Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

46 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

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

baobaebye's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Trafficking, Grief, Medical trauma, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

indigoimpulse's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

i actually really liked the fact that briseis wasn’t a perfect character and that she’s so judgemental of others around her, men and women alike - i feel like given her circumstances you can’t exactly expect her to act like a saint . her narration was very raw which i found gave her personality .

however the book promised me a story from briseis’ pov so i didn’t really appreciate so much of the book being taken up by achilles’ pov - this author writes grief excellently so his sections were great but it kind of took away from the fact that this was supposed to be briseis’ story . i don’t really think you can call this a feminist novel but i enjoyed it nonetheless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lapistea's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

quinnisabel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

3.5

heartbroken by gay boys once again

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Child death and Rape

Minor: Animal death

esterohman's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

3.0

This was a quick and easy read, although not my favorite Greek mythology inspired novel. I liked the focus on female perspective, and it was interesting seeing the missing viewpoint in the original stories. However, it just wasn’t that exciting to read. I think that it’s just my own perspective and not the fault of the book however. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Chronic illness, Death, Domestic abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Vomit

irisreads1996's review against another edition

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? It's complicated

3.75

A retelling of the Greek myth of the battle of Troy but told through the eyes of Briseis. Really interesting to read a Greek tale from a woman’s perspective. Barker made some nice stylistic choices like writing chapters from Briseis’ POV in past tense while writing chapters focusing on Achilles or other men in the story in present tense. This made it really easy to differentiate whose view you were in without writing any names at the beginning of the chapters. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death and War

Minor: Body horror, Domestic abuse, and Violence

lautlines's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative sad tense slow-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

3.0

I wanted less Achillies more Briesis/women…. since it’s called silence of the GIRLS but that’s just me. Still was interesting I just wanted less men but obviously with war men always gonna be there. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Rape, Slavery, Blood, Medical trauma, Murder, and War

friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition

this is very good quality stuff, but too much for me 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infertility, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, and War