I haven’t read many Greek mythology retellings, but the ones I have read so far, I’ve really enjoyed. Namely, Madeline Miller’s Circe and The Song of Achilles. I came across Atlanta, by Jennifer Saint, at a book sale recently, and figured it would be in a similar vein.
Warning: I’m going to spoil most of the book’s plot points in this review. It’s a 2000+ year old myth, and the book doesn’t really change any of the main story beats.
The titular Atalanta was abandoned on a mountain by her father, a king, when she was a baby, purely because she wasn’t born a boy. Taken care of at first by a bear mother, then adopted by Artemis, goddess of the hunt. When she grows up, Artemis sends her to join Jason’s quest for a really shiny blanket, becoming the only female argonaut (at least until Medea shows up).
The main problem I had with this is that I actively disliked Atalanta as a character. She constantly does dumb shit and then is surprised at the consequences of her actions. I never really got a sense of who she really was and what she wanted, because she is constantly changing her mind. Artemis tells her that she’ll be banished from her forest if she has sex with a man, so she goes and fucks a married man (the only argonaut who’s sort-of nice to her) that she doesn’t even seem to like that much. She’s then surprised when, at the conclusion of the quest, Artemis doesn’t let a pregnant Atalanta back into the fold. She says she wants nothing to do with the father that abandoned her but then lets him hold a contest for her hand in marriage. She’s constantly told that if she marries, it will be the end of her, so of course she gets married. Then turned into a lion for disrespectfully having sex with her new husband in an area sacred to the titan Rhea.
The book makes the point that, were she a man, she wouldn’t face the same criticisms. That she’d be able to fight who she wanted and get glorious songs sung about her. That she’d be able to fuck who she wanted and leave a trail of abandoned children in her wake. While this is true, “hey women can be as shitty as men sometimes” didn’t really make for a character I wanted to follow.