I have always been fascinated with Greek mythology so was really looking forward to this read. It was pacy and the language style evocative of the subject matter, which means it was enjoyable overall. However, it lacked the emotional depth of other books in this genre and I didn't wholly connect with the characters.

I didn't massively click with any of the characters and I think the main issue is that I felt none of them were developed particularly well, and I wasn't always totally sure who was talking so they all sort of merged together. I've read a lot of the Greek myth that's been popular in recent years (and I love seeing women take centre stage in these retellings) and am always looking for another, but I think possibly because of this the bar is pretty high. Saying this if you are into Greek myth definitely give it a go, but it wouldn't be at the top of my pile.

A very different story to the 'Phaedra' tale I grew up with and studied but well-told. By touching on all the stories of her female relatives, Pasiphae, Ariadne and Medea, it emphasises their reliance on the men in their lives and how much at their mercy the women are. Even somebody like Medea needs the protection of a king. Particularly clever is the way the traditional Greek chorus is evoked by the servant women walking the corridors. Thanks to Netgalley.

This was ok. I've enjoyed the author's other work but there was sometjing favile about this one that made it fall flat. I think the problem is inserting modern viewpoints and dialogue into mindset and culture that is so much older that it may as well be another planet. It's not that we cannot relate to Anciet Greece, But different aspects of human nature ate dialled up or down by historical time period. Overall this just didn't really hang together well.

This was an interesting take on the character of Phaedra, who in mythology was merely known as the wife of Theseus.

For a book titled after her, the character development of Phaedra fell flat for me. More often than not she just came across as whiny, and although her naïveté made a lot of sense for the story, it became exhausting to read.

Coined as a feminist retelling, I expected more. Merely villainising the male characters in the story and writing from the female standpoint does not make it feminist. As well as this, the plot felt very patchy at times, and the world building was something of an afterthought.

I feel that if it had been edited slightly more, with some of the somewhat unnecessary POV’s, this could have been a great read.

This read in such a juvenile way I honestly thought it felt more like a cliched YA romance than a thoughtful retelling of Greek myths. Sadly disappointing.

I received a free copy via Netgalley of this book. I have always loved Greek mythology and there seems to be quite a glut of books at the moment based around myths.

I had heard of Theseus and the Minotaur. I enjoyed this take on it, portraying Theseus as not quite the hero he is mostly viewed as. I feel a lot of these myths are being rewritten as the men are baddies or have hidden motives to help the women , who are mostly portrayed as victims. And of course in those times, I guess they were!

I enjoyed this rewritten version of what follows after Theseus has killed the Minotaur and look forward to what the author will take on next.

Phaedra has witnessed the death of one brother and the disappearance of her other brother and older sister, so when her sister's would be husband returns to Knossos to ask for her hand she is wary. Theseus is much older, a legendary hero and soon to be king. However on her arrival in Athens, Phaedra finds herself neglected and then brutally raped by her stepson Hippolytus. Will she get any form of justice for herself and the scores of abused women around her.
This is not a straightforward retelling of myth, a genre which is increasingly popular, rather Shepperson has taken aspects of several stories and woven them together. In that respect I really liked the ambition. The story is very sad, the women feel powerless and even to get justice, Phaedra has to rely on political manoeuvring by the men. I found the ending inevitable but it felt a little too simple and not developed as much as the rest of the story.

This was a pretty heavy read...

I haven't read Greek mythology since school and have always wanted to read more as an adult. This has been the first opportunity I had in a long time and I found I was still as interested and had never come across the story of Theseus, Phaedra and Hippolytus.
Trigger warnings should be checked.

I really enjoyed the story being told from the perspective of the female characters, and the author did well to commit to the different narratives. I do feel it was weak for a novel that is set out as a "feminist retelling". The characters are helpless before the dominating males and, even the goddesses seem subjected to their violence and treachery. I felt uncomfortable at how explicit the description of male harassment, violence etc was so trigger warnings flagged here.

My only other gripe is at times there was an assumption that the reader was well versed on the different myths which left the writing hanging to your the reader's imagination. Of course that does not work unless you know the tales, so I lost myself in these moments and found it a bit frustrating. This was a 3.5* for me.

Thank you to Netgalley for the advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy this book as much as I hoped.

It starts very promisingly, but I soon realised that despite the multitude of voices and points of view, they all sound similar. It is hard to distinguish who is speaking at the moment, as there is no difference between young and old or between the different cultures the characters belong to. Also, the world-building in this novel is minimal, which is a shame, as Ancient Greece is a fascinating place to portray.

Retelling of the story of Phaedra, Ariadne’s younger sister.
I didn’t really take to any of the characters in this retelling- maybe I’m just oversaturated with Greek myths at the moment!

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for an advance copy in exchange for an honest review. This was a creative and absorbing tale! Definitely recommend this one!
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

I am a massive fan of Greek and Ancient History myth retelling. I enjoyed the story as it is something that I love to read about. However, I felt that the story didn't quite give me the depth that I wanted from the characters. The plot was well described and easy to follow although it seemed rushed so that I didn't really feel invested in the characters particularly Phaedra who I should have. I loved the inclusion of the Night Chorus it gave me Greek Tragedy vibes.

Though I really appreciated what Shepperson was saying with this novel – we are still dealing with victim blaming and shaming whenever sexual assault comes to the forefront – I couldn’t entirely immerse myself in the story. I think that was partly because of the many POV’s of this book. I felt as though some perspectives weren’t essential and switching as often, and with each voice being so different, the experience became more jarring, pulling me out of the story instead of making an impact.

