I'm pretty familiar with Clytemnestra through other things i've read, particularly her killing her husband and the events of Orestes, but she was never the main character, so seeing the story from her pov is new. I really liked Clytemnestra's sister Helen, her brother Castor, and sister Timandra, they each had their own unique personalities.

Various side characters who move in and out of the story hint at enticing plotlines — but instead of adding to the world of the story, these aspects distract the reader from the central plot. Getting to know Clytemnestra from such a young age and grow up with her, it makes you feel more aware of what she feels and what she will do. Her mother was already sitting in the throne room, her face glowing in the orange light, and Clytemnestra slipped past the doors before she could be seen. We see the trauma she suffers at his hand, capped off by the sacrifice of her eldest daughter so that Agamemnon’s ships could catch a wind to Troy. I love me a powerful female protagonist and Clytemnestra proved herself to be one, very early on in the telling of this tale.In "Clytemnestra", Costanza Casati has taken a woman who's frequently villainized in Greek mythology and given a fresh and complex take on her life and story. There is alot to enjoy, in Clytemnestra a book readers simply won’t want to put down, or, be able to.

The novel’s strength lies in its ability to weave many complex stories into one linear narrative by centering all of these episodes on Clytemnestra herself. With regards to the style, she remains faithful to the much-loved metaphors and figures of speech widely used in the Omeric poems, while at the same time maintaining a fresh, fast-paced prose that will keep you on the edge until the end. Costanza Casati was born in Texas in 1995 and grew up in a village in Northern Italy, where she studied Ancient Greek, and Ancient Greek literature, under one of the country’s most rigorous academic programmes.She was Helen of Troy's sister and this novel illuminates how much they loved each other and, how extremely close they were.

While Clytemnestra’s story is heavily influenced by hate and vengeance, I would be remiss to exclude her abundance of love. 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. There is something I find so beautiful about stories that weave motherhood into them in such a unique and positive way. On her deathbed, Clytemnestra’s grandmother tells Clytemnestra and Helen that their family is a “dynasty of queens” and that “you girls will be remembered longer than your brothers”.Continually an outsider, Bodie’s brushes with death continue when her roommate Thalia Keith is killed and the school’s athletic trainer Omar Evans is found guilty.