Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

49 reviews

arieloley's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

The women affected by the Trojan war span so many ages, classes, statuses, and Haynes did an incredible job of including as many as possible. It was so refreshing to hear the classic story from a forgotten point of view, and made choosing allegiance to one or the other side a much more difficult task than it had ever seemed before. 

Some pieces of Haynes’ writing seemed juvenile, disappointing when considering her long career. This was only a slight hinderance, and most of the book was compelling. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Deadnaming, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Vomit and Cannibalism

aenor's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Grief, Murder, and War

adiloretto's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

“… this is the women’s war, just as much as it is the men’s, and the poet will look upon their pain – the pain of the women who have always been relegated to the edges of the story, victims of men, survivors of men, slaves of men – and he will tell it, or he will tell nothing at all. They have waited long enough for their turn.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, and Fire/Fire injury

kate_arts's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes

5.0

Damn. This book was really hard for me to pick up, but once I did I loved it. Natalie Haynes said that she set out to write an epic and I think she succeeded handily. This book is full of emotion in the best way possible. And I think it does an amazing job giving women from one of the most popular stories of all time such dimension and intrigue that they lack in their source material. I also think that, even though each individual story was different in its subject matter, they were all so relatable in their grief and humor. I also couldn’t help thinking of Gaza and the current socio-political landscape of America right now. The idea that these “great” men make these over arching decisions that affect women and POC is one that I really resonated with. I also really resonated with the idea that little people can be important me hero’s in their own right and just because the world maybe doesn’t want to hear a story doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s unworthy of being told. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Genocide, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, and Pregnancy

not_another_ana's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad 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? It's complicated

1.25

When a war was ended, the men lost their lives. But the women lost everything else.

Once all fighting has stopped, what happens to the women? The survivors, the wives, the sisters, the daughters, the fighters. Natalie Hynes takes the Iliad as a starting point to explore the lives of these women and the complicated and complex feelings they experience due to their fates. We get to observe the women of Troy deal with their grief after the fall of the city and their anxiousness at their unknown future, Penelope during her long wait for Odysseus and all the bitter feelings this inspires, even the goddesses make an appearance in here. Yet, with every single point of view I encountered, I still didn't feel a thing.

I think this book stretched itself too thin trying to include as many women as possible to back up its central thesis and reason of being, in an effort to cause a greater emotional impact it actually managed to do the opposite. With such a high quantity of characters, it's difficult to create interest in them or to give all the women a particular voice. On top of that you have diverse style, prose, and tone in each chapter, and a non linear narrative which muddles everything further. My experience was closer to reading vignettes than an actual fully realized book, a reference manual in a way.

My main gripe with this book is that it didn't feel like Hynes was saying anything new. In this day and age, it seems like every day there's a new "feminist" retelling of Greek myths and stories, the market is saturated enough that you need something to make you stand out and here it lacked anything distinct. I was especially bothered by the character of Calliope, clearly an author avatar, whose sole existence was to be a mouthpiece for Hynes and to go "get it?" hint hint at the reader. Yes, I actually got it from the very summary, I don't need to be led like a blind horse. For a story about women, I thought it revolved too much about the men, and yes it would be impossible to tell these stories without their influence, but perhaps the author could have focused more on the emotionality of these characters in the face of their individual situations. There was just this general sense of resignation permeating the book that made me disengage from the very beginning. Tragedy for tragedy's sake.

Some miscellaneous complaints over here. First I found the lack of Helen baffling. I could even understand the bashing from the other characters in the book, I too would be mad at her for the part she played in the conflict whether it was logical to blame only her or not, but the author not giving her a space to speak and tell her story when she is one of the pillars of the Iliad was odd. Made me think all the Helen bashing was serious and not a narrative choice by the author. I already mentioned Calliope as the author's mouthpiece, but I would also like to add that she sounded like she knew what an iPhone was and it got on my nerves. Then there was Penelope retelling the whole plot of the Odyssey to her husband... Odysseus himself, which struck me as lazy even with all the quips and petty dialog from her. The last chapter from her point of view frustrated me because it was way more interesting than all the past ones and showed the squandered promise of this book.

Maybe the feminist retelling was the friends we made along the way.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Rape

catievalentino's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional inspiring reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Mental illness, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Murder, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

thewillowwood's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

Incredible. Beautifully written, the audiobook was wonderful, first audiobook i’ve been able to complete with ease. A must read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and Sexual harassment

listen, if you’ve read the iliad, similar topics and triggers apply.

averyb35's review

dark emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.75

Read for Marks's Heroes of Troy Class, reread to finish the chapters.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, and Injury/Injury detail

oksanana31's review

challenging emotional reflective sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, and Grief

Moderate: Child death, Mental illness, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

garnethalo's review

dark emotional tense medium-paced

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

5.0

While I wanted to give it a 4.75, I realized I only didn't want to give it 5 because I couldn't place blame. Unlike in Stone Blind, where I could blame Athene or Perseus, I could blame no one in A Thousand Ships. And even then the book tried to place the blame, on Helen, on Paris, Aphrodite, Eris, Thetis, Zeus. But no one can take sole blame. And this books makes you face the sorrow of the women. Without a clear cut villian. It filled it's purpose beautifully and forced the reader to stare at the victims of war, with no one at fault.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Infidelity

Minor: Animal death, Gore, Miscarriage, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Vomit, Abortion, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism

It a story about the women affected by the Trojan war. Both Greeks, Trojans, and women nearby Troy. Greek tragedy even sadder when you consider the women. You have been warned.