Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

36 reviews

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

jnichols's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Sexual violence, War, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Genocide, Slavery, Child death, Self harm, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Murder, Medical content, Domestic abuse, and Death

queen_of_the_rats's review

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Body horror, Child death, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Sexual assault, War, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Suicide, Misogyny, Animal death, Blood, Death, Torture, Domestic abuse, Genocide, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Rape, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Violence, Death of parent, Sexual violence, Suicide attempt, and Vomit

emilyandthewhippet's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Sexism, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Confinement, Gore, Medical content, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Grief, Incest, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Colonisation, Deportation, Abandonment, Death, Death of parent, Murder, Misogyny, Blood, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Slavery, Torture, Violence, War, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

Minor: Cannibalism

emmacartlidge's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Death, Violence, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Grief, Sexual content, Medical content, Pregnancy, Suicide, Rape, Blood, Colonisation, and Body horror

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Confinement

owlbear425's review

slow-paced

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, War, Medical content, Rape, Domestic abuse, Death, Physical abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Sexual assault

karendarias's review

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, Rape, Murder, Violence, Slavery, War, Sexual assault, Grief, Death, Child death, and Child abuse

Moderate: Sexism, Violence, Medical content, Misogyny, and Torture

kt2e56's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense 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? No

1.0

This was dreadful. Barker presents an interesting concept: the Iliad but without the romance and glory of war. Instead told from the point of view of Briseis, a side character who’s role in mythology is often just being tossed from one man to the next. Again: great concept to show us the horrors of war this way and remind us who the “heroes” we still hear about would have really been like.

But holy SHIT what an abysmal execution.

First of all: there’s the obnoxious overuse of very modern phrases and concepts (I mean modern as in there’s no way someone in Ancient Troy would even know what this MEANS let alone say it) which kept taking me out of the story. The author also straight up has no idea how to write dialogue. Each character sounds the same. They all speak the same. Exactly the same. And there’s ZERO consistency. A character will go from speaking fairly normally one chapter to speaking like a British chav the next (no joke. “Me mam bloody well told him to sod off, the wanker.” That’s the level of bizarre random, nonsensical dialect the reader is subjected to. It makes ZERO sense and comes and goes in such an alarming rate) then back to normal a sentence later. It’s insanity.

Most egregiously though, halfway through the book Barker decides to abandon the purpose. It’s no longer the Iliad from Breises’ point of view and told in her voice (granted her voice sounds like everyone else’s but still) but now we’re being subjected to jarring chapters told in third person all about Achilles and events that Breises wasn’t even around for. So the author essentially took back the idea that made this so interesting in the first place by tossing Breises aside and making this all about Achilles and his mommy issues.

Like I truly don’t know what editor approved this. This genuinely felt like I was reading an outline let alone an actual published novel. And a novel that people are apparently fawning over and think is really good and ~feminist~!? I’m just astounded by the praise this mess of a book has received. The one good thing honestly was Achilles being portrayed as a petulant toddler obsessed with breast-feeding a la Homelander in The Boys. That’s it. I hate comparing books but honestly just read Madeline Miller’s “Song of Achilles” even THAT is much more graceful and lyrical and does an infinitely better job of fleshing out Breises (AND SHE IS ONLY A SIDE CHARACTER!!! SHE ISN’T THE CHARACTER TELLING THE STORY!!!) than this drivel did. Both SOA and Circe were so well done and beautifully written that they felt like myths in and of themselves. This is just bizarre.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Slavery, Sexual violence, War, Gore, Rape, Child death, Excrement, Genocide, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Torture, and Violence

Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Animal death, Cursing, Grief, and Medical content

apiora215's review

challenging dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, Blood, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, and Torture