elektra book review guardian

Book Review: Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint’s  Ariadne  was featured in our best books of 2021 list and within just a few chapters of Elektra , it’s clear that the author’s follow-up book will be equally lauded and adored. Set in the same world of Greek mythology but centred on different characters, Elektra  is the story of three women in ancient Greece: Clytemnestra – the oft overlooked sister of Helen of Troy and the wife of Agamemnon; Cassandra – the cursed Princess of Troy trapped in a besieged city, and Elektra, Clytemnestra’s youngest daughter, who finds herself torn between her father’s bloodlust and her mother’s vengeance.

Though Elektra is the titular character, it’s perhaps surprising that she doesn’t truly come into her own until a little later into the book. The first part of the story gives a greater focus on Clytemnestra and Cassandra, separated by oceans and armies, but connected by their lack of power. Hoping to break the cycle of men killing their own kin for the throne, Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon and for a time she’s happy. But when her sister, Helen, is taken to Troy with the feckless Paris, Agamemnon raises a great army against the Trojans. To win favour with the gods, he makes a terrible sacrifice that breaks something in Clytemnestra. Consumed by her hate for her husband, she dreams of his downfall. It might be years until the war is over, but Clytemnestra is determined to get her revenge.

Across the seas, Cassandra is a princess with the gift of foresight but, cursed by Apollo, nobody believes her when she tries to warn them of the future. She knows that Paris will bring ruin on her people, that her city will eventually fall, but she can’t stop the events already in motion. Elektra feels equally powerless. Growing up with the father she adores fighting a war in a foreign land, she lives for his triumphant return. In his absence, Agamemnon becomes a god-like figure and it pits Elektra against her mother. Elektra knows that Clytemnestra is plotting something terrible, she just doesn’t know what. As the war rages on, the ferocity building on both sides, Elektra becomes consumed by her own rage, turning it on the one person who always tried to protect her.

I see it all the time, in my mind’s eye. How he will storm the gates of the city; how they will fall cowering at his feet at last. And after it all, he will come home to me. His loyal daughter, waiting here for him as year after year passes.”

In her novel Daughters of Sparta , Claire Heywood explored the story of sisters Helen and Clytemnestra. Elektra was just a child in that book, her anger simmering under the surface, and she was more of a background character. In Saint’s novel, Elektra grows from that cross child into a bitter young woman. Her wrath is potent; many of her chapters are spent lurking in the shadows – watching and waiting. She’s a strong yet desperate character, fiercely loyal to her father but misguided in her belief that he’s some kind of saviour being betrayed by his wife. Clytemnestra is a much more sympathetic character but her understandable inability to move past her grief ruins her relationship with Elektra. The more time passes, the more the chasm between them grows, until there’s no way they can ever reconcile.

Saint writes her characters in such a way that they feel entirely real. Fabled figures including Hector and Achilles play small but pivotal parts during the palpable war between Sparta and Troy, but Elektra begins and ends as a story about women. They love and hate and hurt, just like any figure from history. They are victims of the cycle of violence that built their world, but Saint’s expressive storytelling allows their voices to be heard amidst the darkness. Despite their sufferings, these mythological women are cloaked in strength, bravery and a formidable rage that makes reading this novel a powerful and emotional experience. It’s a simply stunning retelling.

Elektra is published by Wildfire on 28 April 2022

Julie Houston on the inspiration behind A Village Secret

Book Review: Out of Her Depth by Lizzy Barber

Leave a reply cancel reply.

Your email address will not be published.

Fiction Preview: 22 books to look forward to reading in 2023

The best books of 2021: Ariadne, The Wolf Den, Ace Of Spades, Project Hail Mary and more

Jennifer Saint’s top 5 books about sisters

• Write For Us
• Advertising
• Cookie Policy

COPYRIGHT 2024 CULTUREFLY

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

• ADMIN AREA MY BOOKSHELF MY DASHBOARD MY PROFILE SIGN OUT SIGN IN

by Jennifer Saint ‧ RELEASE DATE: May 3, 2022

Royals, revenge, curses, and prophecies done right.

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.

Pub Date: May 3, 2022

ISBN: 978-1-250-77361-6

Page Count: 304

Publisher: Flatiron Books

Review Posted Online: March 29, 2022

Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 15, 2022

LITERARY FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

Share your opinion of this book

More by Jennifer Saint

BOOK REVIEW

by Jennifer Saint

Awards & Accolades

Our Verdict

New York Times Bestseller

by Kristin Hannah ‧ RELEASE DATE: Feb. 6, 2024

A dramatic, vividly detailed reconstruction of a little-known aspect of the Vietnam War.

A young woman’s experience as a nurse in Vietnam casts a deep shadow over her life.

