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3.85 AVERAGE
3.85 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Loved it. Bold yet sensitive, an unflinching look at an untold perspective of the Iliad and the Trojan War.
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
voor een boek over het perspectief van de vrouwen tijdens de oorlog om troje waren er veel hoofdstukken van het perspectief van achilles
emotional
sad
dark
emotional
reflective
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
no one loves and hates achilles more than i do, i swear.
this was brilliant. pat barker wrote this in such a profound way, to the point that the silent suffering of the women of troy moved me far more than the loud triumphs and losses of the men.
firstly, it mended so many of my grievances with the song of achilles, and for that it's already great. achilles was every bit as horrifying as he is meant to be. every bit as childish, and prideful and flawed. he disturbed me as he should. he gained no pity or grief from me, just a hint of regret at what he could have been, during the last few weeks of his life. that was my favourite part, really. him and briseis, two people who both have reasons (of varying validity) to utterly feel nothing but resentment fron each other, spending time together in shared grief.
but more importantly, i am in awe of how briseis was portrayed. in everything she had to endure, everything she was forced to face, she did so with a detached heart. she never dared hope, never dared to do anything but accept. and that, to me, was so so terrifying, but real. even as troy fell and her mouth filled with agamemnon's spit, she narrated things with not even a single flare of all-consuming anger, which i know i would have been exhaling with every breath.
the tragedy of it all, to me, is how she was so resigned to her fate. she could have married achilles. could have jumped that day, could have run away, and avoided the civil war between achilles and agamemnon. the melancholy i felt at her constant surrender to the fates was heartwrenching. she was quite unnerved by how some of the others like iphis grew to love their captors or adopt greek ways quickly, but it was interesting to me how, if you read between the lines, she was being the same. not that she loved achilles, but i do think she didn't hate him as much as she had the right to, which is as common an occurence as it is tragic.
and i was so determined not to cry over this, even as my heart constantly broke for these poor women and girls, but the final straw for me was andromache. she is truly the main reason why i cannot be in full support of the greeks, because she and hector will make me cry every time. their family in general, really, will make me cry every time. gosh, i just love it when the retelling gets to the part where priam humbly asks for his son back. like that's true love, there.
this was brilliant. pat barker wrote this in such a profound way, to the point that the silent suffering of the women of troy moved me far more than the loud triumphs and losses of the men.
firstly, it mended so many of my grievances with the song of achilles, and for that it's already great. achilles was every bit as horrifying as he is meant to be. every bit as childish, and prideful and flawed. he disturbed me as he should. he gained no pity or grief from me, just a hint of regret at what he could have been, during the last few weeks of his life. that was my favourite part, really. him and briseis, two people who both have reasons (of varying validity) to utterly feel nothing but resentment fron each other, spending time together in shared grief.
but more importantly, i am in awe of how briseis was portrayed. in everything she had to endure, everything she was forced to face, she did so with a detached heart. she never dared hope, never dared to do anything but accept. and that, to me, was so so terrifying, but real. even as troy fell and her mouth filled with agamemnon's spit, she narrated things with not even a single flare of all-consuming anger, which i know i would have been exhaling with every breath.
the tragedy of it all, to me, is how she was so resigned to her fate. she could have married achilles. could have jumped that day, could have run away, and avoided the civil war between achilles and agamemnon. the melancholy i felt at her constant surrender to the fates was heartwrenching. she was quite unnerved by how some of the others like iphis grew to love their captors or adopt greek ways quickly, but it was interesting to me how, if you read between the lines, she was being the same. not that she loved achilles, but i do think she didn't hate him as much as she had the right to, which is as common an occurence as it is tragic.
and i was so determined not to cry over this, even as my heart constantly broke for these poor women and girls, but the final straw for me was andromache. she is truly the main reason why i cannot be in full support of the greeks, because she and hector will make me cry every time. their family in general, really, will make me cry every time. gosh, i just love it when the retelling gets to the part where priam humbly asks for his son back. like that's true love, there.
Look, I really truly think it's a two star read. It's muddled and draggy and I really, really, reALLY hate the anachronistic British slang that permeates the text. Makes it sound like it's taking place last week. Which, I dunno, might be the point since this sort of thing could possibly be going on. War being war being disgusting and not at all shy about depicting humans as the lowest of the low.
You cheer the Rat Plague for killing rapists. It's the lowest of the low for us as a species.
But the audiobook is SO well done, with two amazing readers, I have to give it an extra star. Aaargh, they did such a magnificent job that it was hard to stop listening.
It opens with such strength. It's chilling, sharp, and tightly plotted, for the first couple chapters. But somehow it starts to drag on and on. At about the halfway marker, once we start getting Achilles's voice to counter Briseis's voice, it starts feeling more muddled and a little directionless to my mind. We start fighting over whose story it is. In the end, Briseis bows out and tells the reader flatly, "It's not my story," which, okay, that's fine and fair. But by doing that her sections feel pointless and repetitive. I found myself looking forward much more eagerly for Achilles's chapters. Again, maybe it's the point and the book is being too clever for me, by silencing its main character to the point where she may as well not even be in the book? There's a deeper meaning?
But considering I didn't actually enjoy any of it despite it being all clever and book-clubby-discussion-instigating, I refuse to give it another star. It's already wheedled out an extra for the voice acting. I'm not going to give in just because it thought it was being clever when in reality it just felt confused and muddled and mixed.
So, to briefly sum up: laggy, confusing, and anachronistic; but super well read, with a really powerful opening and a pretty cool last third (even if it was just The Iliad, so all the really cool plot-based bits were written by someone else, technically).
You cheer the Rat Plague for killing rapists. It's the lowest of the low for us as a species.
But the audiobook is SO well done, with two amazing readers, I have to give it an extra star. Aaargh, they did such a magnificent job that it was hard to stop listening.
It opens with such strength. It's chilling, sharp, and tightly plotted, for the first couple chapters. But somehow it starts to drag on and on. At about the halfway marker, once we start getting Achilles's voice to counter Briseis's voice, it starts feeling more muddled and a little directionless to my mind. We start fighting over whose story it is. In the end, Briseis bows out and tells the reader flatly, "It's not my story," which, okay, that's fine and fair. But by doing that her sections feel pointless and repetitive. I found myself looking forward much more eagerly for Achilles's chapters. Again, maybe it's the point and the book is being too clever for me, by silencing its main character to the point where she may as well not even be in the book? There's a deeper meaning?
But considering I didn't actually enjoy any of it despite it being all clever and book-clubby-discussion-instigating, I refuse to give it another star. It's already wheedled out an extra for the voice acting. I'm not going to give in just because it thought it was being clever when in reality it just felt confused and muddled and mixed.
So, to briefly sum up: laggy, confusing, and anachronistic; but super well read, with a really powerful opening and a pretty cool last third (even if it was just The Iliad, so all the really cool plot-based bits were written by someone else, technically).