Book Review: Ithaca by Claire North

Book Title: Ithaca
Author: Claire North
Genre: Historical fantasy, ancient retelling
Published: September 6, 2022 by Orbit
400 pages
My rating: 4/5

The Trojan War has been over for a decade, but the king of Ithaca, Odysseus, is yet to return home and is presumed dead. In his absence, his wife Penelope juggles to fill the power vacuum and protect her son, Telemachus, a sulky teenager who doesn’t know how to be a man. A hall full of suitors are vying for her hand and the throne, eating and drinking all of Penelope’s and Ithaca’s wealth, while pirates attack the island every full moon. Ithaca is at the mercy of other Greek city-states, and Penelope is drawn into a difficult balancing act where she has to choose between saving her cousin Clytemnestra, or helping the future king of Mycenae, Orestes.

Ithaca requires prior knowledge of the Trojan War and the events that followed – Odysseus’s wanderings, Ithaca’s situation without his rule, and what happened to the leader of the Greek army Agamemnon after he returned home. Otherwise, I’m not sure how easy this book is to follow, even though the book comes with a helpful list of characters. So if your knowledge of ancient Greek myths has gotten rusty, be sure to brush it up before reading this book.

This is a fascinating feminist retelling exploring the themes of how women can (and cannot) yield power in a male-dominated world. The story is narrated by Hera, the queen of gods and the goddess of queens. Hera is a snarky and sassy narrator who despises people, critiques poets who sing of heroes, and ridicules men and other gods.

Being an omniscient goddess detached from human experience, Hera knows everyone’s thoughts, everything that happens and has happened and probably some of the things that will happen, and this is reflected in the narrative. The narration switches from third person omniscient to third person limited to second person and first-person narration. The tense flutters between present and past tenses.

While I find the narratorial style an interesting literary device, it has its drawbacks. As a result, I felt detached from the characters and didn’t connect to anyone. That is unfortunate, as the characters, especially the Greek queens, are fascinating. The book hosts several complex female characters, but that complexity would have shined through clearer with less a detached narrator.

I started reading this book expecting it to be Penelope’s story, but that’s not really the case. Penelope is as two-dimensional as any of the characters and doesn’t change during the story – at most, she simply reveals facets of herself that she has kept hidden. If anything, this is Hera’s story. She’s the character that goes through any meaningful change (as much as is possible to a divine being) as she understands the merits of Penelope’s more quiet approach in contrast to Clytemnestra’s more brash handling of government.

This was not a fast-paced, action-packed read. I don’t necessarily find slow pacing a bad thing, but the writing style made the book a very slow read and at times I admit I was a bit bored with Hera’s constant digressions and flowery descriptions. For the most part, however, I found this book an enjoyable read.

In conclusion, if you love ancient retellings told from a feminist point-of-view and don’t mind a slower pace and bit of flowery prose, this book might be for you. I didn’t realize when I started reading that Ithaca was a first book in a series. This book works well as a standalone, but I will definitely pick up the next book in the series, The House of Odysseus.