Reviews with content warning for Domestic abuse - A Thousand Ships

Reviews tagging 'Domestic abuse'

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

20 reviews

dummehure's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

As always an amazing take of a story of greek mythology that has been told countless times. What I appreciate most about Madeline Miller's retellings is the freedom she gives herself to fill in the gabs and create a story that feels real and thought out from beginning to end.
What I especially loved about this one, aside from the authors note at the end, was the language. She has such a beautiful writing style that completely contracts the horrific content of the story and she uses that contrast to shock the readers.
I will be rereading this book whenever I get the opportunity in the future.
Again, thank you for this masterpiece!!!

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jeannekmele's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

cws: rape, child death, slavery, war, grief/trauma, genocide mention, spoilers

An exceptional collection of nearly universal tragedy across its heroines, pyrrhic victories are the norm for women whose darkest moments shine with vibrant human spirit on the pages of A THOUSAND SHIPS.

So often left footnotes--wives, mothers, sisters, sluts and daughters written to live, die, and love for the storied men of old--any background knowledge of the classical canon will lend an unerring hand to the conclusions we know these women will come to. Yet you cannot help but root for their success, or their peace if no such thing exist; despite the ends long since written for them, their human resilience and fragility and the womanly grit behind it all almost feels as if history could rewrite itself this time.
It doesn't, of course, but this in of itself is the devoted intersection of care and craft.

Though ATS is tragedy from the first page to last, the deluge of misery and loss roils and settles with the comfortable shape of a story until you're left with a sense of resolution that is not gratifying, but it is real. And that is the way of tragedy, trauma, and war: these things cannot be reversed, nor smoothed over, nor sated.

Andromache's family, first husband and son are dead; but she has another husband, another son, and her freedom; perhaps that must be enough. Penelope loses twenty years of her life, marriage, queenship and motherhood waiting for a husband who never comes home to her. But there is a like man in their bed, and his name is Odysseus, and perhaps that will have to be enough.

What of Eris, the instigator? What of Helen, the adulteress, the end of a kingdom? It is very easy, in a song about war, to glorify and vilify to the whims of one's own biases, or heroes, or chosen themes. I don't believe you will find such binary in this book.

A mother kills children to avenge her own. Slave-owners and rapists (we'll save the discussion on rape, duious consent, and power in the classical canon for another time) show gentleness and provision to their victims, even when regarded as property. The selfish goddesses who set a decade of devastation and a death toll unnumbered are, themselves, steered from the shadows by intentions as selfless and pragmatic as they are genocidal.

I will quote Natalie Haynes' afterword: 'Survivors, victims, perpetrators: these roles are not always separate. People can be wounded and wounding at the same time, or at different times in the same life.'

It would be erroneous to go into A THOUSAND SHIPS expecting anything less than complex women with rich inner lives under extraneous circumstances. In the man-made disaster that is war, it becomes impractical and impossible to keep an orderly measure of right and wrong. The human condition warps into something immeasurable under such extreme duress. Though by no means a soothing read, I nonetheless devoured ATS as I haven't done with a book in a long time.

I will close with this: Grief is a long-lived creature with many faces that may come in any amount or combination at any time, in three days or five years, or decades hence. Grief is angry, and loud, and dead-eyed; it is wasting away and endless tears and twists in our chests that by right of anatomy shouldn't twist there; it is jealousy and accusation and cruelty and violence and submission and insanity.
Grief is ugly, and so often in contemporary western culture it is unsightly and to be repressed. In women, grief is mockingly anticipated, oppressively levied, and mercilessly culled. A THOUSAND SHIPS is an excellent read across the board, but for those who are processing grief and trauma, who may be unsure how to (especially women), it is a cathartic and humanizing portrait of the externally-inflicted and yet worst, most unacceptable parts of ourselves that are too big for our bodies, and too loud for the world.

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abbieinwonderland's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad 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

2.5

I originally rated this as a three star book, but I woke up the next day after reading it and chose violence.

In my opinion, this book does not do what it claims which is the biggest flaw. It promises to tell the stories of the unsung women of the Trojan War. What we get is just a few pages for some of the characters, which I can only assume is an extension of the one line they were given in the original poems. It felt like the author was telling a very simple rendition of these characters. I never felt like they had real depth. The only moments we saw of some of their lives were the moments before their deaths.

I also felt this book was quite repetitive. Especially the first chapter which felt like an effort to add some drama and tension at the beginning as a hook. There were some phrases throughout which kept getting repeated, particularly about Hector's body being dragged around the battlefield by Achilles. This was brought up over and over.

I enjoyed the idea of the Calliope chapters. This was a nice touch. However, it did get heavy handed with the feminist themes.

Speaking of feminism. The author clearly hates Helen of Troy. Calliope literally says she's trash and won't tell the poet anything about her. Um, this is a book claiming to tell the stories of ALL the women in the tales. Helen is the most important. Her choices or lack thereof led to the whole war. Why should she be left out? Even if Helen is not a "pure", brave and heroic character, why not explore her story anyway? It would have been interesting to see a complex interpretation of her. There are many different types of women. We can't all be crammed into the same box or label. When telling the story of multiple women, shouldn't there be a level of variation? There was an opportunity here to explore a woman who makes a bad decision and the consequences. But no, the author has decided she must be shunned instead and have her voice taken away... feminism? Really?

And don't get me started on Penelope. She is such an interesting, clever and resourceful character, a match for Odysseus, but she was reduced to retelling the story of Odysseus instead. I did enjoy how her letters grew more sassy as the war went on. Her voice was the most distinct to me out of all the other women. But she spent most of her chapters retelling Odysseus's story and not her own.

I enjoyed certain characters more than others, for example Cassandra.

I'm not saying I hated this book, I was in it for the ride at the time of reading but on reflection I feel like I've been scammed.

Maybe it's because I've read Circe and I've been spoiled by having a whole book about an unsung woman. But I don't think it is. I think some of the decisions made while writing or editing are the cause of it.

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rd77's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

A very interesting read. The author was able to make you sympathize for each woman very quickly, and it was interesting to think about the impact of the war on women, since it’s not talked about nearly enough. The only thing I didn’t like was Penelope’s chapters- for anyone who has read The Odyssey, it’s a tired retelling of it, with little actual insight to Penelope’s side of the story until her last 2 chapters.

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orlagal's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.5

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rachelwierick's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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racheltheduke's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

4.0

She isn't a footnote. She's a person.

Natalie Haynes weaves a beautiful and emotional tale of women left behind in the mythos of the Trojan War.
When Homer asks the muses to sing to him for inspiration for his next epic poem, Calliope tells him the stories of these women.

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