elektra (jennifer saint): a review

 Elektra (a review)

rating: ⭐⭐⭐✨

This is the second book I have read by Jennifer Saint. My main complaint with her first book (Ariadne) is that none of the girlbosses win. I did not have that complaint with Elektra, as every girlboss experiences at least some degree of victory. This is a book about righteously angry women. It was a good time, but there was too much seething.

Elektra is exciting and convoluted. I'm going to summarize the myth on which it is based. Spoilers for millennia-old myth ahead. So, the Trojan War, right? The Greek soldiers are about to sail to Troy, but their boats are all reliant on wind, because they're losers. One of their leaders, Agamemnon, kills his daughter Iphigenia as a sacrifice he believes the gods demand. It works, and they all go gallivant around Troy for ten years and beat people up. Agamemnon's wife, Clytemnestra, plots to avenge her daughter and has an affair. They also have another daughter named Electra and a son named Orestes. 

Cassandra, the Trojan princess, can see the future but no one believes her. If you think that sounds neat, you would love the podcast Strict Scrutiny. Agamemnon abducts her from Troy and takes her back to Greece to be his concubine. Clytemnestra and her boyfriend—but mostly Clytemnestra—kill them both. I don't know why she kills Cassandra. Orestes gets sent away so Clytemnestra's boyfriend doesn't kill him (Greek myths are really big on sons avenging the murders of their fathers). Electra sulks. Orestes returns. He and Electra kill Clytemnestra. Then he gets chased around by some vengeance demons because matricide is a big no-no, but then Athena invents the concept of a criminal jury trial and Orestes is acquitted. And that's the plot of the Oresteia. At least, I think it is, although I've never read the Oresteia, so I could be wrong.

Elektra is a retelling of the Oresteia, but the author changes some stuff, and I wish she hadn't. The part with the first criminal jury trial in Western history is taken out, which I think is lame because I was primarily here for the courtroom drama. And there was space for the courtroom drama. This book moves very slowly. It took me a while to get into. 15% more plot could have fit in the same number of pages. Other stuff was changed, too, but I'm not going to spoil anything else. 

Elektra has three narrators: Clytemnestra, Cassandra, and Electra. Cassandra is a nice girl who deserved better. Electra is not my favorite. The amount of internalized misogyny she harbors is truly staggering. She hates her mother. As a Clytemnestra fan, I can't approve. But Electra's character is super compelling and interesting to read about.

Clytemnestra is a girlboss. I am an Agamemnon hater, so of course the enemy of my enemy is my friend, but she's also just a cool person. She loves her kids and she has an axe. Those are great personality traits. Agamemnon deserved what he got. Clytemnestra was fun to read about because of her righteous anger, but, at a certain point, there is too much anger. Everyone was just upset all the time. There was not a single moment in Elektra where someone was not angry. I could have done with more happiness. 

The other problem with Elektra is that the author is incapable of describing anything other than stone walls. I am not sure what the setting was like, but I know it had stone walls in it. On the whole, I did enjoy this book.