Reviews tagging 'War'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

331 reviews

clemireads's review against another edition

emotional informative slow-paced

• 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Child death, Death, Blood, Grief, and Pregnancy

marmoo's review against another edition

dark medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Loveable characters? No

3.0

There’s no shortage of literary projects that set out to dig out the female collateral buried in foundational male epics, though not all of them assemble those excavated remains with equal skill. While it remains an interesting project for holding up a mirror to our modern gender norms—and perhaps tracing some of them back to the source—this addition to the canon of canon-critical feminist retellings never fully cohered for me.

I’m intrigued by Pat Barker’s effort to give voice to the unsung victims of the Trojan war, I just wish that voice was a wee bit more distinctive. For all that the novel centers the unlucky Briseis, it doesn’t give her a whole lot of depth.

One never gets the sense that Briseis is a woman from a different time and worldview, which is generally my yardstick for success in historical—or historical-ish—fiction. The insertion of slang vernacular (“Cheers, lads,” quoth Achilles on his first up-close appearance) seems intended to recontextualize the mythic violence as something more familiar, but it had a jarring effect.

Likely that’s by design, foregrounding the continuity of female suffering during men’s wars down through the ages, but it has the unfortunate effect of once again pulling focus from the titular women and back again to Achilles. Unlike Briseis’s bland first-person narration, the third person shift in his section draws us into an unsettling and (sorry!) more interesting world, a world governed by deadly notions of honor and the whims of the gods. 

Still, despite the sometimes underwhelming prose, Pat Barker effectively wields the brutality of her chosen setting to jostle readers out of our familiar reactions to a familiar story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Slavery, and War

submerge's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, and War

_rowantree_'s review

dark emotional slow-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

This is a perspective that is definitely missing from most of our stories, and it was written in a very nuanced way. That said, for some reason I felt a bit detached from the characters. For me, this book works better as a prompt for discussion rather than to take the reader into the experiences the characters are going through. This book very deliberately tells the story of the Iliad through a female narrator, but I think I would have got more out of it if it had been her story rather than Achilles’.

This book is unsurprisingly very violent and sexual violence plays a big role, but I did appreciate that it never felt like a gratuitous portrayal of rape

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, and War

whoisshelby's review

dark inspiring reflective

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery and War

Moderate: Rape

tetedump's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Vomit, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

gottheblues's review against another edition

reflective sad 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? No

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, and War

drj's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective slow-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Kidnapping, Murder, and War

Moderate: Gore, Suicide, Torture, Vomit, Medical trauma, Pregnancy, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Confinement, Blood, and Alcohol

natmorrall's review against another edition

dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Slavery, Violence, and War

rasha_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

A very well written retelling of a part of The Iliad from the perspective of Briseis - the woman whose presence almost derailed the Greek alliance.

Pat Barker does a wonderful job of showing the horrors of war and the price that, ultimately, is paid for by women. It is ultimately a story of survival and of reclaiming Briseis’ important part of the narrative.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Sexual content