Reviews tagging 'Suicide attempt'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

20 reviews

mneex05's review

dark emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Kidnapping, and Grief

Moderate: Rape, Sexual violence, and War

Minor: Suicide attempt

shannasbooksnhooks's review

challenging dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

Note: This is one of my longer reviews, if not my longest one, because there was so much potential for this to be a 4+ star rating for me. And there's a lot I want to place into this review.
"Once, not so long ago, I tried to walk out of Achilles's story - and failed. Now, my own story can begin."
I wouldn't have considered my hopes "high" for this book, but I had been looking forward to reading it for close to 4 years now. As a result, while I can't say that I was "disappointed" in this book, it didn't hit the mark for me. I think this is a very unique retelling of The Iliad, which is why I would highly recommend this as a read (even more so if you enjoyed The Song of Achilles). The retelling of The Iliad through Briseis's eyes makes this a great book in its own right. However, for me (as mentioned), it fell short. It was character-driven and slow-paced for me, and I was wishing there was more action because of the source material. Something else that bothered me was that the dialogue felt too "21st-century-esque" for me and had too many uses of "fuck." I'm not saying the characters should have talked in the typical way Ancient Greeks are depicted in pop culture, and I'm not saying they should have had more "proper" sounding language (whatever that would mean). However, I feel like it was too much of the way we talk today with the language Barker had characters use rather than having them talking less like us. (I guess I wanted it to mirror the language of <i>The Iliad</i> a bit more while getting a woman's POV.) Additionally, The Silence of the Girls seems to come off as a feminist retelling of The Iliad, and it is so great we get a woman's POV of this story. And since it's a retelling of such an old story, Barker could have taken some creative license with Briseis' character, especially due to how limited her character was in the source material. However, it just felt like it was labeled as "feminist" when Briseis does little to actually advocate for herself or the other women. (And a lot of the women end up gossiping, which didn't sit well with me.)
This had the potential to be a fantastic read for me, but it was a bit too lackluster for me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Sexual content, War, Cursing, Violence, and Death

Moderate: Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Sexual assault, and Self harm

This part's a spoiler-y comment in addition to what I mentioned earlier about action.

I think the dynamic between Achilles and Agamemnon was the only real "action" you get in direct relation to Briseis. Everything else action-related is happening apart from Briseis (and I'm not talking about just the fighting - any action is almost separate from her.

glutenfreemaggie's review

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

3.75

The title of the book is contradictory in that only the first part of the book is from Briseis’ perspective. The second and third parts rotate between Achilles’ POV, Briseis’ POV and like a third person narrator? Idk it took away from the story a little bit for me because it was literally a silencing of the girls. Not sure if that was intentional. I understand why we got heavily into Achilles’ perspective once Patroclus died, but the story was supposed to be about Briseis’ experience so the story lost its structure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

kirareads02's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

This book was a masterpiece. It was close to a five star if it wasn't for that secondary voice that has no name. That has just bothered me. <Spoiler> In my mind it is the voice  of the Gods <Spoiler>. This is beautifully told by the women of the story and is a completely new view on a war story. It was heartbreaking and beautiful. It deals with all the complexity complexity womanhood, female friendships, bodily autonomy and consequences of war. I love how the narrator kept saying it wasn't her story she was just a part of it because this is a prominent issue of women always being a passive character in the story of a man and this is the only story I have ever found that acknowledges this.

I could write so much about this book and perhaps I will come back to this review and add more when I think of it. I am very excited to read the second book. I can't think where it would be picked up so I can't wait. 

<Spoiler> Also, was there a little shade thrown on that last page about making this story a love story? <Spoiler>

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Slavery, Death of parent, Suicide, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Child death, Kidnapping, Murder, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, and War

Moderate: Pregnancy and Cursing

Minor: Fire/Fire injury

tuskany1066's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Suicide attempt, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Suicide, Grief, Death, War, Trafficking, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Moderate: Violence, Slavery, War, and Death

Minor: Suicide attempt and Suicide

elizabethchoi's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Body shaming, Bullying, Child death, Child abuse, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Gore, Grief, Infertility, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Trafficking, and Violence

lolavalls's review

dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense medium-paced

• 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Suicide attempt, War, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, Infertility, Grief, Genocide, Forced institutionalization, Emotional abuse, Domestic abuse, Child death, Child abuse, Animal death, and Alcohol

longhairzuko's review

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexism, Death, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Vomit, War, Suicide attempt, Suicide, and Child death

Moderate: Suicide, Sexual harassment, Animal death, Child death, Death of parent, and Suicidal thoughts

lena_and_her_books's review

This book is in my opinion not the female centered retelling of the trojan war, as wich it was marketed. It was just another book about men. 

I can excuse bad characterization, but I draw the line at Achilles and Patroclus being cishet bros. To qoute the book: "(they) fell into bed and slept - as naked and sexless as two beans in a pod". Also they´re not characterized as friends more like Patroclus having developed stockholm syndrome and being unable to leave (to be fair the author says that their relationship is something deeper than love...whatever that means).

I mean all the characters where flat and boring (I can excuse the men being boring, bcs the book was written from a female perspective, but there is no excuse for the women being badly written). The only characterization that was on point was Achilles mommy issues.

The way slavery was talked about came across as very white and privileged.

Another thing that was really off-putting for me was the use of very modern words, that ruined the flow of the storyline for me a bit.

What I liked about this book was the way the author described the living conditions of the camp. I thought that was very well executed and very realistic.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Death, Death of parent, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and War

carolinasbooks's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I don’t even know where to begin with this book. 

I read this soon after I read The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller which made it so jarring. In TSoA, Achilles and Patroclus are lovers and it’s beautiful. However, in The Silence of the Girls, they aren’t lovers and Achilles is a horrible person - he slaughters everyone in his path and essentially rapes Briseis over and over. 

It’s very brutal and some things like smells or the way a corpse looks are described so well and realistically that there were a few moments that made me gag. 

This is such an important read because The Iliad is so focused on men and this book flips that on its head because you get to see it all through the eyes of the women.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Murder, Panic attacks/disorders, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Sexism, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Vomit, and War