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thegr1mreader's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Slavery, Murder, and Child death
Moderate: Rape, Suicide, Sexual harassment, Pedophilia, Miscarriage, Mental illness, Grief, Animal cruelty, Violence, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Death of parent, and Animal death
jeannekmele's review against another edition
- 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
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.
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.
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.
Graphic: Grief, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Murder, War, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Misogyny, and Suicide
Moderate: Child death, Infidelity, Emotional abuse, Incest, Self harm, Suicide attempt, Trafficking, Rape, Fire/Fire injury, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Classism, Death of parent, and Domestic abuse
Minor: Ableism, Death, Fatphobia, Eating disorder, Pregnancy, Vomit, Alcohol, and Confinement
evieisilliterate's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Sexism, War, Child death, Death of parent, Misogyny, Death, and Grief
Moderate: Pregnancy, Suicide, and Slavery
Minor: Rape
The aftermath of a violent war and its impacts on the remaining women.unwise_samwise's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.0
Graphic: Death, Child death, War, Blood, Death of parent, and Violence
Moderate: Slavery, Rape, Murder, and Infidelity
abbieinwonderland's review against another edition
- 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
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.
Graphic: Blood, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Rape, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Classism, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Murder, Sexual assault, Slavery, and War
vickybuka's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.5
Graphic: War
Moderate: Murder, Child death, Death, and Death of parent
alexisgarcia's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Slavery, Cursing, Pregnancy, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Sexual harassment, Animal death, Death, Emotional abuse, Violence, Child death, Infertility, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body horror, Classism, Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Sexism, War, Abandonment, Abortion, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Rape, and Self harm
hmatt's review
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
4.75
I think you probably need about as much knowledge of the Iliad as I have to appreciate these stories, though. There is some internal explaining, but most are told in a way that inserts the reader right into the scenes without a lot of context. I think this adds to the telling, overall, but I can see how it might discourage readers who don't have the Greek myth 101 primer handy.
I'm a little wishy-washy on whether I enjoyed some of the more self-indulgent stories in the collection. I do think it was a smart choice to keep Calliope's and the Goddesses' chapters brief, though. They felt more shallow than the stories from the "actual" women, and Calliope's kind of just seemed too on-the-nose. But I'm not familiar enough with the customs of Greek literature to know if these sections were meant to echo existing conventions, so.
A note on the audiobook: it was certainly a choice for the author to also narrate. I actually think they did a great job, though a few times here and there I felt they were too emphatic. Mostly I took issue with some strange pronunciations of Greek names... and, again, I don't actually know enough about the topic to know if there is debate over these pronunciations. They were just different than what I have heard before. Also, in the Afterword, the author pronounces "quasi" really strangely...
Graphic: Blood, War, Violence, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, Murder, Misogyny, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Grief, Genocide, Fire/Fire injury, Death, Death of parent, Child death, and Animal death
CWs not exhaustivepoppyamber's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
4.75
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Murder
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Animal death
marianneiriss's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
5.0
Graphic: Death, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Rape, War, Adult/minor relationship, Fire/Fire injury, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual violence, Violence, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Slavery
Moderate: Death of parent, Injury/Injury detail, Blood, Xenophobia, War, Torture, Slavery, Infidelity, and Cursing
Minor: Alcohol, Suicide attempt, Incest, Abandonment, Mental illness, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Suicide, Animal death, Injury/Injury detail, and Self harm