When we learn that the farewell party in the opening scene is for Frances “Frankie” McGrath’s older brother—“a golden boy, a wild child who could make the hardest heart soften”—who is leaving to serve in Vietnam in 1966, we feel pretty certain that poor Finley McGrath is marked for death. Still, it’s a surprise when the fateful doorbell rings less than 20 pages later. His death inspires his sister to enlist as an Army nurse, and this turn of events is just the beginning of a roller coaster of a plot that’s impressive and engrossing if at times a bit formulaic. Hannah renders the experiences of the young women who served in Vietnam in all-encompassing detail. The first half of the book, set in gore-drenched hospital wards, mildewed dorm rooms, and boozy officers’ clubs, is an exciting read, tracking the transformation of virginal, uptight Frankie into a crack surgical nurse and woman of the world. Her tensely platonic romance with a married surgeon ends when his broken, unbreathing body is airlifted out by helicopter; she throws her pent-up passion into a wild affair with a soldier who happens to be her dead brother’s best friend. In the second part of the book, after the war, Frankie seems to experience every possible bad break. A drawback of the story is that none of the secondary characters in her life are fully three-dimensional: Her dismissive, chauvinistic father and tight-lipped, pill-popping mother, her fellow nurses, and her various love interests are more plot devices than people. You’ll wish you could have gone to Vegas and placed a bet on the ending—while it’s against all the odds, you’ll see it coming from a mile away.

Pub Date: Feb. 6, 2024

ISBN: 9781250178633

Page Count: 480

Publisher: St. Martin's

Review Posted Online: Nov. 4, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 2023

FAMILY LIFE & FRIENDSHIP | GENERAL FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION

More by Kristin Hannah

by Kristin Hannah

More About This Book

PERSPECTIVES

BOOK TO SCREEN

by Percival Everett ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 19, 2024

One of the noblest characters in American literature gets a novel worthy of him.

Mark Twain's Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as told from the perspective of a more resourceful and contemplative Jim than the one you remember.

This isn’t the first novel to reimagine Twain’s 1885 masterpiece, but the audacious and prolific Everett dives into the very heart of Twain’s epochal odyssey, shifting the central viewpoint from that of the unschooled, often credulous, but basically good-hearted Huck to the more enigmatic and heroic Jim, the Black slave with whom the boy escapes via raft on the Mississippi River. As in the original, the threat of Jim’s being sold “down the river” and separated from his wife and daughter compels him to run away while figuring out what to do next. He's soon joined by Huck, who has faked his own death to get away from an abusive father, ramping up Jim’s panic. “Huck was supposedly murdered and I’d just run away,” Jim thinks. “Who did I think they would suspect of the heinous crime?” That Jim can, as he puts it, “[do] the math” on his predicament suggests how different Everett’s version is from Twain’s. First and foremost, there's the matter of the Black dialect Twain used to depict the speech of Jim and other Black characters—which, for many contemporary readers, hinders their enjoyment of his novel. In Everett’s telling, the dialect is a put-on, a manner of concealment, and a tactic for survival. “White folks expect us to sound a certain way and it can only help if we don’t disappoint them,” Jim explains. He also discloses that, in violation of custom and law, he learned to read the books in Judge Thatcher’s library, including Voltaire and John Locke, both of whom, in dreams and delirium, Jim finds himself debating about human rights and his own humanity. With and without Huck, Jim undergoes dangerous tribulations and hairbreadth escapes in an antebellum wilderness that’s much grimmer and bloodier than Twain’s. There’s also a revelation toward the end that, however stunning to devoted readers of the original, makes perfect sense.

Pub Date: March 19, 2024

ISBN: 9780385550369

Page Count: 320

Publisher: Doubleday

Review Posted Online: Dec. 16, 2023

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 2024

LITERARY FICTION | HISTORICAL FICTION | GENERAL FICTION

More by Percival Everett

by Percival Everett

• Discover Books Fiction Thriller & Suspense Mystery & Detective Romance Science Fiction & Fantasy Nonfiction Biography & Memoir Teens & Young Adult Children's
• News & Features Bestsellers Book Lists Profiles Perspectives Awards Seen & Heard Book to Screen Kirkus TV videos In the News
• Kirkus Prize Winners & Finalists About the Kirkus Prize Kirkus Prize Judges
• Magazine Current Issue All Issues Manage My Subscription Subscribe
• Writers’ Center Hire a Professional Book Editor Get Your Book Reviewed Advertise Your Book Launch a Pro Connect Author Page Learn About The Book Industry
• More Kirkus Diversity Collections Kirkus Pro Connect My Account/Login
• About Kirkus History Our Team Contest FAQ Press Center Info For Publishers
• Privacy Policy
• Terms & Conditions
• Reprints, Permission & Excerpting Policy

© Copyright 2024 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Popular in this Genre

Hey there, book lover.

We’re glad you found a book that interests you!

Please select an existing bookshelf

Create a new bookshelf.

We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!

Please sign up to continue.

It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!

Already have an account? Log in.

Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.

Almost there!

• Industry Professional

Welcome Back!

Sign in using your Kirkus account

Contact us: 1-800-316-9361 or email [email protected].

Don’t fret. We’ll find you.

Magazine Subscribers ( How to Find Your Reader Number )

If You’ve Purchased Author Services

Don’t have an account yet? Sign Up.

Book review: Elektra by Jennifer Saint

by Sarah Deeming | April 27, 2022 | Blog , Reviews | 0 comments

War is coming. Helen has run away with Paris and is living in Troy. Menelaus, Helen’s first husband, mobilises his troops, intent on bringing his wife back and punishing Troy.  

Clytemnestra, Helen’s sister, hopes for a swift resolution, one that brings her husband, Agamemnon, home safely. But as the war continues and Agamemnon’s enemies creep into court, Clytemnestra unravels the curse that plagues her husband’s family and fears for her children’s safety from their father.

