Clytemnestra: The spellbinding retelling of Greek mythology’s greatest heroine

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The pacing here was very well done; for an over 400 page book on such a familiar story, I never felt as if it were dragging in any way. Lately kings and heroes have dropped like flies, but, just as her grandmother predicted so long ago, queens outlive them all.

Through Casati’s deft exploration, Queen Clytemnestra is reinstated as an actual human being — one who is grieving, has suffered immensely, craves justice, and refuses to become a pawn in a game ruled by gods and men. I appreciate a good writing, and in this book, that is something that totally exceeds the expectations. This is definitely a Greek mythology retelling I'll be holding up as a new favourite within the genre. I will say that I was not expecting to like the book as much as I did because the beginning of the book did start out a little slow.When the Greek forces led by Agamemnon are stalled, he sacrifices their daughter, Iphigenia, believing that doing so will appease the gods, who will then unleash the winds needed for the army’s ships to sail to Troy so that the abducted Helen can be rescued. She was a powerful woman in a world that didn't want her to be one, and so her lot in life was to never be provided with an easy path to her goals. It is forbidden to copy anything for publication elsewhere without written permission from the copyright holder. Continually an outsider, Bodie’s brushes with death continue when her roommate Thalia Keith is killed and the school’s athletic trainer Omar Evans is found guilty.

Perhaps my favorite trend in recent years is the growing need for authors to give voice to the silenced women of Greek mythology. Being alive is the only way to make it through life, as in death, there is nothing, you are gone and only a story remains, however victorious, or glorious it may be, only words whispered from anothers mouth. I also didn't know about her earlier life (the first bit of the book is modeled off later myths about her that I haven't seen mentioned much in other adaptions similar to this), but it added so much context to her story and why she does what she does that it's hard to imagine the narrative without it.Costanza Casati contributes a mesmerizing addition to this trend in her debut novel, Clytemnestra( Sourcebooks), which recounts a breathtaking story of love and vengeance through the eyes of ancient Greece’s most notorious heroine.