Reviews tagging 'Animal death'

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

47 reviews

arieloley's review

Go to review page

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. 

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

bellebeaumont95's review against another edition

Go to review page

2.75


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

not_another_ana's review against another edition

Go to review page

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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

garnethalo's review

Go to review page

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.

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

emiandem's review

Go to review page

challenging dark inspiring reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

savage_book_review's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging emotional funny informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? N/A
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

The heroes of the Trojan War are legend... Achillies and Patroclus, Agamemnon, Odysseyus, Priam, Paris, Hector, Ajax... the list goes on. But aren't the women of the Trojan War just as heroic in their own way? Those that survived, only to be forced into slavery? Those that lost their husbands, brothers and sons and had to keep going regardless? This novel explores their stories and brings to life those overshadowed by 'the face that launched a thousand ships'.

First and foremost, the writing of this piece certainly is 'epic', matching the scale of the piece that was its inspiration. I love the continual shift in focus, from far removed with the Muse Calliope ranting about how the author of this epic poem doesn't want to listen to her, to the 'Greek chorus' moments of the Trojan women, sat on the shore awaiting their fates, to the stories of various women involved in the war, whether before, during or after. The stories don't come in chronological order, and yet the story ebbs and flows beautifully, with the timeline still becoming manifestly clear so you can not only discover what happens to everyone as a result of the war, but follow it back to work out exactly who put the wheels is motion to cause the war in the first place. 

If you've read even a few of the myriad of recent releases based around retelling Greek myths from the female perspective, you will probably be familiar with at least some of the characters and their stories. However, that shouldn't put you off - there are still plenty of other women in here to learn about. The book definitely fits into this bracket though; the various authors of these recent books (i.e. Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint etc) do all seem to have a similar flair and style which really helps ground you in the stories, no matter who you're reading. Hayne's writing in this case is gentle and yet emotionally charged throughout, with moments of levity, and overall is just a really enjoyable journey to go on. 

I couldn't choose which story I liked the most - the author has told all of them in a wonderfully engaging way. That being said, I loved Penelope's increasingly exasperated letters to Odysseyus, telling him what stories the bards are telling about his ridiculous journey home. Likewise, the stories of the lesser known (to me) women were fascinating, and filled in a lot of gaps for me.

I listened to the audiobook of this, which the author herself narrated. She is obviously very confident behind a microphone and about the subject matter(she also has a radio programme about Greek myth which is available on Audible and a credit has been earmarked for this!), and yet there were moments where I wasn't wholly convinced by her performance. There are a couple of small slips that could perhaps have done with a touch more editing (or another take) to smooth over, and there are a couple of places where she runs on sentences in something of a rush. Overall she does an excellent job and it's a great listen, but a tiny part of me wonders whether another performer may have added a touch more life to the narration. But that's being very nitpicky.

Would highly recommend!

Expand filter menu Content Warnings

hodgeonlucy's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad fast-paced
  • 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? It's complicated

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

margaret_k30's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional reflective sad fast-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

5.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

miss_sunshine's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad slow-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

4.5


Expand filter menu Content Warnings

tashtasher's review against another edition

Go to review page

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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? No

4.0


Expand filter menu Content Warnings