Spoilery Book Reviews

The Heroines by Laura Shepperson

*content warning, discussion of rape, as that is an even that occurs in this book*

Back of the book

In Athens, crowds flock to witness the most shocking trial of the ancient world. The royal family is mired in scandal. Phaedra, young bride of King Theseus, has accused her stepson, Hippolytus, of rape.

He's a prince, a talented horseman, a promising noble with his whole life ahead of him. She's a young and neglected wife, the youngest in a long line of Cretan women with less than savoury reputations.

The men of Athens must determine the truth. Who is guilty, and who is innocent?

But the women know the truth is a slippery thing. After all, this is the age of heroes and the age of monsters. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard.

Until now.

My thoughts

Firstly, this is a book I've never read before, while 99% of the other books I'm reviewing I've read multiple times. I thought while I was reading Greek mythology tomes I'd keep the theme going. That was a mistake. Laura Shepperson has a vastly different writing style to Madeline Miller and since it is Greek mythology, some of the characters are the same from Madeline Millers' books, yet they are characterised very differently. That was one small factor in the unpleasant experience of reading this book.

This book is written from many different points of view, and I didn't enjoy the jumping around. I wasn't sure of the purpose of using so many voices and I think it could have been effectively told from three or four. Instead it had NINE different perspectives (The Bard, Phaedra, Night Chorus, Xenethippe, Helia, Medea, Trypho, Kandake, Agneta). A few of these only had one chapter, like Helia the bull-leaper, who dies at the end of her tiny segment. The several POV changes did not make for smooth reading, and I think this book should have been written in third person, so the reader could be omniscient and it wouldn't feel so jarring to get to know all the characters.

The blurb mentions the rape of Phaedra by Hippolytus, and I went back to re-read the blurb when I got nearly half-way through, because that event had not yet occurred. I thought perhaps I read it wrong and was making things up, but it was just very slow to get to the point. After that point the story picked up a bit and held my interest better, although the overall message in the book is not a hopeful one. Hippolytus being found guilty should be a huge win but the bitterness of every other event and the unhappy ending after that, ruins any celebratory feelings that might be had. Every other woman in the palace is still a victim without justice and Phaedra feels the need to kill herself to escape the punishment for seeking justice from Hippolytus.

All men in this story, except maybe two or three, are two dimensional (is a one-dimensional character possible?), their only role as horrible perpetrators of rape. Aside from being quite unrealistic it's also depressing. It is implied that all women are victims, and all men are criminals and this is just the way the society works. I think this book does not handle the topic of rape well. There is no sense of hope, just a sad acceptance that this is the way life is, and barely any righteous anger, a tiny sliver of women banding together to help each other. The only forgiving factor is that it's set in Ancient Greece so we can presume that's the way it was...however for a fiction novel where you can build your own world, why was this one built, with such little hope?

I wanted to like this book but with all the complaints I have for it in this review...perhaps I didn't like it. I liked the alternate view that perhaps the Gods were not real. In Madeline Miller's books the Gods are characters that partake in the story whereas in The Heroines they are mentioned and worshipped and believed in, but not real characters, so the belief is open that they are not real. And with the way this ends I kinda believe that too. I wouldn't recommend this book to read, and especially avoid it if rape is a sensitive topic for you because there is no empowerment or hope.

TL:DR

A jumbled book of nine different POV's, set in Ancient Greece where seemingly all men rape all women and that's just the way the world works. Phaedra (the Queen) attempts to get justice and her rapist is found guilty however she kills herself while heavily pregnant to prevent being executed after giving birth to the King's heir.