Reviews tagging 'Grief'

Daughters of Sparta by Claire Heywood

19 reviews

hayleemarie's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Misogyny, Sexism, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Injury/Injury detail, Child death, Domestic abuse, Grief, Death of parent, and Suicide

withlivjones's review against another edition

dark emotional 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? Yes

3.75

This is a fantastic retelling of the stories of two of the most vilified women in Greek mythology. This book focuses heavily on Helen and Klytemnestra’s childhood experiences and how the small differences in them result in drastic differences to their behaviour as adults. The author provides us with a level of depth to their characters that isn’t provided in the source material, making them so much more sympathetic than many other interpretations have. Of course they have their flaws and make their mistakes, but since we clearly understand their motivations we have no choice but to root for them regardless. The prose is excellently written and gives a clear voice to both women’s feelings. And the men? We love to hate most of them, as it should be. 

My one gripe with this book is that the pacing is rather inconsistent. The start is somewhat slow, and I am grateful for the time skips to ensure that the narrative doesn’t get boring. However, Helen’s “abduction” occurs over halfway through the book and the actual war doesn’t start until three quarters of the way through. From there, the pacing is almost breakneck as the author attempts to fit the nine-year Trojan war, as well as its aftermath, into under one hundred pages. I appreciate that retellings of the Trojan War, especially the events covered in the Iliad, have been done to death in other adaptations, but I feel that Helen’s perspective of more parts of the war, or even Klytemnestra’s reception of the news of certain events, could have enhanced the story. I was half expecting Kalchas to somehow make a return, either during the plague (which isn’t mentioned) or when the Trojan Horse arrives (which is alluded to in a single sentence), since he plays a significant role in the first half of the novel and then completely disappears after Iphigenia’s death. The book barely touches on the events of the Iliad and the Agamemnon and doesn’t even cover the Libation Bearers (leaving both Klytemnestra’s and Elektra’s arcs feeling somewhat unfinished), and I think that the author really could have taken advantage of the opportunity to discuss the motivations of Helen and Klytemnestra in these stories where their actions are so significant. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Child death, Cursing, Death, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, and Violence

Moderate: Suicide, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Miscarriage, War, Genocide, and Grief

Period-typical attitudes towards women

mothman19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

• 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? It's complicated

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Child death, Death, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Trafficking, Violence, War, and Blood

Moderate: Pedophilia, Animal death, Toxic relationship, Rape, and Death of parent

Minor: Confinement, Abortion, Abandonment, Body shaming, Medical trauma, and Infertility

icarusandthesun's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative slow-paced

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

3.5

a greatly informative book with freshly interesting new perspectives. i really enjoyed reading about helen and klytemnestra, especially their childhoods, and the life at court for a woman and (house)wife as well.
still, i thought the characters were pretty... vanilla? like especially the men. you hear stories about the men's rage and bitterness, about the sexism and misogyny, but the men in this book were kind of ... alright i guess?
they were abusive sometimes and assholes of course, but when it came down to it, all they did was scream, mostly. and menelaos was like a puppy idk
i also thought the book was too slow and long in the wrong places. helen's and klytemnestra's childhoods were interesting, but you could keep it shorter. for the first half of the book not a lot really happened. i had wished for more infos and stories beyond the trojan war, explore the lives after, but it just cut off there, after the war had ended.

really addictive writing tho, would still definitely recommend. an informative, lyrical gem—with flaws:)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Death, Misogyny, Slavery, Grief, Murder, War, and Violence

Moderate: Physical abuse, Child death, Infidelity, Medical trauma, and Rape

Minor: Death of parent, Miscarriage, and Sexual content

annasbookreviews's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Adult/minor relationship, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Confinement, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Animal death, Blood, and Sexism

sadiesupercynski's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

This book was heartbreaking for many reasons and in many ways. There were several dark and difficult themes explored, which is something I like in a book but may not be for everyone. 

Daughters of Sparta is a fascinating version of the magnificent Trojan war mythology, told from two new points of view: the women behind the scenes of the original telling, Klytemnestra and Helen. Through these points of view, you are given glimpses into the challenges, heartbreak, cruelty, loneliness, grief, strength, and regret these characters face due the suppression of women, the liberties of men, and the casualties of war. 

Rather than being characters or presence in this retelling, the gods and goddesses from the original telling are given a backseat as simple idols of a belief system, giving the story a more historical, realistic feel rather than a supernatural one. 

Be sure to check out the content warnings before diving in, as many heavy and triggering topics play a role in this story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, War, Violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Grief, Gore, Emotional abuse, Death, Child death, and Blood

Moderate: Suicide

Minor: Miscarriage, Infertility, and Child death

therealslimkatie's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark sad tense slow-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? It's complicated

2.75

Hard to get into but did pick up. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

catriona99674's review against another edition

informative sad tense medium-paced

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

2.5

I found this book overall to be disappointing. As a book about Helen and Kyltemnestra I was looking forward to a retelling of the myth of Troy from these women's perspectives. However from the beginning to the end of the book both women lacked agency in their own stories. I appreciate that the author was working within confines of the myth and that agency for Greek women in this period was limited but it was remarkable how little action either woman took and for vast amount of the book they were both just passively reacting to things going on around them without evening seeming to want to do anything. This made them feel like props rather than real people and almost entirely unempathetic because how can you empathise with people who don't even think about doing anything? 

Also the frequent time jumping meant that the book never dwelt on anything. Lots of terrible things happen in this book but the author never spends any time in the aftermath. So the thing happens and then we instantly skip forward years ahead so that our characters have already dealt with the immediate consequences of the event. This meant that nothing really landed like it was clearly supposed to and the author failed to evoke and real emotions or look at anything in any real depth. 

The author created some really interesting opportunities to explore different types of abuse and neglect but the constant skipping forward meant that we never spent enough time anywhere to fully feel the weight of these. 

The author also had a chronic case of tell don't show. There was very little dialogue in the book and most of the the word count was made up of the author telling us what Helen and Klytemnestra had discovered in their time jumps about the men around them. Rather than being allowed to come to conclusions ourselves about other characters the author told us exactly what we should think at all times but failed to demonstrate it through action or dialogue in most cases. 

The book was also strangely paced. There was never enough time in this book. The chapters were very short, time was constantly jumping forward and events would be discussed and them dropped. This meant that not only did we spend very little time exploring the events of the book and their consequences and aftermath we also spent very little time in the lives of these two women. Also they seemed to ever do was weave. 

I dont often say this but this book needed to be longer. It did not have the word count to tackle the lives of both these women and the consequence was that nothing was explored satisfactorily. Various plot points were also discarded half way through the book and the ending was unsatisfactory. 

Overall I was left unsure what exactly the theming of this book was supposed to be and what the story the author was trying to tell was exactly. 

Saying all that it was still mostly an easy read and I did finish it. I would be interested in seeing what this author does yet and I hope she will improve in her future writing projects. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Infidelity, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, and War

Moderate: Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, and Grief

Minor: Miscarriage

rileepickle's review against another edition

emotional reflective sad tense 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? Yes

3.25

I really enjoyed this novel, especially towards the end. I think the biggest issue I had with it was that it shifted from focusing on Klytemnestra to focusing on Helen in the latter parts of the novel. I found Klytemnestra's story much more interesting than Helen's, although Helen's was intriguing as well. I didn't like the way this novel ended, and had more questions about some of the plot points that weren't answered. Overall though, a fun and emotional read with lots of jarring scenes and important themes. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Abortion, Miscarriage, Child death, Violence, Alcohol, Animal death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Toxic relationship