Ecstasy
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3.6 • 5 Ratings
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
A deliciously dark horror reimagining of a Greek tragedy, by Ivy Pochoda, winner of the LA Times Book Prize.
Lena wants her life back. Her wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. Lena lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's, pet project--the luxurious Agape Villas.
Years of marriage amongst the wealthy elite has whittled Lena's spirit into rope and sinew, smothered by tasteful cocktail dresses and unending small talk. On Naxos she yearns to rediscover her true nature, remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was, but Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel, demanding that she fall in line.
Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night, hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether Lena will join them, and what it will cost her.
Ecstasy is a riveting, darkly poetic, one-sitting read about empowerment, desire, and what happens when women reject the roles set out for them.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In the backstory to this defiantly feminist reimagining of Euripides' The Bacchae from Pochoda (Sing Her Down), broke 20-somethings Lena and Hedy were partying their way around the world when Lena met ruthless hotel developer Stavros. Seduced by his wealth, Lena "stumbled into a hasty marriage" that produced "asshole" son Drew and trapped her in a suffocating life of cloistered luxury. Lena assumes she's finally free when, 35 years later, Stavros dies on the dunes near Agape Villas, his under-construction resort on Naxos, Greece, but Drew takes over as CEO and family despot. Hedy has remained a firecracker, so a fun-starved Lena brings her along to the soft launch of Agape Villas. On Naxos, the duo is drawn to an encampment on the beach near the resort where women dance and drum with "ecstatic abandon." Disgusted and irate, Drew vows to evict the "feral" group, but unbeknownst to him, something ancient is at play. Pochoda's sun-drenched, blood-soaked literary fever dream pits hubris against hedonism, likens religion to rave culture, and explores the transformative power of female rage. Incandescent prose, present-tense narration, and frequent perspective shifts impart urgency, rendering the characters' passions palpable. It's a gleefully transgressive tour de force.