I also felt as though the writing style in places wasn’t for me – I’ll be the first to admit that I want my prose flowery, especially when it comes to Greek retellings – and so this one just didn’t grip me as much I would’ve liked.

Thank you Net Galley and Little, Brown Book Group UK for giving me an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of 2023, especially due to my love for Greek Mythology, however it did not live up to my expectations. Whilst the writing, overall, was good, the characters felt very 2-dimensional and it was very difficult to form a connection with them. At times the plot felt rushed and disjointed, and it felt like there were parts missing that could have really added to the storyline. I didn’t really find the characters likeable, they seemed distant in a way. When comparing this with similar fiction that retell this myth, it fell short of the sheer genius that they all seemed to have. I did find this easy to read, and at times it was mildly enjoyable. I am gutted to be writing such a negative review as I really wanted to like this.

Having read many of the retellings of the Greek myths that have become so popular in recent years, I was really excited to read this feminist retelling of the story of Phaedra. However, although I finished the book I came away, disappointed. The story is written from the viewpoint of many characters, and I found their voices merged into each other, and I became confused as to which character was speaking. Knowing the story well, I also found the change of the timeline of the narrative from the original Greek myth also difficult. It might have been better to have this explained at the beginning of the novel rather than in the authors note of the end. I did enjoy the Greek chorus of the women’s voices and their support for each other and felt this was an opportunity missed. Overall, this would be a 2.5 /3 star read.Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher. for allowing me to read the ARC of this novel in return for an honest review.

I was looking forward to reading this but it didn’t quite meet up to other Greek re-tellings.

Phaedra is a super interesting character in Greek Tragedy- she is the daughter of Minos, sister to Ariadne, wife of Theseus, and “step-mum” to Hippolytus. In the tragedy by Euripides, she speaks of her desire for Hippolytus with, obviously tragic, consequences.

I couldn’t wait for a book to fully explore the woman behind the myth. I’m enjoying the rise of female voices in this tales that have been told repeatedly.

I enjoyed the use of the women singing (the Chorus) like in Greek Tragedies to tell the plight of women. And the Athenian aspect especially of the law courts and how they functioned in their society.

This just lacked a bit of depth and I had difficulty keeping up with who was weaving in and out of the story. But overall, an enjoyable read!

Giving this 3.5 if I could!!

Thank you to the publisher and Netfalley for the E-Arc!

The tragedy of Phaedra and Hippolytus is well known for being heartbreaking, exploring passion, the dark side of a human's desire and of course, the pain of unrequited love.

But what if all was not as it seemed?

In Laura Shepperson's novel, retelling the tale of Phaedra, we are prepared for a dramatic build up to a trial where Phaedra is set to confront her assaulter and rapist, Hippolytus, the son of her husband King Theseus.

The novel is structured like a Greek tragedy and provides a fast, fairly simple reading experience.

The main strength to this tale, in my opinion, is the "Chorus" installments where we hear narratives that belong to the regular Greek women, examining the role of men and women in society and giving "heart" to the novel.

However, with so many perspectives introduced I often found a lot of the narrative seemingly merging as one with no real definition. If it were not for the name of the character speaking at the beginning of each segment, I would have had much trouble identifying who they were.

The inclusion of Medea as a character was an interesting choice and I did find her perspective one of the more interesting, but I was often wondering as to her purpose. I felt this character could have been far better utilised.

My main issue, unfortunately, was our main character Phaedra. She is presented as incredibly naïve to begin with, which is not a problem in itself, however I found that her character was simply just not developed or explored and she was one of the weakest narrators in the novel.

With so many retellings, especially of the Greek Myths, I had high hopes for The Heroines but sadly I found it very lacking in development. While I'm sure there will be a great many who will enjoy this book, I just could not find myself enjoying it despite hoping that I would.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing me with an advanced copy of the novel.

I’ve recently discovered Greek retellings but sadly the market seems flooded with them off late so It’s a difficult market. This one was a slight miss for me. There were multiple pov’s which I enjoyed and again, this book shows how badly women were treated. Phaedra came across as naïve and somewhat younger than her age. It was nice to see a more minor character’s point of view though.

Many thanks to NetGalley for the advanced copy of this book.

This was an average read - I didn't like it a huge amount but didn't dislike it either.

I liked the way the book was set out in acts like a Greek tragedy with a Bard at the beginning starting to tell the story. I also liked that the narrative was clear throughout the book - the reader is in no doubt of what is happening or what point the author is getting across.

This story of Phaedra is different from other accounts I have read previously and this frustrated me while reading but having read the Author's note at the end of the book, I understand why the story was changed. Perhaps this could have been at the beginning?

I felt there was a lack of description throughout the book, that this could be happening anywhere but I think this was possibly part of the narrative and I felt some of the characters were quite interchangeable and I didn't always realise I was reading from a different character's perspective so again possibly part of the narrative that the women didn't matter to the men in Ancient Greece and that they saw themselves as interchangeable.

The main issue I had was with the language used in the book, the way the story is written is quite simplistic but occasionally there would be a long word or a modern phrase that would be thrown in that is completely out of context for the book.

A good retelling and I liked that the author was trying to hone in on something specific from the time rather than just retelling a story from the women's point of view.