While Clytemnestra’s story is heavily influenced by hate and vengeance, I would be remiss to exclude her abundance of love. The story starts with familiar nervousness about wearing a new uniform, and worries about fitting in and being liked. When the Greek forces led by Agamemnon are stalled, he sacrifices their daughter, Iphigenia, believing that doing so will appease the gods, who will then unleash the winds needed for the army’s ships to sail to Troy so that the abducted Helen can be rescued. Not much character development occurs off the page, making it feel as if the characters simply aged for the sake of the plot. The book embodies Sanders’ politics, meaning he’ll have his followers vigorously nodding along in agreement, and his detractors likely rolling their eyes.

Clytemnestra is left broken and hollow, like a bird with crushed wings, and the first seeds of hatred take root. I love me a powerful female protagonist and Clytemnestra proved herself to be one, very early on in the telling of this tale.

All her life she has been taught courage, strength, resilience, but must those qualities be kept at bay with a husband? When we meet Clytemnestra, she is a young princess of Sparta; a hunter and fighter who is close to her family, especially to her sister, Helen, the famed beauty who later flees for Troy. But in Casati’s novel, she is a fiery figure, still fueled by a burning desire for revenge, but never painted as delusional. I really liked Clytemnestra's sister Helen, her brother Castor, and sister Timandra, they each had their own unique personalities. It is as if she keeps burning herself, then plunges her arm into freezing water to keep the pain at bay … slowly, those thoughts healed her, as much as one so broken can be healed.

The depth of the relationships, and the flaws of each character further contribute to the rich tapestry, which eventually flows to a tension point of final confrontation and retribution. Every word is meaningful, and nearly every chapter holds a quote that made me pause and consider it, both in the context of the story and in the context of my own life. She was Helen of Troy's sister and this novel illuminates how much they loved each other and, how extremely close they were. During this period of Agamemnon's long absence, Clytemnestra began a love affair with Aegisthus, her husband's cousin. And the story of her parents are very important to the girl, her heritage, reminding her forever of where she came from and what she carries in her veins, not just the royalty, but the strength, endurance, and fortitude to be great, the greatest of all others.Clytemnestra's, probably more known, sister Helen, also features predominately, which does make sense as the Trojan War plays a large role. It is just fascinating and fabulous that a woman of Greek Mythology can be so notorious and talked about, but yet has had such a small voice and has been type casted and condemned (traditionally). As Clytemnestra quips about Theseus, “Heroes like him are made of greed and cruelty: they take and take until the world around them is stripped of its beauty.

She was her father’s favorite, respected by her two older brothers and revered by her younger sisters. Whether its feelings passionate, all-encompassing love or experiencing that familiar deep, visceral feeling of wanting to enact revenge for being wronged, you will go on an emotional rollercoaster. The author, Costanza Casati, brings her incredible knowledge of the ancient Greeks and of ancient Greek literature, and greatly expands the narrative we think we already know. The writing is beautiful and gripping, laced with that addictive, lyrical style that’s needed to make a mythology re-telling really hook you. The author provides family trees at the beginning of the novel and a glossary of terms at the end, both of which are helpful resources.The Aeschylus work was also adapted by South African composer Cromwell Everson into the first Afrikaans opera, Klutaimnestra, in 1967. While I’ve been disappointed by Greek myth retellings in the past, Clytemnestra was everything I was hoping it would be, and more. I especially appreciated the vile depiction of Agamemnon, as I’ve always despised him in any story he in which he appears. Clytemnestra” shows how she is shaped by trauma yet still bravely holds onto power in a time when women were seen as subhuman.