Cassandra is a princess of Troy and priestess of Apollo, cursed with premonitions no one believes. She foresees her family’s downfall because of the actions of her younger brother, Paris, but no one takes her seriously.

Elektra is Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s youngest daughter, living in awe of her father and his heroic deeds though she barely knows him. When her family’s curse ruins her perfect childhood, her own future is uncertain. Will she be a victim of the curse or its agent?

Told through the three women’s points of view, Saint gives us the retelling of the war for Helen of Troy that we need. This retelling doesn’t glorify violence or shy away from it but shows us how the horror of war affects the women at home. The male characters are still present, controlling the lives of their wives, sisters, and daughters, but we focus on their struggle for some independence from seemingly inescapable male dominance.

Saint’s portrayal of Clytemnestra is so sympathetic. As the sister of Helen, the most beautiful woman in the world who has the pick of heroes as her husband, Clytemnestra is often overlooked. Everything is effortless for Helen, while Clytemnestra must work at it, making her relatable. Also, Saint’s writing style is clean and concise, and Clytemnestra’s story is so painful that it was a difficult read, particularly as a mother. Elektra should come with a trigger warning.

I wish we had more of Cassandra’s story. Her parts were equally as agonising as Clytemnestra’s, as Cassandra suffers for not being graceful and articulate like her sisters, and when she is given the gift of prophecy, it quickly becomes a curse, further adding to her position as an outcast. However, Cassandra has one of the standout moments of the book when Apollo gifts her prophecy. It is beautiful and ecstatic, horrifying and poignant, and the end result was I felt physically sick.

I related to Elektra the least, but I feel that may have been the point. She doesn’t react to her father’s atrocities like the other women in the story. Instead, she sees them as appropriate for a man of his status, which puts her at odds with the other women and makes her later actions justifiable. Elektra could not have been shown any other way, which makes this story stand out from other feminist stories with a universal sisterhood. Surprisingly, although the book is named after her, Elektra doesn’t arrive in the book until two-thirds way through. The book is more about the circumstances of her parents and aunts, although every event does shape Elektra’s character. Rich and vibrant, yet painful and cruel, Elektra is a strong story about the effects of living in the shadow of a more popular or powerful family member. This second book from Jennifer Saint is as challenging and groundbreaking as her first, Ariadne. Despite how nauseous and sad Elektra made me, I will be looking for her future works.

Share this:

• Share on Tumblr

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed .

Subscribe on iTunes

Theresa Smith Writes

Delighting in all things bookish, book review: elektra by jennifer saint, about the book:.

An exciting and equally lyrical new retelling from Jennifer Saint, the Sunday Times bestselling author of ARIADNE.

Clytemnestra

The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon – her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Princess of Troy, cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?

Published by Hachette Australia – Wildfire

Released April 2022

My Thoughts:

The Ancient Greeks sure have a handle on maintaining a family grudge down through the generations. In Elektra, Jennifer Saint reimagines the story of Helen of Troy through the perspectives of the women from the House of Atreus, along with Cassandra of Troy. The resultant novel is spellbinding, gripping in its unflinching portrayal of female rage, vengeance, Gods and mortals, ancient curses, and the sacrifices and spoils of war.

‘I don’t stop her from embracing me. Her hair is soft against my cheek. Menelaus lived in a humble tent on a foreign shore for ten years to have her in his arms again: men beyond number died for it; my husband murdered his own daughter for the privilege of winning Helen back. In these long years, she has become something other than herself, more than one woman could be. I can’t reconcile all that bloodshed with my sister.’

I quite enjoyed Jennifer Saint’s first novel, Ariadne, but I absolutely loved this second one. She has gone from strength to strength between these two novels and I am filled with anticipation for what she has up next for us. Retellings of Greek mythology have become popular in recent years, and I feel that Jennifer Saint has firmly placed herself into the inner circle for this sub-genre. She’s an author I feel I can confidently rely on for a masterful retelling. She reimagines the lives of the women of ancient Greece with such vividity and realism, allowing an accessibility to these ancient myths that has previously been elusive. Female rage has never been so on point.

Personally, I loved Cassandra the most in this novel and Elektra the least, with Clytemnestra somewhere in between. Each perspective was written to provide a uniquely personalised gaze upon the same story, to offer a different view of the men who were warring and controlling the destinies of these women. I particularly liked the ending, where the curse upon the House of Atreus was played out with heartbreaking intensity.

I highly recommend this novel. Note, Elektra is not a follow on from Ariadne, the two are standalone stories.

*Book 9 in my 22 in 2022 challenge*

Share this:

6 thoughts on “ book review: elektra by jennifer saint ”.

*chuckle* I’m starting to worry about your enjoyment of these stories about women exacting violent revenge!

Like Liked by 1 person

Ha! Now that you’re pointing it out, there does seem to be a reading trend…

I feel like MOST of the retellings I read lately have been from the same category——-Greek Mythology

They draw me in, that’s for sure.

Here are the ones I read so far:

1. Song of Achilles 2. Circe 3. Daughters of Sparta

All on my tbr!

