Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

267 reviews

3arth2kaye's review against another edition

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

ewwa18's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Grief, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Sexual content, Alcohol, and Pandemic/Epidemic

rbadz's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, and War

Moderate: Child death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Medical content, Sexual harassment, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Pregnancy

halftimelord's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

This was a tough book to read, and the brutality throughout meant I ended up not really caring about Achilles or any similar characters, which I don't think was what the book intended! 

In terms of this as a retelling of The Illiad, I think I would have liked the book more if I'd read The Illiad more recently. It felt like I was missing out on a lot of references and story telling. 

I'd be interested in reading other books by Barker but this missed the mark for me a bit unfortunately. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

thalassaio's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty

v0lha16's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

naoml's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This is masterful. This is a beautiful critic of what voices are deemed important. How are people remembered? Who gets to tell the stories? Is it even possible to know a full truth?

The story follows the myth of Achilles but for once not through his eyes or the eyes of someone who adores him. We see that "heroism" is sometimes simply violence, depending on the lens you are viewing it through. However, this also gives us the nuance of sometimes evil doesn't always look that way, and even worse: not everything and evil person does is bad. Humanity is more complex than that, and you own no one forgiveness based on a single action or moment.

I can't fully put into words my thoughts and feelings on it, but I do know that it is incredible. The story will keep permeating my thoughts for a long time to come. 

**please read the trigger warnings

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Alcohol, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Confinement, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

carmonicat's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Gore, Hate crime, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ciaravirk's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

tlohroff's review against another edition

dark tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.75

I liked the style that this book was written in and the idea of writing from the perspectives of Achilles and Breseis. Although, the general plot line of this book was a lot slower than the Song of Achilles considering some of the stories about the Trojan War and Achilles in general, so I can’t give it as high of a rating. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder and War

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault