The design and UX isn't done, Rob and Abbie, okkurrrr! đ
kyliebliss's review against another edition
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
3.0
That being said, it is from the point of view of the girls given to the warriors as sex slaves after cities were taken over. So there are several rape scenes throughout the book. There is also a lot of strong language.
I probably wouldn't read again, but it was an extremely well written book and super interesting.
Graphic: Cursing and Rape
Moderate: War
yorozuya's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
It's the story of the Trojan War that we all know and have heard many times - but told from the female perspective this time: The Trojan women who were taken as slaves by the Greek.
The prose is overall beautiful and I paused just to admire how the words were arranged several times. There were also some expressions that took me by surprise in the context of this narrative, though perhaps the author wanted to show the coarser side of our more romanticised view on Ancient Greece.
Towards the middle/end, the book shifted to the male perspective a bit too much for my liking. I loved the insight into Achilles's mind (don't I always) and how the same scene could look from both his and Briseis's (the main narrator) point of view but despite the book's title I don't want these women's voices to be silenced.
Graphic: Grief, Slavery, Body horror, Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, War, Blood, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Rape
chloj_'s review
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
        !!spoilers ahead!!Â
- âhis idea of female beauty was a woman so fat if you slapped her backside in the morning she'd still be jiggling when you got back home for dinner.â damn me tooÂ
- âshe couldâve been kind to me and she wasnât; she couldâve helped me find my feet and she didnât.â
- âwhen i got to the door i paused with my hand on the latch and looked back, but sheâd already turned awayâÂ
- the main characterâs relationship with femininity is so cleverly written- both her relationship with other women, and with her own femalenessÂ
- âbut the dying man, his face wiped clean of pain, cradled his spilling intestines as gently as a mother nurses her newborn child.â
- ââitâll be alright,â i said, knowing it wouldnât.âÂ
- âhe fucked as quickly as he killed, and for me it was the same thing. something in me died that night.âÂ
- the emotions in this book are soooo beautiful doneÂ
- âthe bed was cold.â this one sentence is so incredibly powerfulÂ
- âno girl ever dressed more carefully for her wedding than achilles for the battlefieldâ
- âas long as i lived and remembered, [my brothers] werenât really dead.â
- the relationship between briseis and iphis is SO special- it is born entirely from shared tragedy and the kindness only women can share with each other.Â
- that depiction of wasteland at the end of 46/start of 47 is SUCH a beautiful depiction of the waste of female beauty (both physical and mental) at the hands of menÂ
- âthe world began to close in around me, and i realised that the songs belonged to my brothers and not meâÂ
- âi always remember that she wept for me when i couldnât weep for myselfâÂ
- the list format of the people Achilles killed / how they died is SO good- it really displays how the repeated trauma and war has made tragedy something clinical.
- âbefore leaving, he always bent down and kissed him in the mouth, though the lips had darkened and begun to retract.âÂ
- âWhy him? Why not me? He asks the questions over and over, as if one day they might have a different answer, and the burden of guilt be lifted at last.â
- achilles grief is written so beautifullyÂ
- âand i do what countless women before me had been forced to. i spread my legs for the man who killed my husband and brothers.âÂ
- ânow my own story can beginâ
Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Grief, Medical trauma, Blood, Physical abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Violence, and War
Moderate: Alcohol, Fatphobia, Body shaming, Cursing, and Pedophilia
megamusic14's review against another edition
3.25
Graphic: Rape, Violence, Child death, Cursing, Gore, Sexual assault, and Blood
nialiversuch's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Body horror, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Kidnapping, Slavery, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Suicide, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship
Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, and Vomit
franzeerdbeerbacke's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Infertility, Mental illness, War, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, Death, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racial slurs, Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, Deportation, Genocide, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Sexual assault, Rape, Slavery, Torture, and Toxic relationship
withlivjones's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
I tried and failed to read this book twice before finally getting through it. It is a very slow-paced book that only really picks up in the second half. What really threw me off, however, is that while this book is marketed as being narrated by Briseis, there are many chapters (starting from about a third of the way in and gradually getting more frequent) where the point of view suddenly shifts to some of the men - most often Achilles, but also at points Patroclus and Priam. While this does provide an interesting perspective of the war, since few writers have dared to examine the depths of Achillesâ psyche in such detail, it was really not what I was expecting from a book that wanted to tell a more female-focused version of the myth. The dilemma is this: women are notoriously silent in Greek mythology and hardly ever have the freedom to tell their own story, so why, then, in a novel where Briseis is presented as reclaiming her own narrative, is a male perspective inserting itself into said narrative just like they have done for the last two thousand years?Â
The novel is still very enjoyable and well-written, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Greek mythology, but I canât help feeling a little disappointed that I seemed to be reading a different book to the one that was advertised.Â
Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, War, Animal death, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Cannibalism, Cursing, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Vomit
Period-typical attitudescondygurl's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
This is a story of the war between the Greeks and Troy due to Helen. Helen plays a very minor role in the story.
The story is from the perspective of a captured woman who once was going to be Queen, but instead becomes the slave to the most fierce warrior of all time.
The only part I was truly upset about is the author silencing the girls. The beginning starts out very strong, but then we switch POV, and poof, out goes the female voice, and in comes the crazy male voice. It also got a bit repetitive in the camp, but I guess that is par for the course because how different is daily living from day to day when you are a slave?
Very good story but I think it could have been better if the author stuck with one pov.
Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Violence, Sexism, Pregnancy, Murder, Bullying, Blood, Grief, Sexual assault, Cursing, Child death, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, and Death
sapphicpenguin's review against another edition
4.0
I didn't like some of the punctuation/format choices, and especially at the beginning a lot of the language felt cliche. After every mediocre sentence, though, was a paragraph that blew me away, so I couldn't dislike the writing.Â
My main issue was how much of the bookâa first-person POV book, too!âdidn't center Briseis. This book is from her perspective, marketed itself on being her storyâand yet multiple chapters don't include her. It felt like the author just felt we would be too bored without some of Achilles's story as wellâbut doesn't that defeat the point? Of course that's the issue you run intoâall the exciting bits of the Iliad happen with zero women present, that's the challenge of a retelling centering women. It just didn't feel like the author completely overcame the urge to just write a story about Achilles and Patroclus.
Graphic: Sexual violence, Gore, Blood, Cursing, Murder, Alcohol, Excrement, Physical abuse, War, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Animal death, Child death, Grief, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Vomit, Suicide, Pregnancy, and Self harm
Minor: Cannibalism, Infertility, and Miscarriage
The worst/most violent of the sexual assault is skipped over, but it is very present. The aftermath is discussed.emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Deportation, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Misogyny, Blood, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Torture, Violence, War, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse
Minor: Cannibalism