Leave a comment Cancel reply

• Already have a WordPress.com account? Log in now.
• Subscribe Subscribed
• Copy shortlink
• Report this content
• View post in Reader
• Manage subscriptions
• Collapse this bar

London Unattached - Luxury London Lifestyle

Luxury London Lifestyle for Metropolitan Singles and Couples - food, travel, restaurant reviews - London Unattached

Elektra at The Royal Opera House – Review

January 13, 2024 by Adrian York 1 Comment

Last Updated on March 1, 2024

Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown – Elektra 

What an extraordinary evening of opera; one hour fifty minutes of fin-de-siècle Viennese hysteria driven by intra-familial blood lust. Richard Strauss’ one-act “Elektra” opened at full throttle and never surrendered its grip until the final notes of its visceral modernist score subsided.

With a libretto written by playwright Hugo von Hofmannsthal taken from his 1903 play of the same name based on the Sophocles tragedy “Electra”, the opera is an Expressionist articulation of pure hatred. The narrative is framed around a drive for vengeance realised through the ultimate taboo of matricide and structured around the relationship of three central female characters. From the opera’s 1909 premier, conservative elements in bourgeois Viennese society took against Strauss’ depiction of Elektra ; as they had done with Salome in Strauss’ previous 1905 opera of the same name, two powerful young women both of whom dance themselves into a transgressive and sexually-charged spiral of death.

King Agamemnon of the Royal House of Mycenae has been murdered by his wife Klytämnestra and her lover Ägisth. Agamemnon and Klytämnestra’s two daughters Elektra, who witnessed the murder, and the relatively less traumatised Chrysothemis live with their mother who suffers from paranoid dreams. Elektra has been humiliated by Klytämnestra who is fearful of her daughter’s anger. The erstwhile princess has been stripped of her status and forced into domestic servitude. Elektra tells her mother that her only escape from her nightmares is through her death. Chrysothemis just wants to escape from the palace and her mother’s psychotic behaviour. Klytämnestra’s and Agamemnon’s son Orest had escaped from the palace when his father was being murdered but returns incognito to announce his own death as a ruse to get access to his mother.

Director Christof Loy has located the opera’s world in Vienna at the time of its composition. As the last days of the Habsburg Empire played out, this was a city brimming with intellectual and artistic innovation. A city where Sigmund Freud was formulating his psychoanalytic theories and Gustav Klimt and the other artists of the Secession movement were challenging the prevailing artistic orthodoxies. But we don’t see any of this with Johannes Leiacker’s set giving us the shabby backstairs area in a courtyard of one of the many palaces that line the swanky Ringstrasse boulevard.

It is against this drab grey backdrop that the opera opens with five uniformed maids gossiping about Elektra. There are vocal fireworks from the very start with the women coming on like a bunch of domestic Valkyries. It brought to mind the scene in Saltburn, another tale of aristocratic blood-letting when the disgraced Barry Keoghan character leaves the house under the gaze of the supercilious staff. Noa Beinart, Veena Akama-Makia, Gabriele Kupsyte, Ella Taylor, Valentina Puskás as the maids and Lee Bisset as the Overseer all impressed vocally and brought some individuality to their characterisations.

Nina Stemme’s Elektra is an extraordinary creation. The renowned veteran Swedish dramatic soprano gives a feral performance completely lacking in vanity; she bustles around the stage like a vengeful Hobbit, throwing her body into a twisted cavorting as she dances to Strauss’ mocking waltz in her final deranged and ultimately fatal Totentanz (death dance). There is a hint of the incestual longing that infused the Mycenaean royal line as we see her embody many of the characteristics of Carl Jung’s father-desiring/mother-hating Elektra complex. Stemme initially trained as a mezzo-soprano and there is a delicious warmth and graininess to her lower register and she still manages the higher ranges with clarity and precision. She does display some signs of vocal wear and tear, but somehow they added to the performance.

American soprano Sara Jakubiak as the more submissive sister Chrysothemis is a much more glamorous proposition. Decked out in a dusty pink ballgown, she embodies a much more traditional view of femininity, longing for children, scared about her fading fertility and desperate to leave her palace/prison. Jakubiak makes a wonderfully dramatic and musical foil for Stemme with her thrilling upper register with its luxuriant sheen.

In a cast that is full of stars, Finnish soprano Karita Mattila who plays the mother is the biggest. Her Klytämnestra verges on parody, tottering and twitching in her long-trained royal blue dress, a white stole and a coronet, it’s a mannered performance that fits into von Hofmannsthal’s Expressionist aesthetic and Mattila’s instrument retains much of its regal power and beauty.

Polish baritone Lukasz Golinski, who plays the returning son Orest with a look that could be channelling the hirsute Black Sabbath bass player Tony Iommi, is both sombre and resolute in the role, with his resonant powerhouse of a voice dominating the stage in a good way.

Strauss uses a huge orchestra for Elektra with additional percussion and hecklephones. Tony Pappano masters these extended forces with his usual aplomb allowing the narrative drive and dramatic intensity of the score to come through. Thankfully the band’s dynamics were very well controlled allowing the singers plenty of headroom. Christof Loy’s production doesn’t get in the way of the drama’s tragic unfurling and foregrounds the music, which is a smart move. There is plenty of colour and energy in the score without worrying about unnecessary fripperies.

Canadian academic Jill Scott in her book “Electra after Freud” smartly describes the eponymous heroine as “the archetype of twentieth-century hysterics” and if like me turbocharged operatic hysteria is your cup of tea, then you’re going to love this production with the Royal Opera delivering at the very highest level.

