Reviews tagging 'Child death'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

185 reviews

civetta's review

challenging informative sad slow-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Death, Kidnapping, Murder, Rape, Sexual content, Blood, Domestic abuse, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Pedophilia, Pregnancy, Suicidal thoughts, Child abuse, Cursing, Abortion, Grief, Miscarriage, and Pandemic/Epidemic

patsypoo's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix

4.0

What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won’t want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won’t want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won’t want to know we were living in a rape camp. No, they’ll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.

Really enjoyed this one! I love The Song of Achilles and it's nice to see another angle of it through Briseis' eyes. It's a very tough one to get through at times unsurprisingly. It's a war story after all so all the content warnings!

On one hand, I wish there had been less of Achilles here and on the other hand I feel his perspective is also needed to round out this particular story.

One drawback for me was the dialogue. It's very laddish and modern Britain to my taste and although I got used to it, it is kind of jarring on occasion and it took me out of the story somewhat. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Sexism, Violence, War, Animal death, Sexual assault, Child death, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Suicide, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, and Sexual violence

theothergrl's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This book does a wonderful job of showing us how patriarchy harms both women and men. It's a retelling of Achilles' story of the Battle of Troy from the perspective of his bed slave, Briseis. Their horrific and very sad relationship is explored earnestly. It's not a story about love, it's about two people pushed into bed and how they grieve immense loss not together but side-by-side. In different ways they are both denied the ability to process these emotions. They both grapple with their anger at the wasteful and pointless reasons for their loss. The loneliness and pain they both experience come from two hands of the same body, patriarchy. I think the way this is shown so paralleled throughout story, not in comparison to one another, is what makes this such brilliant feminist literature.

And, of course considering everything else, this book is a wonderful example of how we can tell stories with even the extremes of sexual violence, and tell them well without gratuitousness nor overly graphic. I did not once feel that there was no need for a particular sex/rape scene, when they were there, it added to the story. 

The 3 main characters in this book are loveable (and 2 very much despiseable) in a very complicated and heart wrenching way. But you'll definately enjoy spending time with them and hearing their story, I would 100% recommend this book. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Pandemic/Epidemic, Physical abuse, War, Violence, Alcohol, Death, Slavery, and Trafficking

Moderate: Sexual violence, Abandonment, Pedophilia, Blood, Infidelity, and Rape

Minor: Infertility, Vomit, Child death, and Pregnancy

indigoimpulse's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

3.75

i actually really liked the fact that briseis wasn’t a perfect character and that she’s so judgemental of others around her, men and women alike - i feel like given her circumstances you can’t exactly expect her to act like a saint . her narration was very raw which i found gave her personality .

however the book promised me a story from briseis’ pov so i didn’t really appreciate so much of the book being taken up by achilles’ pov - this author writes grief excellently so his sections were great but it kind of took away from the fact that this was supposed to be briseis’ story . i don’t really think you can call this a feminist novel but i enjoyed it nonetheless 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Pedophilia, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Domestic abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Torture, Blood, Toxic relationship, Rape, Sexual content, Kidnapping, Violence, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Murder, Physical abuse, Slavery, War, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, and Gore

acgeorge's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-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? No

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Death, Blood, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Misogyny, Murder, Slavery, War, and Classism

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Sexual content, Alcohol, Pregnancy, Religious bigotry, and Toxic relationship

lapistea's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Slavery, Grief, Child death, Sexual content, Blood, Misogyny, Gore, Rape, Body horror, Suicide, Death, Animal death, Pregnancy, War, and Violence

amyam's review against another edition

dark emotional sad 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? Yes

4.5

‘What will they make of us, the people of those unimaginably distant times? One thing I do know: they won't want the brutal reality of conquest and slavery. They won't want to be told about the massacres of men and boys, the enslavement of women and girls. They won't want to know we were living in a r*** camp. No, they'll go for something altogether softer. A love story, perhaps? I just hope they manage to work out who the lovers were.’

I really enjoyed this book, I loved how it stuck so closely to the original myths/stories. Every character came with flaws and there was depth to all the characters. The book both showed the very horrific nature of this period while not being graphic and hard to read. 

Briseis provided an interesting focal point for the story as she guided us through her life at the time. Through her fear, her hatred, her confusion and her acceptance. Despite how incredulous her story may be to a modern reader, by hearing her thoughts and point of view her story does make a lot more sense. I enjoyed her wit and at times sarcasm even if she couldn’t say it out loud. 

This was an excellent book so much so I immediately went out and bought the second one as I couldn’t stop thinking about it.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Animal death, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Pedophilia, Rape, Violence, War, and Gaslighting

lottie1803's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense

• 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? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Slavery, Child death, Misogyny, Death, Rape, Pregnancy, Medical content, Violence, Miscarriage, Fire/Fire injury, and War

tmickey's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Rape, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Trafficking

Moderate: Medical content, Pregnancy, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, and Vomit

farah24's review

dark reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Misogyny, Sexism, Child death, Death, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, and War

Moderate: Injury/Injury detail, