Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

17 reviews

risaleel's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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: Blood, Slavery, Sexual harassment, War, Child death, Violence, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit

annasbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Excrement, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

francamill's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No

5.0

This book was so sad, so heart-breaking and so needed. It was the first book I went all out in annotating and I'm so glad I did. 

I do not recommend this book to anyone who just read The Song of Achilles, though. You will hate Achilles. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Genocide, Child death, Death, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual assault, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Grief, Gore, Murder, Rape, War, and Sexual violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Suicide attempt

franzeerdbeerbacke's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-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

4.5

This book needs a trigger warning.

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Content Warnings

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

rosereadsalot's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Suicide, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Suicide attempt, Suicidal thoughts, War, Violence, and Trafficking

queen_of_the_rats's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Body horror, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, War, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, Animal death, Blood, Death, Torture, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

michellewalsh's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Death, Gore, Kidnapping, Rape, Child death, Animal death, Blood, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, War, Suicide attempt, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Body horror, Physical abuse, and Grief

mneex05's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective medium-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? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Suicide attempt

shannasbookshelf's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? No

3.0

Note: This is one of my longer reviews, if not my longest one, because there was so much potential for this to be a 4+ star rating for me. And there's a lot I want to place into this review.
"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.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, War, Cursing, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Self harm

This part's a spoiler-y comment in addition to what I mentioned earlier about action.

I think the dynamic between Achilles and Agamemnon was the only real "action" you get in direct relation to Briseis. Everything else action-related is happening apart from Briseis (and I'm not talking about just the fighting - any action is almost separate from her.

magmck's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.75

The title of the book is contradictory in that only the first part of the book is from Briseis’ perspective. The second and third parts rotate between Achilles’ POV, Briseis’ POV and like a third person narrator? Idk it took away from the story a little bit for me because it was literally a silencing of the girls. Not sure if that was intentional. I understand why we got heavily into Achilles’ perspective once Patroclus died, but the story was supposed to be about Briseis’ experience so the story lost its structure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt