Overall, Daughter of Sparta is a solid read that will take you to a heart-pounding journey along with your favourite classic Greek myths. The book focuses exclusively on Helen and Klytemnestra’s points of view. Because this focus meant the majority of the story was internal monologue of the women’s thoughts and feelings about their experiences, the third person narrative felt jarring, as compared to the intimacy of first person. I wondered if the intention was to bestow a sense of universality on these two women’s experiences. If so, it didn’t quite work. Heywood’s tendency to project modern worldviews and resentments into the past amplified the disconnect between narrative style and characters. It also felt reductive, as it stripped the myths and the various ways they were told across antiquity of their complexities, paradoxes, and ambivalent meanings. I also like that Agamemnon blames the gods for his/men’s actions, but thinks women are entirely responsible for them. Ugh. That also feels to me like a sentiment that rings down through the ages and has kept women oppressed in so many cultures and so many contexts.

You are a gift to this world, my kataigida,’ he says. ‘A storm, calamitous and powerful. You take root where you want to, listen to no voice of command but your own.’ Daughters of Sparta, which I received from NetGalley for review, purports to tell the stories of Helen and Klytemnestra, daughters of king Tyndareos and queen Leda of Sparta. Dual alternating third person narrators follow the sisters chronologically from childhood through the end of the Trojan war, including their marriages, experiences with childbirth and motherhood, and war years. Inspired by David Copperfield, Kingsolver crafts a 21st-century coming-of-age story set in America’s hard-pressed rural South.All this is to say, Agamemnon’s claims about women in the speech Heywood pulls from are not coming from a reliable narrator. Odysseus’ response to Agamemnon is revelatory. He notes that the “schemes of women” are vehicles through which Zeus’ will is accomplished. If Agamemnon is not to blame for his bad acts because they were willed by the gods (as he claims in the Iliad), then why should he blame Klytemnestra for her bad acts? Would not they, too, be the will of the gods? Again, those who know Trojan war myth will know that the Trojan and Theban wars were, according to Hesiod, how Zeus chose to bring the Age of Heroes to an end. In this context, could Agamemnon blaming not only Klytemnestra but all women be seen as somewhat impious, a denial of how the gods work their will through humans? Agamemnon has also been known to compare himself to Zeus ( Iliad 19.95), and his ancestors’ impiety has caused the entire family line to be cursed (as alluded by Odysseus). But there is a good amount of action in this book, and I certainly enjoyed the excitement of those scenes! Brilliantly compelling . . . the perfect balance between historical authenticity and characters who I really connected with Another disconnect between Heywood’s ancient Greece and the one that has come down to us through epic: Her Agamemnon obsesses about winning “glory,” which is accurate broadly speaking. But without the interplay between mortality and immortality that exists in epic, the concept of kleos—what Homeric heroes fight for—loses its meaning. What these heroes were trying to win was not some vague, undifferentiated “glory” but immortality through song (the aforementioned kleos). They want to be remembered and, through memory, to achieve a kind of immortality. Heywood chooses not to engage with the desire to be remembered as a genuine concern of humans. Her Agamemnon gloats that he was able to rally “all of Greece” by giving them “a cause”: “let them tell themselves they’re fighting for Greece, or liberty, or…whatever, and they’ll jump at the chance for some action.” Men just want to run around killing and dying in violent conflicts, apparently. For what reason? Daughters of Sparta has such a compelling narrative; it is utterly absorbing from beginning to end. I found it both captivating and poignant; an enthralling and powerful tale of family politics, gender constraints, love, betrayal and revenge, with a masterful handling of feelings and emotions that truly resonates down the ages.

Lykou is Daphne’s friend from Sparta who journeys with her in wolf form. I found their wolf-human interactions to be interesting, and I admired his loyalty to her – even as he struggled to prevent the wolf nature from taking over him. In this book, you’ll find human-to-animal transformations, magical objects, angry gods, rescue attempts, the crashing of a royal banquet, and more! The romance does NOT take center stage in this book. This is not a romance book. The romance is there, but I think I was really expecting more of it. But there are definitely a few romantic moments sprinkled throughout, and I did enjoy the banter when it was there! I’m hoping there will be more in the sequel. Helen of Troy and her sister Klytemnestra are reimagined in this gorgeous retelling of the classic Greek myth - not as women defined by their husbands and lovers but as battle-weary survivors of a patriarchal society who take control of their own destiny. Absolutely riveting! For millennia, two women have been blamed for the fall of a mighty civilisation – but now it’s time to hear their side of the story . . .This novel and I got off on the wrong foot with the epigraph, before the story even had a chance to properly begin. Heywood includes a quote from the Odyssey: “For there is nothing in this world so cruel and so shameless as a woman when she has fallen into such guilt as hers was […]/[…] her abominable crime has brought disgrace on herself and all women who shall come after—even on the good ones.”

For millennia, two women have been blamed for the fall of a mighty civilisation - but now it's time to hear their side of the story... Perfect for readers of Circe and Ariadne, Daughters of Sparta is a vivid and illuminating retelling of the Siege of Troy that tells the story of mythology’s most vilified women from their own mouths at long last.

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The writing style here was also entertaining. With a personal and up close perspective from Daphne, we go through the journey with her. We get her thoughts and emotions, and I love that as the story progresses, we get to dive into her what kind of person she is. I adored Daphne as a main character. She doesn’t want to be a pawn in the gods’ game, but for her family she would risk it. She also has confidence like a storm within her and I love that. Claire Heywood masterfully reimagines their lives as princesses of Sparta—first as pawns in the plots and games of men, and then as powerhouses capable of standing on their own and commanding whole kingdoms. Daughters of Sparta is a fantastic rewriting of an age-old tale.” — Bitch Magazine

Claire M. Andrews, Daughter of Sparta Characters & Romance Close-up of a Greek dish hand painted with Dionysus on it, next to a notebook and the hardcover edition of Daughter of Sparta. Personally, I think it’s really interesting to think about needs and possibilities and how the ancients navigated those, both well and badly. I can appreciate the desire to tell stories that empower modern feminists, but then what is the reason to tell a story from a past and culture that the author does not want to take the time to understand in a nuanced way? And to be honest, there’s a lot more I could say, where she imposes a lot of attitudes that are clearly about modern not ancient life. There is so much cringe. I think if you’re going to enter a culture that is not your own, you have to be willing to see beyond your own resentments and anger and have the willingness and ability to see nuance and respect things that are different from you. I very much enjoyed the fact that Heywood chose to split the focus of the novel between the two sisters. While both Klytemnestra and Helen are, of course, famous individually, I daresay that relatively few people recognize that they were, in fact, siblings. In bringing them both into the frame as part of the same story, Heywood allows us to see how firmly intertwined their fates were from the beginning and how much they remained so throughout their lives. After all, were it not for Helen’s decision to abscond with Paris for Troy, Kyltemnestra wouldn’t have lost her daughter and wouldn’t have been driven to Such privilege comes at a high price, though, and their destinies are not theirs to command. While still only girls they are separated and married off to legendary foreign kings Agamemnon and Menelaos, never to meet again. Their duty is now to give birth to the heirs society demands and be the meek, submissive queens their men expect.

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As princesses of Sparta, Helen and Klytemnestra have known nothing but luxury and plenty. With their high birth and unrivalled beauty, they are the envy of all of Greece.