Review: Phaedra by Laura Shepperson

Phaedra by Laura Shepperson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I was provided an audio arc of this book via Netgalley, all opinions are my own. Thank you to Dreamscape Media for providing me the opportunity to review this book.

I really enjoyed the full cast narration of this audiobook. It worked very well with multi-POV narration of the story. Having multiple narrators made it easy to let the reader know who was speaking because there was a different voice for each speaker. I do feel that having so many POV's it took away from the focus of Phaedra's story. The author did do a good job linking all of the POVs together in the end, but I don't know that they were all necessary. I thought the addition of the Night Chorus made alot of sense, and added to the storyline but the other POVs didn't really add much to Phaedra's story.

As you can tell by the title this follow's Phaedra, a lesser know female character in Greek mythology. She is daughter of Mino and Pasiphae, sister to Ariadne and the Minotaur. Phaedra is portrayed as naïve and as the youngest she is often cast aside and treated poorly. She is faithful to the gods and trusts that they will protect her from harm so long as she pays the proper tributes and prayers. This is especially important as she enters into a political marriage with Theseus. Upon her arrival in Athens, she quickly realizes that Theseus wants nothing to do with his young bride, but his son Hippolytus while pledged to Artemis is always watching her. As is common in mythology, the men rule and commit atrocities without much consequence, but Theseus wants to bring democracy to Athens, so when he returns to find his wife very pregnant and accusing his son of brutally raping her, he must go through with a trial.

While the trial proceeds, the women of Athens are paying the price of Phaedra speaking out against Hippolytus and his attack. They too are suffering in silence at the hands of the same men. Once the trial is decided, Phaedra decides to take back her own power as she learns the even if the court rules in her favor, the punishment will not fit the crime.

If you are fan of the feminist retellings that are very popular right now, this was a good read. This did a good job emphasizing how women are often blamed for the sins of men or treated as if they exist purely to serve man's more carnal needs. I feel like that is very accurate for the timeframe when these myths are supposed to be based. This even touches on faith and loss of faith. I thought that was very well done. Phaedra's faith in the gods was steadfast, until her gods failed her. I think that is a very relatable concept whether you are religious person or not. Faith in humanity, religion, or people you trust is tested constantly. Anyone who has been seriously let down can empathize with Phaedra. I enjoyed this retelling of Phaedra's story and look forward to reading more from the author in the future.

Trigger warnings for sexual assault, rape, suicide, physical abuse, murder, mental abuse. This is a rough book to get through, even if you don't have triggers.

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