Hello my loves!
Long time no see! Life has just been more and more hectic recently but I am having the best time on my teacher training. It is also my birthday today, so all in all, life is pretty great.
Today I am bringing you my review for Clytemnestra’s Bind by Susan C. Wilson as part of The Write Reads blog tour. I have been trying to take on less ARCs at the moment but when this came into my inbox I simply couldn’t resist!
Summary
Queen Clytemnestra’s world shatters when Agamemnon, a rival to the throne of Mycenae,
storms her palace, destroys her family and claims not only the throne but Clytemnestra
herself.
Tormented by her loss, she vows to do all she can to protect the children born from her
unhappy marriage to Agamemnon. But when her husband casts his ruthless gaze towards
the wealthy citadel of Troy, his ambitions threaten, once more, to destroy the family
Clytemnestra loves.
From one of Greek mythology’s most reviled characters—a woman who challenged the
absolute power of men—comes this fiery tale of power, family rivalry and a mother’s
burning love.
Rating
ESCAPE score: 54
Thoughts
This book was so good and such a good retelling!
I sort of knew what plot line to expect going into this book being a big fan of the mythology surrounding Clytemnestra but somehow I was still surprised by some parts of it. I just wanted to keep reading to follow along with Clytemnestra’s plight as she struggles to live with Agamemnon and his tyrannical precedes in her life and the life of her children. We see her grieve, love and rage which is all to be expected but the way that the story is crafted made me feel way too many things.
Clytemnestra herself stands proud against the cast of characters as the protagonist of this story, slowly becoming the hardened murderess we know and love from the stories of Homer and Aeschylus. Yet what we see throughout this book is her origin story, all the pain she suffered and the events of her life that made her who she is. And it is glorious. Agamemnon as the antagonist works wonderfully against her and your hatred of him continues to grow until anyone would be able to sympathise with Clytemnestra and her plight. What particularly interested me was the fact that we got to see more of Aegisthus, who in the myth is no more than Clytemnestra’s lover with not much of a life prior to his entry into her life. But not here, here he cuts a tragic figure throughout the book and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for him at various points.
This book was simply so well written, there were so many good quotes that I loved as I read this book. There were so many powerful sentiments and descriptions that I just loved and have noted to read through an appreciate Susan C. Wilson’s wonderful writing.
Author bio
Susan C Wilson is a working-class Scottish writer. Her lifelong passion for ancient
Greece was ignited as a child by stumbling across stories of gods and heroes in the
dictionary. She loves to explore what makes us human: the eternal motivations,
desires and instincts that cross time and place.
She has a degree in journalism from Napier University and, in preparation for writing
her novels, gained a diploma in classical studies from the OpenUniversity. Clytemnestra’s Bind, her debut novel, was long-listed for the Mslexia Novel Competition 2019. It is the first in The House of Atreus trilogy and will be
published by Neem Tree Press in June 2023.
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