Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

180 reviews

gkm00's review

tense medium-paced

3.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Death, Excrement, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Adult/minor relationship, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Animal death, Alcohol, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Grief, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Gore, Emotional abuse, and Murder

joelrandeblad's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Wow.

Jag fastnade direkt. Språket, huvudkaraktären, den poetiska brutaliteten.

Boken följer Briseis, kvinnan som tas som slav av Achilles och sedan blir ett byte för Agamemnon och Achilles att bråka över. Boken tar vara på något som böcker som The Song of Achilles och självfallet Illiaden... missar? Eller om man vill vara snällare kan man säga att det inte är deras ärende. Men här ligger fokus på kvinnorna som inte har en röst, inget val. Det är Briseis och hennes intrikata känsloliv, att behöva natt efter natt utnyttjas av mannen som mördat hennes bröder, bränt hennes stad och hem. Om kvinnorna som ser sina unga söner dödas, tvingas i sängs med männen som mördat dem, är byteshandel, är slavar, kastar sig själv från murarna för att en säker död är bättre än den framtid som väntar dem. Boken är våldsam och vacker, sorglig som jag vet inte vad. Man känner verkligen hur något går sönder. 

Jag känner redan här att den här recensionen inte gör boken rättvisa. Att mina ord räcker inte riktigt till för att fånga den komplicerade känsla som Pat Barker använder hela boken för att försöka få grepp om. Den är komplicerad, djup, otrolig.

Kanske att man vill ha lite koll på Iliaden och kriget i Troja för att man ska hänga med. Det är många namn, många karaktärer och konflikter. Men personligen (som rätt mytologiintresserad) hade jag inga problem alls att hänga med. Nu vill jag bara dyka in i "The Women of Troy". Såg även att Pat Barker är på väg att släppa ännu en bok i höst på samma tema!

Sätter jag den på en piedestal? Absolut. Kommer alla tycka som jag? Förmodligen inte. Men det här var verkligen exakt min typ av bok! 5 välförtjänta stjärnor.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Child abuse, Sexual assault, Death of parent, Rape, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, and War

jose_kg's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• 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

4.0

I don't think you can really say you enjoyed this book, it's such a graphic retelling and so sad it isn't really something to be enjoyed, more endured along side the characters. That is not to say I didn't think it was a good book, I thought the writing was raw and reflective, but also unflinching. I always enjoy Pat Barker's work, and it was refreshing to have such a critical retelling of this story. This book was an experience, one I'm glad I had but also glad it's over, similarly to Briseis. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual violence, Slavery, Death, and Sexual assault

noosayag's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

Well that was a distressing read…

This was a bleak retelling of the Trojan War narrative, from the POV of Briseis, once a princess, now a captured slave. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, and Child death

alice451's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Rape, War, Violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Suicide

civetta's review against another edition

challenging informative sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Cursing, Abortion, Grief, Miscarriage, and Pandemic/Epidemic

patsypoo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won’t want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won’t want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won’t want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.

Really enjoyed this one! I love The Song of Achilles and it's nice to see another angle of it through Briseis' eyes. It's a very tough one to get through at times unsurprisingly. It's a war story after all so all the content warnings!

On one hand, I wish there had been less of Achilles here and on the other hand I feel his perspective is also needed to round out this particular story.

One drawback for me was the dialogue. It's very laddish and modern Britain to my taste and although I got used to it, it is kind of jarring on occasion and it took me out of the story somewhat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexism, Violence, War, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual violence

theothergrl's review

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book does a wonderful job of showing us how patriarchy harms both women and men. It's a retelling of Achilles' story of the Battle of Troy from the perspective of his bed slave, Briseis. Their horrific and very sad relationship is explored earnestly. It's not a story about love, it's about two people pushed into bed and how they grieve immense loss not together but side-by-side. In different ways they are both denied the ability to process these emotions. They both grapple with their anger at the wasteful and pointless reasons for their loss. The loneliness and pain they both experience come from two hands of the same body, patriarchy. I think the way this is shown so paralleled throughout story, not in comparison to one another, is what makes this such brilliant feminist literature.

And, of course considering everything else, this book is a wonderful example of how we can tell stories with even the extremes of sexual violence, and tell them well without gratuitousness nor overly graphic. I did not once feel that there was no need for a particular sex/rape scene, when they were there, it added to the story. 

The 3 main characters in this book are loveable (and 2 very much despiseable) in a very complicated and heart wrenching way. But you'll definately enjoy spending time with them and hearing their story, I would 100% recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, War, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Blood, Infidelity, and Rape

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Child death, and Pregnancy

indigoimpulse's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

i actually really liked the fact that briseis wasn’t a perfect character and that she’s so judgemental of others around her, men and women alike - i feel like given her circumstances you can’t exactly expect her to act like a saint . her narration was very raw which i found gave her personality .

however the book promised me a story from briseis’ pov so i didn’t really appreciate so much of the book being taken up by achilles’ pov - this author writes grief excellently so his sections were great but it kind of took away from the fact that this was supposed to be briseis’ story . i don’t really think you can call this a feminist novel but i enjoyed it nonetheless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pedophilia, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Torture, Blood, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, War, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Gore

acgeorge's review

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, War, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship