It's ironic that the character whose name is the title of this book is also the one I enjoyed the least and dreaded reading.

ElektraThe youngest daughter of Clytemnestra and Agamemnon, Elektra is horrified by the bloodletting of her kin. I was looking forward to this because I've read the Sophocles and am familiar with the whole Freudian aspect from within Psychology and frankly, it was just nicely MESSED up as a tragedy. Clytemnestra, the sister of Helen, wife of Agamemnon - her hopes of averting the curse are dashed when her sister is taken to Troy by the feckless Paris.Our narrators are not on the battlefield and they don’t share the same loyalties or motivations - but Cassandra, Clytemnestra and Elektra are three women whose lives and destinies are irrevocably impacted by the events preceding, during and after the fall of Troy. These stories are told and retold and reimagined over and over again because they’re fascinating and they elicit very human responses as they tell larger-than-life stories of people whose lives intersect the divine. Utilizing well defined, three dimensional characters and believable dialogue the book for the most part flows easily. The women who are left behind are literally left behind the biggest, most exciting battle of Greek antiquity. There is a certain amount of repetition but given that each of the narrators tells the story from different vantage points, nowhere did I lose interest.

Her chapters, while the events themselves are highly compelling, the way she tells them is just dull. We read her terrible curse from Apollo as she refuses him to rape her (literally whenever Apollo appears on the scene in any myth you know someone will be sexually assaulted). A priestess of Apollo who is blessed with the power of foresight but cursed for these visions never to be believed. Nitpicky, I know, just something I noticed, yet which, of course, did not take away from the overall telling of the tale.Clytemnestra is best known as the murderer of her husband, the leader of the Greeks, Agamemnon, as depicted in Aeschylus’s play Agamemnon, which is admittedly where I first encountered and fell in love with her. I don't want to dwell on comparing the two, though I did feel Daughters of Sparta was, perhaps, done with a greater commitment to historical detail. Princess of Troy, and cursed by Apollo to see the future but never to be believed when she speaks of it. If you’re desperate to read every single book written about the Trojan War, then absolutely read Elektra. Next we have Cassandra the princess of Troy who upon refusing the god Apollo’s advances was cursed to be able to foretell the future but never be believed.