12–30 January 2024

Royal Opera House Bow Street London WC2E 9DD

For other productions at the Royal Opera House this season, check our 2024 Royal Opera House preview

About Adrian York

Musician, academic and writer Adrian York is a keen observer of restaurant culture and the gastronomic scene. His spiritual home is Soho where he is mostly to be found playing the piano, propping up a bar or holding forth about politics, art and culture from behind a restaurant table with a linen napkin on his lap and a glass of champagne in his hand.

January 13, 2024 at 3:21 pm

Stemme showed a bit more than vocal wear & tear. Hopefully it was just illness because she was leaving out high notes/croaking and barely made it to the end. PS There is only one Heckelphone in Elektra.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Book Review: Elektra by Jennifer Saint

By Rashmila Maiti Posted on 3.23.22

Release date- 3rd May, 2022. CW: Rape, Incest, Mutilation, Sexual Assault.

Jennifer Saint , author of Ariadne , is back with her second novel, Elektra . A retelling of the Greek myth of Elektra, the origins of the Trojan War, and the curse of the House of Atreus. Told from the viewpoints of three women, this novel is an excellent insight into Greek history without remembering the extra dates.

The three women in the story are: Clytemnestra , Helen’s sister and Agamemnon’s wife. Helen is taken to Troy by Paris and Agamemnon raises an army to win the battle. Next is  Cassandra , princess of Troy who was cursed by Apollo to see the future but she was never believed. Despite her knowledge about the fall of Troy, she can’t do anything. Lastly is Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s daughter, who conspired with her brother to kill her mother and his lover in revenge for her father’s murder. I had only a vague basic idea about Clytemnestra and Elektra but I always felt bad for Cassandra whom no one believed because she did not give into Apollo’s sexual advances. All the three women are superbly shown in all their complexities, pettiness, ambitions, glories, and disasters.

Cassandra’s chapters were my favorite. The reader sees her family history and her growth from a child to an adult. Every woman who has been dismissed for her beliefs or her version of any event will be able to connect to Cassandra after she’s cursed . Clytemnestra’s motivation to kill Agamemnon makes sense but so does her emptiness after her revenge is fulfilled. My least favorite character is Elektra as I had a hard time understanding her mindless and blind devotion to her father with who she does not even have a long relationship. Elektra and Clytemnestra’s conversations were revealing in many ways, especially the complications and motivations behind their actions.

The Electra complex is a psychoanalytic term used to describe a girl’s sense of competition with her mother for the affections of her father. It has been debunked but the origin is from the Greek character of Elektra. Saint shows Elektra’s feelings for her father and I found that hard to connect to. There were times when I was struggling to understand her viewpoint but it still makes sense, if seen from a historical perspective.

Elektra is an excellent reimagining of the three women, Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and Elektra. The reader will be hard pressed to pick a favorite. Personally, I enjoyed it as I like reading alternative stories and reimagined tales, and for fans of this category, Elektra is a must read. You can find more about Saint on Twitter , Instagram , and Facebook .

This might sound odd but, believe it or not, earlier this year I wrote a short play reimagining an alternative Electra story that takes a different slant on her and brings Pylades centre-stage. It has been submitted for an annual playwriting competition conducted in Mumbai. If anyone is interested, will gladly to share.

p.s. the reason I landed on your page is becoz it showed up when I googled Jennifer Saint’s novel, which I happened to see in a bookshop window this w/end.

Edit: “…will gladly share.”

Leave a Comment Cancel Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Get the Latest on IG

Follow us on instagram @yourfeministbookclub

Get into the loop

Want to get a heads up on the book of the month before anyone else? Want to be on the VIP list for special offers and deals? Well, get on the list and you’ll be officially in the FBC loop!

Website by FirstTracks

• Biggest New Books
• Non-Fiction
• All Categories
• First Readers Club Daily Giveaway
• How It Works

Get the Book Marks Bulletin

Email address:

• Categories Fiction Fantasy Graphic Novels Historical Horror Literary Literature in Translation Mystery, Crime, & Thriller Poetry Romance Speculative Story Collections Non-Fiction Art Biography Criticism Culture Essays Film & TV Graphic Nonfiction Health History Investigative Journalism Memoir Music Nature Politics Religion Science Social Sciences Sports Technology Travel True Crime

April 15 – 19, 2024

• Marcello Di Cintio remembers Saleem al-Naffar, the beloved poet who was killed in Gaza in December
• Kate Dwyer interviews Anne Carson
• An interview with the editors of the New York War Crimes

Bookliterati Book Reviews

'I declare there is no enjoyment like reading!" Jane Austen

Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Synopsis The House of Atreus is cursed. A bloodline tainted by a generational cycle of violence and vengeance. This is the story of three women, their fates inextricably tied to this curse, and the fickle nature of men and gods.

Clytemnestra The sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon – her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris. Her husband raises a great army against them and determines to win, whatever the cost.

Cassandra Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. She is powerless in her knowledge that the city will fall.

Elektra The youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. But can she escape the curse, or is her own destiny also bound by violence?

