Spy thrillers; political thrillers; techno-thrillers; "plain old" thrillers... now we have a bio-thriller, a detective novel (in the near future, so it's also sort of SF) that's a race to discover who destroyed an out-dated experiment in sociobiology and kidnapped its main critic. There is, of course, a secret or two to be discovered; what they are and who gets to them first is what moves things along. I enjoy speculative fiction and time travel. I loved the movie Groundhog Day and loved the premise of this book.

Clever, unusual and often amusing, this is a powerful exploration of one woman's attempt to find happiness against the odds' Daily Express What the Cassandra woman sees is something dark and painful that may not be apparent on the surface of things or that objective facts do not corroborate. She may envision a negative or unexpected outcome; or something which would be difficult to deal with; or a truth which others, especially authority figures, would not accept. In her frightened, ego-less state, the Cassandra woman may blurt out what she sees, perhaps with the unconscious hope that others might be able to make some sense of it. But to them her words sound meaningless, disconnected and blown out of all proportion. [7] Jean Shinoda Bolen [ edit ] The book begins with her getting fired from her job, getting dumped by her boyfriend, and her living situation with her roommates is pretty well destroyed. So far, it was reminding me very strongly of Penny Reid's Neanderthal Seeks Human just without the huge dose of humor. (One of my top favorite books, btw) Cassandra doesn't care much for her PR job in the first place, considering she just isn't a people person. However, nobody wants to be fired and lose their financial stability, so she is naturally distraught. Even more upsetting is her unexpected break-up with her lovely boyfriend Will of four months. She truly cares for Will, and was completely blindsided by his sudden extraction from their relationship. Will seemed to genuinely admire Cassandra's intelligence and wasn't put off by her differences. What seemed to be a breaking point for him was her issue with opening up to him about her feelings and sharing herself with him. No matter how many times he asked her to share what she was thinking and feeling, she didn't know how to give that to him. Premise: Cassandra is neurodivergent. The author portrays her as an annoying and anal character. She is dumped by her boyfriend and her job in the same day. Also, her flat mate situation has become untenable. So, let’s just say it is a very bad day for her.

People have applied the metaphor in a variety of contexts, such as psychology, environmentalism, politics, science, cinema, the corporate world, and philosophy; it has been in circulation since at least 1914, when Charles Oman used it in his book A History of the Peninsular War, Volume 5, published in 1914. "both of them agreed to treat the Cassandra-like prophecies which Thiebault kept sending from Salamanca as 'wild and whirling words.'" (The Oxford English Dictionary records use of "Cassandra like" from 1670 and of "Cassandra-like" from 1863. [1]) Later, in 1949, French philosopher Gaston Bachelard coined the term "Cassandra Complex" to refer to a belief that things could be known in advance. [2] Psychology [ edit ]

i’m supposed to see her pain, sweep forward, wrap my arms around her and tell her everything is going to be okay, but i don’t think i can physically do it.” this one means a lot to me because i also struggle with comforting people. it’s hard. Eisenstein, L., 'The Cassandra Complex', pp. 37–41 in Haring-Smith, T., New Monologues For Women By Women – Vol II (2005) I’ve just put this book down and I’m genuinely sad, angry and frustrated. This was possibly my most anticipated release of the year and it was a huge letdown.Cassandra is an absolutely brilliant character and I completely fell in love with her' READER REVIEW ***** Before reading this I really hoped this book would center Cassandra. I’ve read so many (romance) books featuring autistic characters at this point, where there’s always a midway point where the character either gets diagnosed or explains to others around her that she’s autistic. That this book set out with a very obviously autistic person (special interest, struggles with sensory input, gets meltdowns, communicates differently, takes things literally, struggles with certain foods) made me really happy initially, because I thought the focus would be about her living her live as an autistic woman. It would’ve been such a nice change from the other stories I’ve read so far! I thought we’d read about how she finds a job which suits her, about how she finds a friend who loves Greek myths just as much as she does, and generally speaking gets to live her best life. Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is not having a good day when she gets to work only to find the cherry on the rotten cake of the day is she’s being fired. Cassie doesn’t know what to think after starting the day off with a break up before it all spiraled out of control and being a creature of habit this is all just too much for her to handle. In the Cassandra Complex, a forensic scientist is woken up in the middle of the night to find masked intruders stealing everything they can from her desk and computer. They almost shoot her, and threaten her. They also reveal that her ex-boyfriend, a prominent scientist, has been kidnapped because he's kept a secret from her. Delamotte, D., Women Imagine Change: A Global Anthology of Women's Resistance From 600 B.C.E. p.86 (1997)

It's a very readable book. There's quite a lot of Greek myth references but they're interesting rather than distracting. Its not a re-telling by any stretch of the imagination. Its simply the story of a woman who has struggled to be heard, to fit in, to be accepted her whole life. But, part of liking a book, is liking its main character, and well, that wasn’t likely to happen for me.Aside from the storyline about her relationship and her getting her diagnosis, there’s a lot more this book covers. However I feel like this book tried to be too many things for it to work fully. I was confused by the time travel element. It appeared out of nowhere but then I got used to it - however the rules of the travel seemed to change and I was unsure where it was going in terms of the overall plot. Also, the constant reference to Greek mythology and storytelling was super random - it took a long time to understand why Cassandra kept bringing it up. It seemed to come together a bit more when the character of Artemis was introduced - but still it just didn't really work for me. It was shoe-horned in and I don't think it had any relevance to what was really going on. I am a fan of magical realism. I was so ready for the magic. But this magic was pushing me in directions that just didn’t feel fun.

What I loved most was the mysterious detour it leads Cassandra on—one with a surprising twist and a much bigger purpose than she intended. The utterly heartfelt, vulnerable moments along the way made my heart so full. The mystery woman, Diana, set the story on a whole new course that I was not expecting. After Cassandra's reconciliation with her, the storyline with Will is completely altered. At first, I was extremely annoyed. After all, wasn't this book partially a romance? Now it wasn't feeling like one so much. Then the more I thought about it, I came to the conclusion that maybe there was a reason she and Will keep having issues in every alternate reality she creates. As sweet as he is, perhaps they really are too different, and she was wrong about fate. She can keep altering it, but in the end, things will eventually realign in the way they were meant to go. Different journey, same results. So I adjusted my thinking about her new projected ending. This is all about her deciding not to time travel anymore because she finally accepts herself for who she is, differences and all. Except...she starts making mistakes again with Diana, time traveling again to fix it (after declaring that she won't anymore), and then deciding to contradict everything she claimed to have learned and start COMPLETELY over again. Lisa(the main character) also struggles with not being taken seriously as a 61 year old woman, and feels pressure to resign from her job. So the main themes are agism, high global population, and the feminist movement, all among a high speed pursuit to find the kidnapped scientist. Honestly the author is so wordy, I couldn't understand if he was making a point with all of this, or just introducing general concepts. I would have loved to read a dumbed down version for someone like me who can't concentrate for very long. Why should I care about getting answers as a reader when I don’t even care about the main protagonist?Self discovery and awareness become the byproduct for Cassandra as she tries to fix her responses to Will in their Cassie has never really fitted in. She remembers everything. Understands nothing. And consistently says the wrong thing.