Phaedra
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3.8 • 4 Ratings
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
Phaedra has been cast to the side all her life: daughter of an adulteress, sister of a monster, and now unwilling bride to the much-older, power-hungry Theseus. Young, naïve, and idealistic, she has accepted her lot in life, resigned to existing under the sinister weight of Theseus’s control and the constant watchful eye of her handsome stepson Hippolytus. When supposedly pious Hippolytus assaults her, Phaedra’s world is darkened in the face of untouchable, prideful power. In the face of injustice, Phaedra refuses to remain quiet any longer: such an awful truth demands to be brought to light. When Phaedra publicly accuses Hippolytus of rape, she sparks an overdue reckoning. The men of Athens gather to determine the truth. Meanwhile, the women of the city, who have no vote, are gathering in the shadows. The women know truth is a slippery thing in the hands of men. There are two sides to every story, and theirs has gone unheard—until now. Timely, unflinching, and transportive, Laura Shepperson’s Phaedra carves open long-accepted wounds to give voice to one of the most maligned figures of mythology and offers a stunning story of how truth bends under the weight of patriarchy but can be broken open by the force of one woman’s bravery.
APPLE BOOKS REVIEW
This female-centered retelling of the tragedy of Theseus and Phaedra opens up the story to multiple points of view, creating a more inclusive and powerful tale. After slaying her half brother, the Minotaur—portrayed in this book as a gentle soul born with a horrific deformity—Theseus takes the naive princess Phaedra as his unwilling bride. Mistreated in her new home, Phaedra must endure the unwelcome attentions of her teenage stepson, Hippolytus, culminating in an act of unexpected, shattering violence. Laura Shepperson structures the story like a classical Greek play, complete with multiple narrators and a recurring all-female chorus, whose mass chanting is by far the most emotionally resonant part of this striking audiobook. This version of Phaedra feels stunningly relevant to the modern #MeToo era.