After the huge success of Ariadne , Jennifer Saint has returned, this time bringing us the story of three very different women whose lives are forever changed by the Trojan War. Clytemnestra is the sister of Helen, who has gone to Troy with Paris, deserting her husband Menelaus, for Paris, Prince of Troy and thus starting the war against Troy. Clytemnestra’s husband, Agamemnon, brother to Menelaus, leads the army to get Helen back, but in doing so betrays Clytemnestra by sacrificing their eldest daughter Iphigenia to appease the gods and get a fair wind to sail. Elektra, is the youngest daughter of Clytemnestra, and sister to the sacrificed Iphigenia, who looks up to her father regardless of what he has done. Finally, Cassandra, princess of Troy and priestess of Apollo. She is a prophetess, but is punished by Apollo so her warnings of the future are always ignored. She forsees the war, and the ultimate destruction of Troy, but her family will not listen. She finds herself as one of the prizes, taken by Agamemnon back to his palace in Mycenae. The stories of these three women weave together giving the female voice to this well known myth.

Ariadne was one of my top reads from last year, so I was excited to be offered a copy of Elektra to review from Wildfire Books, and it has lived up to expectations. What I love about Jennifer Saint’s books are that she gives a voice to the women in these classical myths, rather than just being told from male perspective which is the norm. Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Elektra are three women whose lives and destinies are forever changed before, during and after the ten year Trojan War. All three feel abandoned and betrayed in some way by their families: Clytemnestra being duped by her husband that results in the sacrifice of her daughter, Cassandra being seen as the mad daughter, not to be listened to, that ultimatley leads to the death of her family, Elektra, the eponymous character, who grows up with her father away at war and her mother locked away grieving for her older sister, rather than being a mother to her and her siblings. The different perspectives give a fascinating insight into this popular story, and I felt real empathy for the characters, their sense of betrayal and ultimately need to exact revenge on those who have wronged them.

Jennifer Saint’s prose flows beautifully, moving between the different perspectives with ease and taking the reader on a fascinating journey with them. I felt she really got under the skin of this myth, capturing the nuances of the characters, the atmosphere of the settings, and the morals that underpin all these Greek Tragedies. I think it is wonderful that these myths are being retold, and with such skill and aplomb by writers as talented as Jennifer Saint, who make these stories accessible to a new audience.

I absolutley adored Elektra , and even though it is a myth I know very well, and one I read not that long ago, I was still completely mesmerised by the story. Jennifer Saint has breathed new life into this myth and put her own stamp on it by including the voices of Cassandra and Elektra, rather than just Clytemnestra’s. These myths are called Greek Tragedy’s for a reason, they are full of drama, betrayal and revenge making for such a compelling and riveting read. Another brilliant read from Jennifer Saint, and I’m looking forward to which classical myth she decides to tackle next.

I would like to thank Hatchett/Wildfire books for sending me this wonderul book in return for my honest review.

2 thoughts on “ Elektra by Jennifer Saint ”

Brilliant review Juliet. I love the feminist take on Jennifer Saint’s books. I’m really looking forward to reading this one, I just got it in my LoveMyRead box.

You won’t be disappointed it’s a fab read

Comments are closed.

Get the latest posts delivered to your mailbox:

• Member Login
• Library Patron Login

SUBSCRIBE TO OUR

FREE NEWSLETTERS

Search: Title Author Article Search String:

BookBrowse Reviews Elektra by Jennifer Saint

Summary  |  Excerpt  |  Reading Guide  |  Reviews  |  Beyond the book  |  Read-Alikes  |  Genres & Themes  |  Author Bio

by Jennifer Saint

Critics' Opinion:

Readers' Opinion:

• Historical Fiction
• 17th Century or Earlier
• Strong Women
• War Related

Rate this book

About this Book

• Reading Guide
• Media Reviews
• Reader Reviews

A house cursed. A devastating betrayal. A prophecy ignored. The intertwined tales of three women during and after the Trojan War are hypnotically reimagined by Jennifer Saint.

Few cultures in history mastered the art of tragedy quite like the ancient Greeks. And very few writers today can revivify those tales so artfully for a modern audience quite like Jennifer Saint. Following up on her highly acclaimed debut novel, Ariadne , which told the story of Theseus, the Minotaur and Ariadne's broken heart, Saint returns to the heroes and villains of Greek antiquity with Elektra — a timeless tale of three women caught in a vicious cycle of vengeance spawned by angry gods and cruel men. For the Greek myth and tragedy novice, the ancient stories often present a Gordian knot of deep backstory — who did what to whom and when — requiring skillful fingers to unravel the gnarled threads. Saint is a master at this, however, beginning with her beguiling portrait of two princesses of Sparta, Helen and her twin sister Clytemnestra. They are greeting a throng of suitors for Helen's hand in marriage. Among the hundreds of men are two brothers hailing from the House of Atreus, infamous for its ancient curse of familial murder and cannibalism. The brothers, Menelaus and Agamemnon, seek to recover the royal throne of Mycenae, stolen from them in their youths. Menelaus, desperately in love with Helen, offers himself before the most beautiful woman in the world who finds his awkward, grateful nature refreshingly "different." Standing next to him in support of his suit, Agamemnon fumes, focused only on his destiny — to reclaim his kingdom back in Mycenae. Clytemnestra is intrigued by the darker, brooding brother. Helen chooses Menelaus and stays in Sparta, as Agamemnon overthrows his throne's usurper and asks Clytemnestra to be his queen in Mycenae. So begins the inevitable march toward unimaginable tragedy. Befitting a writer who read Classical Studies at King's College, London, Saint is faithful to the play of events, with more liberties taken where the ancient sources are silent. Such is the case with Princess Cassandra of Troy . Mentioned only briefly in the Iliad , Saint must imagine the days and nights of Cassandra's unique story and does so movingly. Daughter of King Priam and Queen Hecabe of Troy, Cassandra is introduced as a young girl witnessing her pregnant mother waking from a portentous nightmare and calling for the court seer to divine its meaning. Fascinated by Hecabe's mysterious visions, Cassandra decides to dedicate herself to the service of the god Apollo as a priestess, hoping for the gift of prophecy:

