Lost in the Labyrinth

by Patrice Kindl

Book Overview

Last night I saw my sister, who is dead. She stood at the end of a long corridor, weeping. "Can it really be you, Ariadne, come back after all this time?" I whispered. She did not answer, but began... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 061816684X
• ISBN13: 9780618166848
• Release Date: August 2002
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin
• Length: 194 Pages
• Weight: 0.80 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 5.9" x 8.6"
• Age Range: 10 to 12 years
• Grade Range: Grades 5 to 7

Customer Reviews

Lost in the Labyrinth

This is a book for a Christmas present for a teen age girl. I have not read it but she requested it. I was happy to find it for her.

I LOVE LOST IN THE LABYRINTH!

I picked this book out because i love Ancient greece! I loved it, it was well written, with interesting characters. In is about a girl named xenodice, Adrania, falls in love, which is hard on Xenodice, because who does she fall in love with? Theasus, of course, and he is trying to kill her brother, and she is loves her brother, Asterius, very much. When she discovers plots for his death,she is there to protect him in a minute. It is very sad, but i liked it a lot, i read it in one day!

Lost in the Labyrinth- a great read

Lost in the Labyrinth, by Patrice Kindl, is a great book I would recommend to 6th-8th graders. A little bit advanced and complicated, mixed with puzzles and mysteries, the main character Princess Xenodice discovers her family's deep secrets. This book is based on Greek myth about the Minotaur and Theseus. I would recommend this book to kids who would enjoy reading a historical fiction book of Ancient Greece and discover mysteries that lies beyond the labyrinth.

Somber and compelling

The epic adventures of Theseus have never been among my favorite Greek myths. They always seem so polarized, with a clear antagonist (the Minotaur, in this case) who, by the end of the story, is always neatly dispatched by the heroic Theseus. But that is the version told by Greek men. Lost in the Labyrinth is Xenodice's version. And who, you may well ask, is Xenodice? She is the third, unambitious, sometimes overlooked daughter of Queen Pasiphae and her consort King Minos of Crete; younger sister to haughty Ariadne (yes, *that* Ariadne); half sister to Asterius, better known as the Minotaur; friend to exiled Athenian craftsmen, Daedalus and his handsome son Icarus. In short, standing as she does at both the center and the circumference of a labyrinth of myths, close to the main actors but rarely one herself, she is in the perfect position to tell it like it really happened. All is not well in the labyrinthine palace of Knossos. Years ago, Queen Pasiphae's eldest son was killed. She blames his death upon Athenian treachery and King Minos's carelessness. In vengeance, she demands an annual tribute of fourteen Athenian youths; and to forever shame her husband, she conceives a monstrous son with the bull god. Their relationship, as you might imagine, never quite recovers. But it isn't until Theseus arrives among the latest shipment of Athenian youths and vows to dispatch the flesh eating Minotaur (who actually has no part of Minos in his parentage and is moreover strictly vegetarian) that old resentments give rise to new mutiny and increasing hostilities and plotting at court. Worse yet, Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and, in her determination to save him at any cost to herself or those around her, triggers a series of tumultuous events. Caught in between, a troubled Xenodice finds her own loyalties increasingly divided between those she loves and their private agendas. Patrice Kindl does an excellent job with the often tricky first person voice. Xenodice's narrative is direct, immediate, and compelling, and the many details of her world are mentioned unobtrusively, since they are ordinary to her, and the more effective because of it. Seeing the events from her eyes also brings the epic nature of her story down to a more human and intimate level. Characters, despite imposing names and famous (or infamous) fates, come across as believable people-- mothers, fathers, sisters, and friends-- with sympathetic motives. There are no heroes in her direct, unornamented narrative, and no true villains, either: Asterius is a simple creature, violent only when provoked, Theseus is a typical hero, carelessly leaving a trail of bodies and broken hearts behind him, though doing no intentional evil. Lost in the Labyrinth has much to recommend itself, but what I wanted was more-- even more detail about Xenodice's life in ancient Crete, and further acquaintance with the various characters, many of whom are seen only briefly. And be forewarned!