Reviews with content warning for Suicide attempt - The Silence of the Girls

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.

Content Warnings

glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition

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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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kirareads02's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was a masterpiece. It was close to a five star if it wasn't for that secondary voice that has no name. That has just bothered me. <Spoiler> In my mind it is the voice of the Gods <Spoiler>. This is beautifully told by the women of the story and is a completely new view on a war story. It was heartbreaking and beautiful. It deals with all the complexity complexity womanhood, female friendships, bodily autonomy and consequences of war. I love how the narrator kept saying it wasn't her story she was just a part of it because this is a prominent issue of women always being a passive character in the story of a man and this is the only story I have ever found that acknowledges this.

I could write so much about this book and perhaps I will come back to this review and add more when I think of it. I am very excited to read the second book. I can't think where it would be picked up so I can't wait.

<Spoiler> Also, was there a little shade thrown on that last page about making this story a love story? <Spoiler>

Content Warnings

tuskany1066's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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elizabethchoi's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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lolavalls's review against another edition

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dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-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? Yes

5.0

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longhairzuko's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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? Yes

3.75

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lena_and_her_books's review against another edition

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This book is in my opinion not the female centered retelling of the trojan war, as wich it was marketed. It was just another book about men.

I can excuse bad characterization, but I draw the line at Achilles and Patroclus being cishet bros. To qoute the book: "(they) fell into bed and slept - as naked and sexless as two beans in a pod". Also they´re not characterized as friends more like Patroclus having developed stockholm syndrome and being unable to leave (to be fair the author says that their relationship is something deeper than love...whatever that means).

I mean all the characters where flat and boring (I can excuse the men being boring, bcs the book was written from a female perspective, but there is no excuse for the women being badly written). The only characterization that was on point was Achilles mommy issues.

The way slavery was talked about came across as very white and privileged.

Another thing that was really off-putting for me was the use of very modern words, that ruined the flow of the storyline for me a bit.

What I liked about this book was the way the author described the living conditions of the camp. I thought that was very well executed and very realistic.

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