Book Review: "Elektra" by Jennifer Saint

Jennifer Saint is perhaps one of the best writers of her genre in our times. With books such as Atalanta and Ariadne, Jennifer Saint has proven herself to be a powerhouse of mythical women. Hera is yet another great book but, I am here to support her novel Elektra and her interpretation of yet another female-based myth in which the story of a brave woman has been sidelined by the men around her. So let's go on to how this book went for me. As you can tell, Jennifer Saint can do no wrong…

From the very beginning, the novel establishes the oppressive weight of the curse that haunts the House of Atreus, a family doomed to cycles of betrayal and violence. Generations of brutality have led to an unbreakable pattern of revenge, where murder begets murder, and the gods seem to revel in human suffering. Clytemnestra, the queen of Mycenae, is well aware of this curse, and the novel carefully lays the groundwork for the inevitable tragedy that will unfold. The sins of the past including the gruesome crime of Atreus serving his brother Thyestes’ children as a meal, linger over every decision, shaping the fates of the characters trapped within this cycle.

While Clytemnestra’s story is one of righteous anger, Elektra’s is defined by blind devotion and misplaced loyalty. Unlike her mother, she idolises Agamemnon and refuses to see his faults, believing his actions to be divinely sanctioned. To her, Iphigenia’s death is a tragic but necessary sacrifice, and she views her mother’s desire for vengeance as monstrous rather than justified. Elektra’s perspective is filled with youthful idealism, but as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that she is trapped in her own kind of curse; one of bitterness, stubbornness, and an inability to see the full picture. She clings to the past, longing for her father’s return from Troy, unaware of the bloodshed his homecoming will bring. I love Jennifer Saint’s writing because Elektra’s story becomes so familiar to so many women and yet, we know that she is technically apart from ourselves. This brings us into her stories emotionally. Another thing I have to say is that the Clytemnestra section reminds me of a great book called ‘Clytemnestra’ by Constanza Casati.

Cassandra, the doomed Trojan princess and priestess of Apollo, provides a contrast to both Clytemnestra and Elektra. Gifted with the power of prophecy but cursed so that no one will ever believe her, she is forced to watch as her city falls and her people are slaughtered. Her chapters are some of the most haunting, as she foresees every horror that is about to unfold yet is powerless to stop it. She knows Agamemnon’s fate long before he arrives in Mycenae, and she understands her own death is inevitable. Despite this, she continues to speak the truth, a tragic testament to the cruelty of the gods and the helplessness of mortals against fate. I’m not going to lie, this section reminded me so much of the book ‘Cassandra’ by Christa Wolf and works in some of those horrors that she knew about before anyone else.

One of the novel’s most climactic moments is Agamemnon’s return to Mycenae. Clytemnestra, now fully hardened by her grief, has spent years plotting her revenge, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. The tension in this section is palpable, as readers know what is coming but cannot look away. Clytemnestra murders Agamemnon in his bath, ensuring that he pays for Iphigenia’s death with his own blood. It is a moment of catharsis, but also one of horror. Though justified, her vengeance does not end the curse, it merely continues it. Oh, this scene was brilliantly written and the rage of Elektra afterwards was fantastic. She is consumed by this fury about her mother being a murderer. Elektra’s fate is intertwined with that of her brother, Orestes, who has been in exile since childhood. When he returns, Elektra seizes the opportunity to exact vengeance, urging him to kill Clytemnestra.

All in all, I have to say that though we know the story a million times over and though we always read these stories with the same level of thrill, we can still have a different perspective on the situation. Jennifer Saint does for us what ‘The Libation Bears’ by Aeschylus does for the Greeks on giving them the perspective of Orestes to a grand degree. It was a fantastic read.