"I still coveted the hidden secret of my mother's dreams, even though the memory of that long-ago night repelled me. That was what I wanted; not a wedding, not a husband or children … Apollo had the gift of prophecy; he might yet choose to bestow it on his most devoted followers … It would be a convenient route for an inconvenient daughter."

One day, Cassandra receives her wish in a mind-shattering encounter with Apollo in his temple. Yet, when the god asks for more than Cassandra is willing to give, the gift becomes a curse. "I truly had the gift of prophecy, breathed into my mouth by Apollo himself. But no one would ever believe another word I said." Cassandra is Saint's most inspired reimagining of the three women: a walking wound, open and raw, seized with head-splitting visions of a future she and her family cannot escape. Pitied, ignored, and treated as a madwoman, her unheeded warnings of Troy's coming apocalypse reinforce that long-ago seer's interpretation of Hecabe's dream: the child, Paris, would be the ruin of Troy if allowed to live. Unable to kill their baby, Hecabe and Priam send the infant off with a shepherd; it is the return of her brother Paris from the far hills that signals the slow death spiral of Troy and all Cassandra holds dear. Saint sets an electric pace by pivoting between the viewpoints of Cassandra, Clytemnestra, and Clytemnestra and Agamemnon's daughter Elektra. A devoted, yet sickly young girl when Helen deserts Menelaus for Paris, Elektra is heartbroken to realize the winds of war will soon carry away her adored father. Before the Greek armies can sail, however, a terrible price must be paid to the gods. Agamemnon, in one vicious act, betrays Clytemnestra, resulting in a pain unbearable except for the promise of vengeance:

"The thought was cold and clear in my mind amid the chaos of grief and pain as I kept my vigil through the night. That pain that clawed me apart from within, tearing away at my flesh and stripping me down to nothing. Nothing but this. The hard certainty at my very core; the cold taste of iron and blood in my center that said: He will feel this too, and worse ."

As the Trojan War drags on for 10 years, Clytemnestra plots her revenge, numb to both her son, Orestes, and the isolated, resentful Elektra. This long pause is where the ancient literary sources are mostly quiet except for the main points: Clytemnestra takes Aegisthus, the son of the Mycenaean usurper Agamemnon killed, as her lover and co-conspirator, plotting Agamemnon's death once he returns from the war. The days, months and years in the tomb-like palace at Mycenae are hauntingly described as Saint masterfully inhabits Clytemnestra and her cold rage, juxtaposing it as she does with glimpses of her serene, collected sister staring down from the walls of Troy. She and Helen both are "architects of their own disaster" in Elektra's eyes, because they have made horrendous choices that cry out for justice. It only remains for her father to return home from the war to mete out the justice coming to Clytemnestra, she believes. But Clytemnestra has other ideas. Saint explores the cosmic themes of betrayal and retribution from the female eye with musical prose that cuts with sharp emotional insights. Elektra is a near non-stop reading experience with expert pacing and riveting first-person narratives from the three protagonists. Readers will eagerly await Saint's next fictional endeavor in the ancient Greek world of capricious gods and violent men.

• "Beyond the Book" articles
• Free books to read and review (US only)
• Find books by time period, setting & theme
• Read-alike suggestions by book and author
• Book club discussions
• and much more!
• Just $45 for 12 months or $15 for 3 months.
• More about membership!

Beyond the Book:    The Electra Complex

Read-alikes.

• Genres & Themes

If you liked Elektra, try these:

Clytemnestra

by Costanza Casati

Published 2024

About this book

Madeline Miller's Circe meets Cersei Lannister in a stunning debut following Clytemnestra, the most notorious heroine of the ancient world and the events that forged her into the legendary queen.

The Women of Troy

by Pat Barker

Published 2022

More by this author

A daring and timely feminist retelling of The Illiad from the perspective of the women of Troy who endured it--an extraordinary follow up to The Silence of the Girls from the Booker Prize-winning author of The Regeneration Trilogy.

Support BookBrowse

Join our inner reading circle, go ad-free and get way more!

Find out more

BookBrowse Book Club

Members Recommend

The Flower Sisters by Michelle Collins Anderson

From the new Fannie Flagg of the Ozarks, a richly-woven story of family, forgiveness, and reinvention.

The Stone Home by Crystal Hana Kim

A moving family drama and coming-of-age story revealing a dark corner of South Korean history.

Win This Book

The Funeral Cryer by Wenyan Lu

Debut novelist Wenyan Lu brings us this witty yet profound story about one woman's midlife reawakening in contemporary rural China.

Solve this clue:

and be entered to win..

Your guide to exceptional           books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.

Subscribe to receive some of our best reviews, "beyond the book" articles, book club info and giveaways by email.

