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3.25/5

If you are completely new to the Iliad, some parts of my review will include (mild/unimportant) spoilers. If you already know how the Iliad goes, my review is spoiler free :)

I was so prepared to love this book! I am a fiend for Greek mythology, so a feminist retelling of the Iliad - what more could I ask for?

Unfortunately, the answer to that question is that I actually can ask for more. I enjoyed this book a lot less than I thought I would, and I think my low review is largely due to how overwritten the prose of Elektra is. I strongly believe that writing a lot does not necessarily equate to a book being “beautifully written� (in other words, quantity does not equal quality). In the case of Elektra, it is undeniable that Saint has a strong command of the English language. But at the same time, I felt that a lot of the details she included were just so redundant that her writing style bordered on long-winded. Don’t get me wrong - I think detail is indispensable in prose because writing without it would just be boring and bland. However, details should be varied enough to add new information to the story, such as in Madeleine Miller’s masterpiece Song of Achilles. Miller’s writing is packed with detail, but it doesn’t feel unnecessary or redundant because she’s always describing a new place, a new character trait, or a new development. In contrast, Saint tends to hyper focus on one thing and over-describe it until it feels like beating a dead horse. I will now provide an example that shouldn’t come as a spoiler to people who are familiar with the Iliad (hopefully, you remember that Paris takes Helen to Troy as that is what starts the whole war). When Clytemnestra is considering how Helen might have left with Paris, Saint writes: “Would it be better if she had resisted, if she had been overcome, if it was the fault of Menelaus for leaving her unprotected and defenseless, for having been too dull to notice the covetous gleam in the Trojan prince’s eyes? If she had screamed behind the hot press of his fingers clamped over her mouth, if she had sought to tear the flesh from his hands with her teeth in her desperation to get back to Hermione, to hold her daughter in her arms, to stay with her and never bear the blame for this disastrous war?� (116). Like, geez, we got your point in the first rhetorical question. Maybe some people enjoy this style of writing, but personally, I think that having chunks of description like this every other page is just way too much and stunts the overall development of the story, which is ultimately way more important to me. In addition, I felt that a lot of Saint’s descriptions were repetitive. For instance, whenever Elektra talks about Agamemnon, she always uses the same descriptive words and phrases - strong, brave, victorious, “shoulders filling the doorway,� etc.

Despite my complaints about the writing itself, I felt that Saint was still able to deliver a very interesting story. I really enjoyed the book’s themes on grief, the cyclical nature of vengeance and hatred, and the simultaneous joy and heartbreak of motherhood. I definitely did not like every single one of the characters in the novel, but I will endlessly applaud Saint for creating women who are painfully human and nuanced in a way that the original male-centered Iliad never showed.

Overall, this is a very complex book that I feel will generate many polarized opinions. I have a lot of mixed feelings about Elektra, and usually I would give a 3/5 to books I feel this way about. However, since a lot of my criticisms stem from personal preference, I will add a 0.5 to make my rating 3.5/5.