Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

Troy by Stephen Fry

9 reviews

arifahmalik's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective relaxing slow-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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Torture, Slavery, War, Violence, Blood, and Suicide

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Sexual violence

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Another great installment in the epic mythology and history of Ancient Greece. I find it ever fascinating how much can be interpreted as fact and how much can be legend. The blend of it all and how closely interwined the people of the time lived with their gods is so interesting.

The story of Peleus and Thetis' wedding was perfectly accompanied by The Day I Fell into A Fairytale, which was reimaging Briar Rose/Sleeping beauty's story and I couldn't help but notice the themes of a women scorned from not being invited to a celebration.

This was such a great account of the rise and fall of Troy. There's was so much I hadn't ever gotten to the point of understanding before, by Fry takes us through all the players and events of this dramatic period of time.

I read this and listened, simultaneously and adored that combination.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Classism, Infertility, Torture, Cannibalism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Colonisation, Emotional abuse, Grief, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Bullying, Forced institutionalization, Injury/Injury detail, Toxic relationship, War, Animal death, Cursing, Death, Suicidal thoughts, Genocide, Gore, Death of parent, Incest, Murder, Pedophilia, Child death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Suicide, Blood, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Child abuse, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gaslighting, and Vomit

danimacuk's review against another edition

adventurous informative slow-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: Violence and War

Minor: Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Abandonment, Cursing, Death of parent, Grief, Murder, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Child abuse, Death, Slavery, Blood, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Suicide, and Violence

ktryan's review against another edition

dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, War, Body horror, Rape, Slavery, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Sexism, Misogyny, Grief, Trafficking, Suicide, and Injury/Injury detail

hannah_grace's review against another edition

adventurous informative 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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Suicide, Slavery, and Murder

javafenn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Stephan Fry is brilliant and his story telling makes my heart so happy. As someone who views all religion as a sort of mythos and knowing Fry is a self described atheist as well, I read and listen to these stories for their window in time and purely for their stories! Fry is one of my favorite story tellers at this point and I will read anything he writes. I only give this one 4 stars simply because it really is so graphic and the death of children is just hard to read/listen to.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Classism, Abandonment, Death, Confinement, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, Blood, Body horror, Bullying, Child death, Self harm, Violence, Death of parent, War, Grief, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Toxic relationship

Minor: Excrement, Infidelity, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Gaslighting, Slavery, Confinement, and Pregnancy

house_of_hannah's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

3.0

If you aready know the myths surrounding Troy then you won't get much from this book. I feel like this would be perfect for those who are first getting into the myths, but are unsure where to start, since they are presented in the order they occurred. 

It took forever for me to get through this book. I found myself really losing interest after the first 100 pages. It's actually quite easy to read, besides some of the names, but that's to be expected. However, I didn't find Stephen Fry's voice here to be very interesting. I mean, yeah, he's certainly telling us the myths, but it's just not the fresh take that I think most are looking for when it comes to retellings. 

The actual book ends on page 333 (paperback version), with the last 100 pages being the Appendix, List of Characters, Picture Credits, Acknowledgements, and Index. So it's at least less of a beast to read than it first appears. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, Infidelity, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Murder, War, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual assault, Kidnapping, Gore, Rape, and Pregnancy

Minor: Suicide

marianneiriss's review against another edition

adventurous emotional funny lighthearted mysterious reflective tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Child death, Cannibalism, Violence, Murder, Animal death, Grief, War, Suicide, Slavery, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Death, and Blood

sofipitch's review

dark funny informative medium-paced

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

5.0

 First off,  I got the hard cover edition and this book is so beautiful. It has think pages with color printed art from various era's that depict the myths being told. I dog ear books to keep my place and when I opened this book I considered not dog earing it bc of how nice it is (I ended up doing it anyways though, it's my book). 

This book is so comprehensive, it includes a lot of background on the myths and lineage surrounding the main characters in the Trojan war. It mentions myths that are usually less common. I grew up reading a lot of greek myth collections and obviously some get repeated over and over while some you might only see mentioned once or twice. Well Fry doesn't let a single story pass you by, he tells them bc he loves them. It's not until close exactly half-way through the books the Greeks make it Troy and the actual war starts. Which I don't mind at all, the stories surrounding the buildup are as good as the war itself. 

Like most myths, there are at time contradictory stories, other lineages and such that the author must choose one over the other. Fry includes a lot of other interpretations in the footnotes of the book. Some greek mythology fans can get angry at adaptations that don't do their favorite interpretation so I think it was a good way to keep those people at bay and show how comprehensive his knowledge on the subject is. 

Fry uses dramatic irony from time to time which I love in mythology retelling, foreshadowing disastrous events yet to come through casual remarks made by the characters.
 I love the pronunciation guides in the footnotes. I grew up loving greek mythology but since I grew up reading it all I never knew how to pronounce anything. 

The only thing that I found slightly disappointing is some minor events from the Iliad are left out, such as Posiden fighting with the Greeks or Hera seducing her husband to distract him so the Greeks could get the upper hand. They are mostly unimportant, but they are funny, and this book often searches for humor whenever it could, so it would've been fun to include them. 

Overall this book was amazing, I spent most of Saturday and Sunday this weekend reading it, I couldn't put it down. I can't wait to get my hands on the other two books, Mythos and Heroes. And I hope Stephen Fry doesn't end here but goes on to tell stories of two heroes leaving Troy which make up the Odyssey and Aeneid.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Death, Grief, Violence, Suicide, and Murder

Minor: Incest, Rape, Infidelity, and Gore