IPHIGENIA

Myth Retold #1

by J. Kiakas, Tasha Mukanik (Illustrator)

A princess, a priestess, a human sacrifice. Iphigenia is not the only woman to come upon such troubles in her mythology, but perhaps one of the lucky women to find favour at the hands of her patron goddess who gifts her the chance at a new life, free of restriction.

Genres: Retellings

78 pages, Paperback

Published September 1, 2020

Reviews

[Claudia · Rating 4 out of 5]

As a member of the target audience, I enjoyed it for what it was - a super short love story.

It did have that Wattpad fanfic feel to it, but mostly just because Iphigenia’s story was changed so drastically.

There wasn’t much overall plot, but in a book so short, I don’t think that a deep, intricate plot was an expectation I had going in.

The art was cute. I enjoy the “doodle-y” style.

I’m giving it a 3.5/5. It was good and short and I enjoyed it!

[Serena · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ordered from Etsy. A lovely short story on Iphigenia, becoming priestess to Artemis, after her father intended to kill her to gain the wind for his war ships. Page 21 repeats in this copy. The art is lovely and I hope to see more from the author (J. Kiakas) and artist (T. Mukanik) in the future.

[splendour hyaline · Rating 3 out of 5]

For days, she is not sure exactly how many, Iphigenia is shown fabrics. She is pulled at, tugged at, and ushered about for fittings and flower pickings. She is decorated and adorned with bright gems and gold. Adjustments are made and despite the work being done in her honour, all she can think about is how her spilled blood will ruin everything.

How it will cover everything.

this was cute! i really liked the interrogation of womanhood and its place in ancient greece, and the sequence with the hind was quite sweet. there were also some genuinely beautiful gems of sentences in here. one thing i would have really liked to see, i think, was more of a development between artemis and iphigenia - it seemed a little like they were strangers giving one another the silent treatment, and then suddenly couldn't deny their mutual attraction. i do understand that there's only so much you can convey in a short story, but even a latent attraction between them could have been depicted with a little more nuance to help readers feel increasingly invested. the thread at the end with artemis creating a realm immune to time also felt somewhat out of place to me, as if it was just so that the troy conversation could happen seamlessly.

there were some strange sentence compositions and a few grammatical errors that pulled me out of the story, but as someone who doesn't know all that much about the original myth of iphigenia, i enjoyed it overall.

[Claudine · Rating 2 out of 5]

The first part of it was pretty good, nothing really revolutionary. Wasn’t a fan of the second part where Iphigenia talks to and treats Artemis like she would a friend when in fact she has a goddess in front of her.
The illustrations, while nice, didn’t add much, if anything, to the story, & I could’ve done without them.

[Emily · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really love the cover for this short story, so I had high hopes but ended up let down. The characters are rather flat and there are a couple of typos, as well as many grammatical errors, which were distracting. The illustrations were ok but maybe too simplistic to add much to the story.

[Roxanne Nelson · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very nice relationship build-up between human and goddess, that builds very well upon the original myth.

[Julia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a nice short read with beautiful visual writing. Looking forward to reading more by this author.