A review by tashadandelion
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

Though this store illuminates how a women such as Briseis might have experienced the tragic circumstances around the sacking of Trojan cities by the Greeks, the story's vibrancy is ultimately hampered because Briseis -- like all mortal women in this time and place -- has no agency. We see her thoughts and feelings as she's treated like a thing, not a person, while she has no choice but to be submissive, quiet, and obedient for survival's sake. The most compelling aspect of this book is the attention given to the grief of the women who have lost male loved ones to the never-ending wars. Every soldier who falls in a war is someone's beloved child, and every death ruins a whole family, not just that one person's life. I've given this 3.5 stars because the writing is well-done and I think Barker has faithfully portrayed the martial world of Ancient Greece and Troy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Grief, and Medical trauma