Search form

Elektra, Royal Opera review - moral: don’t wait too long for revenge | reviews, news & interviews

Elektra, royal opera review - moral: don’t wait too long for revenge, a great soprano now struggles with the toughest of roles.

Those were happy days back in 2014 when, justifiably flushed with the success of the Royal Opera’s Tristan und Isolde revival, director Christof Loy, music director Antonio Pappano and soprano Nina Stemme mooted possibly the toughest role challenge of them all, that of Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s vengeful obsessive Elektra. Yet nearly a decade is a long time in the life of a dramatic soprano, and on last night’s evidence, it's come too late in London.

• Further performances of Elektra at the Royal Opera until 30 January
• More opera reviews on theartsdesk

Related Articles

• Elektra/Der Rosenkavalier, Nightly Met Opera Streams review - searing hits and indulgent misses
• Elektra, Royal Opera
• Tristan und Isolde, Royal Opera
• Prom 58: Salome, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Runnicles
• Best of 2023: Opera

Explore topics

• Royal Opera

Share this article

Spot-on review. desperately.

Spot-on review. Desperately sad to see two great singers way past their best, and a tired, dull production from one of the best directors working today. Superlative orchestral playing couldn't save this grim evening at the Royal Opera.

Sad is the word. I took no

Sad is the word. I took no pleasure in writing what I did, only hoping that celebration of what Stemme was would make some amends. But we have to be honest, right? I'm not seeing that honesty much elsewhere.

Having read this review it

Having read this review it came as no surprise to receive an email from the Royal Opera House saying that for tonight's performance (which I am attending) an indisposed Nina Stemme is replaced by Ausrine Stundyte. Best wishes to Nina Stemme for a speedy recovery.

Add comment

More information about text formats

Filtered HTML

• Web page addresses and e-mail addresses turn into links automatically.

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

Doormat Navigation

• See our complete archive
• privacy and cookies

• Work & Careers
• Life & Arts

Become an FT subscriber

Try unlimited access Only $1 for 4 weeks

Then $75 per month. Complete digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Cancel anytime during your trial.

• Global news & analysis
• Expert opinion
• Special features
• FirstFT newsletter
• Videos & Podcasts
• Android & iOS app
• FT Edit app
• 10 gift articles per month

Explore more offers.

Standard digital.

• FT Digital Edition

Premium Digital

Print + premium digital, weekend print + standard digital, weekend print + premium digital.

Today's FT newspaper for easy reading on any device. This does not include ft.com or FT App access.

• 10 additional gift articles per month
• Global news & analysis
• Exclusive FT analysis
• Videos & Podcasts
• FT App on Android & iOS
• Everything in Standard Digital
• Premium newsletters
• Weekday Print Edition
• FT Weekend Print delivery
• Everything in Premium Digital

Essential digital access to quality FT journalism on any device. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

• Everything in Print

Complete digital access to quality FT journalism with expert analysis from industry leaders. Pay a year upfront and save 20%.

Terms & Conditions apply

Explore our full range of subscriptions.

Why the ft.

See why over a million readers pay to read the Financial Times.

International Edition

• International edition
• Australia edition
• Europe edition

1984 by George Orwell audiobook review – a starry cast drive this powerful dramatisation

Tom Hardy, Cynthia Erivo and Andrew Scott conjure menace and melodrama in this 75th-anniversary remake of Orwell’s classic

A udible has been pushing the boat out lately with its dramatisations of literary classics, and this adaptation of George Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four, marking 75 years since it was published, is a dark delight. Andrew Garfield leads a starry cast as Winston Smith, a worker at the Ministry of Truth trying to keep a lid on his frustrations with the Party, the ruling power that controls everything in the state of Oceania including what its citizens do, say and think. The omniscient Big Brother, voiced by Tom Hardy, keeps tabs on everyone via telescreens and brutally punishes dissenters, though this doesn’t stop Winston from purchasing a notebook to write down his illegal thoughts.

Cynthia Erivo plays Julia, who persuades Winston to take a trip out of the city and to the countryside where they indulge in some noisy alfresco fun that is best heard via the privacy of your own headphones. Meanwhile, Andrew Scott is quietly terrifying as O’Brien, an Inner Party member who tricks Winston into believing he is part of a revolutionary group called the Brotherhood. After exposing his wrongdoing, O’Brien spends months brainwashing Winston through acts of torture based on his private nightmares.

There are some good supporting turns from Romesh Ranganathan as Parsons, described as “a man of paralysing stupidity”, and Chukwudi Iwuji as the duplicitous Charrington, who rents out the room where Winston and Julia conduct their secret trysts. The score comes courtesy of Muse frontman Matt Bellamy and composer Ilan Eshkeri, and brims with melodrama and menace.

1984 is available via Audible, 3hr 27min

Further listening

Pageboy Elliot Page, Penguin Audio, 8hr 23 min This episodic memoir by the Juno actor documents his early life, his meteoric rise as an actor and the acute gender dysphoria he experienced from the age of four. Read by the author.

The Twyford Code Janice Hallett, Profile Audio, 11hr 28min Thomas Judd narrates this unusual crime novel made up of the transcribed audio files found on the phone of a missing ex-convict named Steven Smith.

• George Orwell
• Audiobook of the week
• Andrew Scott

Most viewed