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condygurl'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: Bullying, Child death, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy
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.
My main issue was how much of the book—a first-person POV book, too!—didn't center Briseis. This book is from her perspective, marketed itself on being her story—and 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 well—but doesn't that defeat the point? Of course that's the issue you run into—all 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: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War
Moderate: Self harm, Suicide, Vomit, and Pregnancy
Minor: Infertility, Miscarriage, and Cannibalism
The worst/most violent of the sexual assault is skipped over, but it is very present. The aftermath is discussed.emilyandthewhippet's review
- 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: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Deportation
Minor: Cannibalism
kt2e56's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
1.0
But holy SHIT what an abysmal execution.
First of all: there’s the obnoxious overuse of very modern phrases and concepts (I mean modern as in there’s no way someone in Ancient Troy would even know what this MEANS let alone say it) which kept taking me out of the story. The author also straight up has no idea how to write dialogue. Each character sounds the same. They all speak the same. Exactly the same. And there’s ZERO consistency. A character will go from speaking fairly normally one chapter to speaking like a British chav the next (no joke. “Me mam bloody well told him to sod off, the wanker.” That’s the level of bizarre random, nonsensical dialect the reader is subjected to. It makes ZERO sense and comes and goes in such an alarming rate) then back to normal a sentence later. It’s insanity.
Most egregiously though, halfway through the book Barker decides to abandon the purpose. It’s no longer the Iliad from Breises’ point of view and told in her voice (granted her voice sounds like everyone else’s but still) but now we’re being subjected to jarring chapters told in third person all about Achilles and events that Breises wasn’t even around for. So the author essentially took back the idea that made this so interesting in the first place by tossing Breises aside and making this all about Achilles and his mommy issues.
Like I truly don’t know what editor approved this. This genuinely felt like I was reading an outline let alone an actual published novel. And a novel that people are apparently fawning over and think is really good and ~feminist~!? I’m just astounded by the praise this mess of a book has received. The one good thing honestly was Achilles being portrayed as a petulant toddler obsessed with breast-feeding a la Homelander in The Boys. That’s it. I hate comparing books but honestly just read Madeline Miller’s “Song of Achilles” even THAT is much more graceful and lyrical and does an infinitely better job of fleshing out Breises (AND SHE IS ONLY A SIDE CHARACTER!!! SHE ISN’T THE CHARACTER TELLING THE STORY!!!) than this drivel did. Both SOA and Circe were so well done and beautifully written that they felt like myths in and of themselves. This is just bizarre.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Blood, Excrement, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Animal death, Cursing, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, and Pregnancy
introverted_reads'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? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Religious bigotry, and War
Moderate: Cursing, Rape, Sexism, Suicide, Death of parent, and Pregnancy
Minor: Animal death and Excrement
velokei'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? Yes
3.25
I like it in the way you like an ugly but healthy puppy, is it ugly? Yes, but it’s still living and breathing and you end up developing an attachment to it anyway. I could barely put it down, but at the same time I really wanted to put it down.
Briseis (our main character) is boring and just bland. I don’t like her and that should not be the case! In a book supposedly meant to be centred around women, why is there only one woman’s pov but two mens? And why are both the men far more interesting than the woman? Pat if you wanted to write specifically just about Patroclus and Achilles, that’s okay! My favourite parts of the book involved just the two of them.
I also don’t get why the last line is ‘Now, my own story can begin’ if the books whole point was supposed to be the story of Briseis, and I didn’t like the changes to the myth including who she marries and
Tldr
Loved Patrochilles moments
Hated Briseis she was boring
Didn’t like the changes to the myth
This didn’t feel very feminist
Graphic: Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Genocide, Gore, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Vomit, Medical trauma, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
bectothebooks's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Cursing, Gore, Sexual content, Medical content, and Pregnancy
Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, Infertility, Suicide, Vomit, and Fire/Fire injury
kredeprnz's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War
Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Body shaming, Infertility, and Miscarriage
shannasbooksnhooks's review against another edition
- 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? No
3.0
"Once, not so long ago, I tried to walk out of Achilles's story - and failed. Now, my own story can begin."
I wouldn't have considered my hopes "high" for this book, but I had been looking forward to reading it for close to 4 years now. As a result, while I can't say that I was "disappointed" in this book, it didn't hit the mark for me. I think this is a very unique retelling of The Iliad, which is why I would highly recommend this as a read (even more so if you enjoyed The Song of Achilles). The retelling of The Iliad through Briseis's eyes makes this a great book in its own right. However, for me (as mentioned), it fell short. It was character-driven and slow-paced for me, and I was wishing there was more action because of the source material. Something else that bothered me was that the dialogue felt too "21st-century-esque" for me and had too many uses of "fuck." I'm not saying the characters should have talked in the typical way Ancient Greeks are depicted in pop culture, and I'm not saying they should have had more "proper" sounding language (whatever that would mean). However, I feel like it was too much of the way we talk today with the language Barker had characters use rather than having them talking less like us. (I guess I wanted it to mirror the language of <i>The Iliad</i> a bit more while getting a woman's POV.) Additionally, The Silence of the Girls seems to come off as a feminist retelling of The Iliad, and it is so great we get a woman's POV of this story. And since it's a retelling of such an old story, Barker could have taken some creative license with Briseis' character, especially due to how limited her character was in the source material. However, it just felt like it was labeled as "feminist" when Briseis does little to actually advocate for herself or the other women. (And a lot of the women end up gossiping, which didn't sit well with me.)
This had the potential to be a fantastic read for me, but it was a bit too lackluster for me.
Graphic: Cursing, Death, Sexual content, Violence, Kidnapping, and War
Moderate: Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and Pregnancy
This part's a spoiler-y comment in addition to what I mentioned earlier about action.glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Excrement, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail