The Children of Jocasta A Viscerally Atmospheric Retelling of Greek Myth

I was so excited to read this book, because Natalie Haynes has written many other books based on Greek tales demonstrating more female-centred perspectives, and I was SO DISAPPOINTED. I certainly will not be reading any of Natalie Haynes' books any time soon. The characters were so dull, so boring, so unlikeable, so plain and lifeless, that i didn't care what happened to any of them, which made it really difficult to keep reading. There wasn't even a juicy, unlikeable villain, even the "bad guys" were flat and boring. There were enough characters that at least one of them could have been interesting, but no. I would have also loved to see more of the female modes of story-telling and expression in Ancient Greece. The reason we have little of the authentic female voice in comparison to that of the male voice is that female traditions focused more on weaving tapestries, singing lullabies, and lamentation, than on writing. It would be nice to draw more attention to that in the modern age as there has been little research or attention on such traditions in the past. The story was also simply very predictable and not a very inventive way of twisting the tale, so to speak. Definitely would not recommend. If you like this genre and topic, read 'Silence of the Girls' by Pat Barker or 'Circe' by Madeline Miller.