The Children of Jocasta - Natalie Haynes

 

I was so excited when I saw this book in Waterstones as I absolutely loved Haynes’ first novel, A Thousand Ships, when I read it last year. Basically, anything Greek-myth related is a winner with me - I feel like that’s a pretty common opinion! The Children of Jocasta follows a dual narrative format, with a third-person narrative focusing on Jocasta for half of the book and the first-person narration of Isy for the other half - with each intertwined chapter by chapter.

This is personally a style which I highly enjoy as I like hearing the alternating voices of two protagonists, which ultimately weave together towards the end of the book. It definitely brings pace and dynamic to a novel, in my opinion. At first, we are left pretty uncertain as to how these characters are related (if you aren’t overly familiar with the Oedipus story then Haynes keeps it rather vague), and it was fun trying to piece together how the stories were linked.

Our main character Jocasta is married off to an old king at the age of fifteen who is terrified of having a son as a prophecy has foretold that he will be killed by his son. Because of this, when her first child (a boy) is proclaimed stillborn, Jocasta enters a long period of mourning for many years, until after the king’s death. When she becomes queen, a handsome stranger, Oedipus, who is much younger than her, wins her over with his charm and she starts trying for a family again.

If you know the tale of Oedipus then you’ll be able to see where this is going! This is a thrilling and plot-driven novel which is decorative in language and well-developed in its characterisation. I preferred this to A Thousand Ships as it focused on one overarching story as opposed to multiple. Overall - I loved this book!