Atalanta

I feel sad that I no longer want to read books like these. I love the retellings of mythology from the perspective of underrepresented women in the stories. What I don't love is the demonization of the men alongside them. We do not need to emphasize the weakness of men to draw attention to the strength of women. The women can be strong just because they WERE strong.

All of these books fall into this same pit: every man is terrible, every woman is cunning and smart. That's not true in real life and it's not true in mythology either. I feel like it cheapens the story of the women to have it so heavily focused on how all the men around them are terrible. It also makes me trust the narrative less, as none of use are perfect.

It doesn't help that I already know all of these stories as a scholar, so I know what is coming down the line.

I'm giving this three instead of two because it was well-written. The story was accurate, which some others of this genre are not.

7/10

I enjoyed this book, but wanted more. I had barely heard of Atalanta before and that was a chief motivator to read it. And I did find out more about her, and I liked how the author explored the role of women in antiquity and the reactions of the various men to Atalanta joining the Argonauts and her journey to be accepted by them and prove herself, as well as dealing with the prejudice of the wider world. All that was good. I also really liked the narrator, and the prose. It flowed really well.

I'd just say that outside of Atalanta, every character was bland. If I didnt already know about Jason and Hercules and Peleus, I'd barely be able to differentiate them. Because of that, the plot and character interactions just didn't do much for me.