, from dutiful wife to vengeful mother, was not shown all that well. I was waiting for her to come more into her own when Agamemnon was away, but it didn't really happen.
As for Helen, while I understood her reasonings, I still wanted her to be a more active figure, while she remained passive for most of the book.

Two aspects which were quite original and I really enjoyed were Helen's friendship with Cassandra, and Helen and Menelaos's relationship, which was complex and unexpected, as was Menelaos's characterization in general.

While Daughters of Sparta wasn't as fantastic as I was hoping, it was still a good read overall and I would recommend it.

I really enjoyed this read this read right up until how quickly the ending was. I knew I wasn’t going to be happy when I got to 97% and I had questions that I knew weren’t going to be answered in time.
I really enjoyed seeing the war and the Greek/Trojan history from a female perspective, it’s something that I found really unique and it interested me enough to finish the book in one sitting.
The difference in both women, their lives and the choices that they make throughout this novel was such an intriguing aspect and I loved how differently they both took to wife/motherhood. The portrayal of Helen in this book was absolutely phenomenal and I loved her character. Her struggles were so relatable (in the motherhood sense) and you really feel for her.
I enjoyed the mythology side of this a lot and I honestly would recommend this book to those of you who love mythology/classical studies and like to read about history from a feminine perspective.

The two sisters from Sparta, Klytemnestra and Helen (later known as Helen of Troy) are well known in ancient Greek mythology and this book is told from their points of view from childhood onwards.
The two sisters have very different personalities and the author does a good job of defining their characters. Whether you agree with Claire Heywood’s interpretation is another matter. To me, I imagined Klytemnestra as a powerful queen, with a strong will and whose fury at her daughter’s murder fuels her desire for vengeance and justice. I felt that the book’s version was a rather watered down version and missed the mark somewhat.
Helen’s character certainly develops as the story progresses but although at times I felt sympathetic towards her, I felt something was slightly out of place and unfortunately I couldn’t connect to this portrayal. However, the dialogue between Helen and her husband, Menelaos after the fall of Troy was really quite touching and real.
I thought the book gave a very good insight into the daily lives of women, who had little or no control over their lives and who they would marry. There were several vividly described and well written passages I enjoyed very much.
Overall, I thought this was an engaging easy read and I would recommend it as a retelling of an ancient Greek classic.
I would like to thank the publisher, Hodder & Stoughton and NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for my honest review.

Klytemnestra and Helena are princesses of Sparta. A wealthy nation, prized for its peace and prosperity, they sit in positions of envy throughout Greece. Close knit, they dream of spending their years raising children together, sisters side by side. However, the gods have other plans, and stories will be told of the woman who brought a glorious city to its knees and the woman who fought to stop history repeating itself. Women. Mothers. Daughters. Sisters.

I knew I would really enjoy this. As a lover of Ancient Greece and mythology, the story already spoke to me before I picked up a page. Helena and Klytemnestra are both famous, yet villified women in Greek mythology. Here, the story goes into great depth exploring and developing the sisters relationships and backstory so that the reader understands where fate will ultimately lead them. We see them grow up together, Nestra the protective older sister to the naive and headstrong Helena. We feel their emotions, their complicated relationship with each other and the jealousy that develops, as well as their difficult upbringing with a mother who clearly favours one daughter. We get to see behind the closed doors, moving away from the male dominated battles and the glory and into the more private and secluded world of the women. It's a great atmospheric story, steered subtly to show these women in a new and more positive light.

I also really liked seeing the juxtaposition between the two women's lives and how they separate and mature on their own. Both are mother's, yet take to the task of motherhood very differently. Both are married women, with completely different husbands. Mythology is non existent here beyond a subtle religious aspect, with the story taking a historical route to Troy. There is no interventions from God's and the mistakes and trials of war are firmly the result of the decisions of men. Although I missed this commonly used element to explore the story of Troy, it did help to centre the women's story and make this feel very much like a human examination of women in a historical, and therefore more grounded and realistic, setting.

At times I did find the pacing inconsistent, with writing that was not amazing (compared to Madeline Miller for example) but easy to read. Sometimes aspects of the story felt very dragged out and slow, and there are some character developments that I thought didn't really fit with the narrative direction (for example, Kassandra feels very lost as a character without her mythological origin story with Apollo and she becomes a bit surplus to requirements as the plot moves forward. A lot of the other secondary characters also feel very underdeveloped. Electra is a good example of this, knowing what I know of her original story, I thought the author really underused her character and didnt push this conflict between mother and daughter far enough for me.

A great examination of some of the women behind the most famous stories of Greek mythology. The story creates a strong emotional connection to these two women by building on the hidden and forgotten harsh realities of being born a woman in a man's world. Another great tale to add to my collection.

I was really excited for this one, because I love this period of history and the stories from that time, and the idea of being able to approach this from the viewpoint of the women of the time – especially Helen of Troy immediately grabbed my attention. However, while I did enjoy the book – Heywood has a lovely, accessible writing style that pulls you into the story, and it certainly was interesting to come at it from this point of view – it just felt a little overwhelming. Part of it was the pacing as it took a while for the story to really find it’s stride, and then the latter part of the book ended up feeling a little rushed, which is shame because it was the most exciting part of the book. The aspect where it lost me a little was the characterisation, and it felt as though both Helen and Klytemnestra could have been rounded out more – I understand trying to stay true to the historical sense, but more creative liberties would just have added that extra punch. Still, I am delighted that this book exists and I did enjoy it, and I am curious to see what the author will do next because I really did like her writing.

Klytemnestra and Helen, the so-called villainesses of Greek mythology, are two sisters condemned by circumstance to live the lives dictated to them, with two tragic stories that even brought forth a war. This is their side of the story.

Without fanfare, but with a relatable conversational/storytelling vibe, the narrative makes you feel like you are in Ancient Greece alongside the sisters and their inner thoughts. Each POV has its own distinct voice, like the sisters are telling their stories themselves. You witness that even with their elevated status, as women they have no real say in their lives, are misjudged and underappreciated, and must fight each in their own way for happiness, to be themselves.

I really like the appearance of many know mythological characters in events we are not used to seeing them. The pertinent descriptions would sometimes flourish into vibrant detailing. I do wish this included the fantastical elements of these well-known tales.

The novel alludes to the need and right to stand up for yourself. Also not to judge a book by its cover and that there are two sides to every story. This book is about freedom, of self and of choice.

It is significant to know more about these characters and a slow burn compliments the story, but it does kind of lag in parts and you wish it would get to the 'juicy parts' quicker. It is more character and thought-driven than I expected it to be. The truth is the ending was a little too abrupt and you feel as if something is missing.

This was an interesting new take on two well-known mythological women and a thought-provoking one at that.