Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

34 reviews

lottie1803's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Child death, Misogyny, Death, Rape, Pregnancy, Medical content, Violence, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and War

tmickey's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Trafficking

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

annasbookreviews's review

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Medical trauma, Excrement, Grief, Infidelity, Mental illness, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Death, Murder, Physical abuse, Blood, Abandonment, Alcoholism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Panic attacks/disorders, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Torture, Violence, Vomit, and War

prlprl's review

challenging dark 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

4.5

The Iliad retelling we needed, albeit undeserved. Barker’s eloquent story of suffering and survival is articulated by sharp stitches of sorrow, and brutal humanity behind the glossy-eyed mythology of other interpretations of the Trojan War.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Slavery, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, and War

Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, Suicide, Animal death, Incest, and Misogyny

amphytrite's review

challenging dark reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Violence, War, Animal death, Suicide, Confinement, Medical trauma, Murder, Slavery, Child death, Grief, Medical content, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Abandonment, Sexism, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Rape, and Infidelity

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Fire/Fire injury

Content warning: plague, rats

gracewiley's review against another edition

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Slavery, War, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Body horror, Death, Grief, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Blood, Murder, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Trafficking, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Alcohol, and Sexism

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Infidelity, Vomit, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, Abandonment, Excrement, Domestic abuse, and Infertility

sarahsbooklife's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

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

3.0

I like this story but I struggle to put my finger on what I did and didn't like about this book.
Maybe it was the characters or the writing or the story itself. But I struggled to regain interest in this book each time I stopped reading and put it down.
I think I liked this book because I like Greek myths and legends. It was quite interesting to read about a different side of the myth that goes into what it was like for the women that were taken as slaves by the Greeks. 
It's an interesting take on a classic Greek tale. 
But it's not the epic story that some people make it out to be. It felt a little lacklustre to be to be honest. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, Sexual content, Slavery, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Violence, War, Death, and Rape

Moderate: Pregnancy, Animal death, Blood, Violence, Medical content, and Child death

Minor: Violence and Vomit

nialiversuch's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective 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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Sexual content, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Xenophobia, Colonisation, Confinement, Forced institutionalization, Grief, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Bullying, Child death, Kidnapping, Slavery, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Blood, Cursing, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, War, Suicide, Gore, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Excrement, Pregnancy, and Vomit

asternautt's review

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Death, Genocide, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual violence, Violence, Misogyny, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Kidnapping, Excrement, Gore, Rape, Gaslighting, Trafficking, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Medical content, Blood, Pregnancy, and Murder

Minor: Cannibalism and Vomit

withlivjones's review

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

3.0

A retelling of the Trojan War that provides a particularly graphic and brutal depiction of the Greek army as the bloodthirsty villains instead of the heroes presented in the Iliad. 

I tried and failed to read this book twice before finally getting through it. It is a very slow-paced book that only really picks up in the second half. What really threw me off, however, is that while this book is marketed as being narrated by Briseis, there are many chapters (starting from about a third of the way in and gradually getting more frequent) where the point of view suddenly shifts to some of the men - most often Achilles, but also at points Patroclus and Priam. While this does provide an interesting perspective of the war, since few writers have dared to examine the depths of Achilles’ psyche in such detail, it was really not what I was expecting from a book that wanted to tell a more female-focused version of the myth. The dilemma is this: women are notoriously silent in Greek mythology and hardly ever have the freedom to tell their own story, so why, then, in a novel where Briseis is presented as reclaiming her own narrative, is a male perspective inserting itself into said narrative just like they have done for the last two thousand years? 

The novel is still very enjoyable and well-written, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Greek mythology, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed that I seemed to be reading a different book to the one that was advertised. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Child death, Grief, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, War, Animal death, Misogyny, Blood, Murder, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Cannibalism, Cursing, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Suicide, and Vomit

Period-typical attitudes