Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

14 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

risaleel's review

challenging dark emotional sad medium-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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Slavery, Sexual harassment, War, Child death, Violence, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual content

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Confinement, Alcohol, Emotional abuse, Alcoholism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Torture

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide attempt, Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Suicide, and Vomit

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

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

beauvisseau's review

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One word: breathtaking. This retelling of a story as old as time was done so well, you can almost taste the love that the author has for Greek and Trojan mythology. The writing style was impeccable, and I can clearly see all of the conscious choices that the author made regarding things like speaking style, active versus  passive speaking styles and the investment in certain themes. 

Although the main character, Briseis, does not have a highly developed character, I feel that it fits with her state of being. The grief of losing her loved ones but also one's self can turn you into a shell of memories and thoughts.
One point of criticism though, is that I would have liked to see more perspectives of different women there. It is a missed opportunity to switch between Briseis, Patroclus and Achilles, when two of those three narratives have already been explored for centuries but so many narratives are missing.

Amazing work of fiction that truly expands upon the existing narratives and opened my eyes to many new ideas about war, feminism, story-telling, slavery and power. Would recommend to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, War, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Genocide, Gore, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Violence, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

bectothebooks's review

adventurous emotional informative 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Sexual violence, Violence, Grief, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, and War

Moderate: Sexual content, Cursing, Gore, Medical content, and Pregnancy

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Infertility, Domestic abuse, Suicide, and Vomit

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

kitkatkick's review

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense 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? Yes

3.0

A fascinating recount of the story of the Iliad, The Silence of the Girls strongly embraces the current push toward reframing history as HERstory. We see the see the infamous tale through the eyes of Briseis, Achilles’ concubine slave and former Queen of Lyrnessys. Despite the fact that her existence was pivotal in the Trojan War, as the cause of the dispute between Achilles and Agamemnon and Achilles’ resulting refusal to fight, we so rarely hear from Briseis or see her discussed as more than an object to be owned, a prize to be won. The Silence of the Girls turns the focus onto her, considering her thoughts and emotions throughout her ordeal and using that perspective to reveal the experiences of other women in her situation.

The Silence of the Girls didn’t strike me as a book that required a background in Greek history or mythology. I’m not saying you’ll get it if you have no idea who Achilles is, but if you’re unfamiliar with Briseis, or Patroclus, or any of the other actors, it seemed like you would get along just fine. And for those of you who do have that background, you get to feel extra smart when you recognize a new character or know what’s coming up.

The reason I gave this book three stars as opposed to more is that to me, the story didn’t do the premise justice. Barker’s writing is certainly wonderful, and in Part One, she captures emotions and truly makes the reader empathize with Briseis. But as we enter part two, we encounter a sudden, jarring shift to including chapters from the male point of view. And not only do we suddenly hear from Achilles, Patroclus, and others, but we shift from first to third person. I understand that it was intended to cover parts of the story that Briseis’ point of view likely couldn’t, but I can’t help but feel it was poorly executed, or even a form of cheating. We picked up this book to hear from Briseis, but as we continue on past the story of Patroclus, we hear more and more of Achilles’ point of view, and less and less of Briseis’. And in that, there seems to be some sort of comment on the overshadowing of “herstory” by history that I don’t particularly have the energy to make.

Overall, I do think this book was interesting, and for fans of Greek mythology I would certainly recommend it for it’s mostly unique perspective. But I feel that it’s more apt for calling attention to the horrors of war than it is to do it’s intended job of illuminating the stories of the women of Troy. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Rape, Toxic friendship, War, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Death, Genocide, Murder, and Slavery

Moderate: Alcohol, Confinement, Pregnancy, Suicide, Medical content, Medical trauma, Mental illness, Child death, Classism, and Kidnapping

Minor: Child abuse, Excrement, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Torture, and Panic attacks/disorders

nicolaparty's review against another edition

dark emotional informative 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? It's complicated

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, War, Alcohol, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Blood, Child death, Medical content, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, and Sexual content

Minor: Animal cruelty, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Vomit, and Suicidal thoughts