While a lyrical and beautifully written novel, overall it was just okay. I'll admit that I wasn't a fan of the ending at all. To go into why would be spoiler-y but suffice to say even if it was close to the myth I feel, all things considered, Ariadne deserved to have some type of victory. And there are tons of different versions about her, so we didn't necessarily need to go for the traumatic one.

True, a lot of that was a prison of her own design because she allowed her sister, who she hadn't seen in literal years, allow her to question the happiness she had in her life after she was betrayed by Theseus. Because honestly? Her life on Naxos, all things considered, was fine. Dionysus wasn't the best of husbands true and he let his godhood get to him like all of them did even the ones we think of as most fair; but I do believe he cared for her.

I also feel the author did herself a disservice by including Phaedra's story. Honestly, she could have written two different stories and devoted one to each sister. The name of the book is Ariadne, so I was not expecting to, nor did I necessarily want to hear about Phaedra. The little snippets we got from her made her 'realization' at the end of her story seemed phoned in whereas if she had her own book, it could have been fleshed out more.

Yes, there's a lot of commentary there that could and should be expanded on with regards to how women were treated in all types of mythologies and even literature and on that it's very strong. This could be dissected for days in a college level class. But overall, it was just okay for me. I don't regret reading it but I don't imagine I will re-read it at all and if so it would have to be in a couple of years to see if age has changed my perspective in any way.