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Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Pandora by Susan Stokes-Chapman

5 reviews

ghostsversion's review

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dark funny sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

When I first bought this, I thought it was going to be one of those classic myth retellings where the author decides to write about the forgotten characters in the original. However this book was only loosely based on the original by naming the main character Pandora and involving a pithos that may or may not have been cursed. Honestly the book was fine but it just didn’t have any one part that made me go „damn“ in a good way.
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annakh16's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I seem to be on the wrong end of a 60/40 divide here - this book was so fun?! 

The writing was fluid with very likeable characters. I thought the shifts in POV benefited the pacing of the story, whilst also showing the reader around many parts of Georgian London. This, together with the many quirks and trades of everybody (jewellery, bookbinding, antiquity, soirées etc etc.) as well as the overall mystery plot, kept me hooked. The romance was also cute, but not overdone in my opinion. 

I agree that the Pandora myth/ancient Greek inspiration itself was perhaps a bit underexplored, but overall I think placing everything in a different time period was refreshing and original. The ending was also a bit rushed for me - an epilogue would’ve been nice. 

Finally, I was somewhat disappointed by the uncritical treatment of antiquity trading and the wider colonial context. Reading Babel at the same time, the contrast is honestly stark. The story did include references to other inequalities
(e.g. through the Coombe brothers, Lottie or Ashmole)
, so this was a shame.

Overall though, this was a quick and entertaining read and I‘m looking forward to seeing more of this author! 
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bookishwondergoth's review against another edition

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mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

This was a nice, easy to read  historical fiction novel inspired by the Greek myth of Pandora’s Box. Both the story and the prose are nothing spectacular but I still had a fun time. It also has one of the most truly hateable out and out villains I’ve read in a while.

For a book so focused around the black market trade of antiquities, I was a bit disappointed that the role of the British Empire in plundering Greece artifacts was never really raised. There was very little nuance in relation to this subject which threw me out of the book a bit. I think it would have been a more interesting read to have that kind of topic included.

I really enjoyed the side characters (Lady Latimer being a particular favourite).

Overall glad I read this. Recommended to those looking for a nicely paced, ambiguously supernatural historical mystery.
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bubblegirl858's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Overall, a really well written story and a great twist on the Pandora story. I really enjoyed reading it and would probably read it again. The characters are a range of boring, interesting, valiant and villainous, as well as selfish and selfless which balances the book really well. I will say if you are squeamish at all about injuries and descriptions of that sort to steer clear of this book. Hermes was my favorite character.
The entire time whenever Edward interacted with Cornelius I literally screamed out "He is in love with you, you moron!" because it was painfully obvious to everyone except the literal straight white man which was both hilarious and heartbreaking. Speaking of heartbreaking, Hermes' being killed was the absolute worst thing I had to read, and I was so upset. I will never recover.
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allapaz's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Plot
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No

4.25

wow solid atmospheric spooky historical thrilling mayhem madness, I thoroughly enjoyed the jaunt through Georgian London, lest the actually repulsive bits (though beautifully written!)
also, pour one out for our feathered friend Hermes
A solid read, a cool historical take on the mythic retellings move
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