Reviews tagging 'War'

Greek Myths: A New Retelling, with drawings by Chris Ofili by Charlotte Higgins, Chris Ofili

11 reviews

fishreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional 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? It's complicated

2.0

I too, have fallen in love with Greek mythology as child, reading a particular children's book, where Greek mythology stories were my favorite ones, that I reread the most often. Unfortunately, unlike that children's book, this book doesn't manage to inspire the same feelings of love as it offers dry, uninspired and superficially presented retelling of stories from Greek mythology.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, and Murder

Moderate: Animal death and War

thecandiegirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging hopeful mysterious tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Grief, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

aseel_reads's review against another edition

challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.0

Pros of reading this as an audiobook: I know how to say the names 
Cons of reading this as an audiobook: too many characters to keep in check, so I sometimes forgot whose story we were in. 

This was a fine collection of different greek myths, nothing too amazing, although I liked the anchoring of the stories to the act of weaving, quite unique. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

dani794's review against another edition

3.0

I appreciated that it didn't gloss over the things Zeus would do and would state what they were.
I was kinda upset that the chapters weren't based on the women's stories that it was named after tho.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, and War

lunar_glass's review against another edition

informative reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.0

The way this book is written is so unique and interesting. Each chapter focus on a different female figure in greek mythology.  They each tell various myths from their perspective as the weave them. I found this so cool how it would talk about weaving a particular scene into the tapestry and then telling the story behind it. 
The myths are condensed down in order to fit them all in but I do think they are shown in a way that gives a good overview/introduction to the multiple figures of mythology (and references to all the myths mentioned are included at the end if you want to do some further reading)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Murder, and War

emmonsannae's review against another edition

adventurous informative reflective fast-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

5.0

A really nice collection of myths. C.H. doesn't glamorize or soften any of the original content (which inevitably forces the reader to ask why these stories are worth preserving, and what they say about us who came up with or reread them). I think this is a great read because it challenges an optimistic anthropology and forces uncomfortable questions about humans/nature/history/culture. It is a feminist retelling, to the extent that it centralizes women's experiences and imagines their desires and opinions. Women here aren't one-line tragedies of rape, abandonment, grief, or faithless gods while heroes galavant through their brave deeds. C.H. puts the women and their tragedies at the forefront while the heroes are peripheral, with the effect that the heroes' carelessness and disregard add to the womens' tragedies rather than enhancing the heroes’ fame. C.H. frames the story through a series of described tapestries, giving her Greek women an agency and a voice which historically was theirs in order to tell stories that historically weren't. That framing is beautifully done, too. (The book also has an excellent notes section which doubles as a classics text resource.) 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Torture, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, Gaslighting, and War

elenakperez's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad slow-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, War, and Classism

splendide_mendax's review against another edition

emotional informative

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

5.0

tl;dr: This book is so good I could scream.

Frequently, retellings of classical myth seem to be built around the idea that there is a dichotomy between being classical and being feminist, and that the only feminist retelling of a classical myth is one that rewrites it to be kinder to the female characters. Higgins' Greek Myths doesn't change or shy away from the elements of classical myth that are deeply unfavorable to women (with one slightly odd exception); instead, she focuses in on how the women in them would experience them. It's a change of perspective rather than substance and it is extremely successful.

The ekphrastic framing of the stories is both absolutely genius and deeply classical. There were places where I could identify the work from which Higgins was drawing just by her phrasing and I fell a little more in love with the book every time it happened (especially when the source work was Ovid). I so enjoyed the way she talked about her source material at the end. As a classicist, it was really neat to see how she was thinking about the works from which she was drawing; I imagine that it would also provide a useful to-read list for someone with less familiarity.

I can't recommend this book highly enough.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Pregnancy, and War

bexh's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

lindseyhall44's review against another edition

reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.0

Greek Retellings are definitely becoming popular in the modern scope of literature, but this novel was so unique in its execution while still tying in elements of the well known stories.
Greek Myths: A New Retelling follows several women from the Greek legends and lore. Some are more famous  such as Helen, Circe, and Penelope, yet some are less discussed, such as Philomela.  Utilizing the historic significance of tapestries, each woman tells their story and those of others through the symbolic weaving of tapestry.
One thing I would know before reading is that the Greek Myths are not following the singular progression of a character, like Pat Barkers Silence of the Girls or Madeline Millers, Circe. Instead it is the lives of many, human/immortal, hero/villain.
In this amazing collection of perspectives, the women are given a change to change the world with their art. Is there anything more amazing then that?

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, Blood, Trafficking, Cannibalism, and Alcohol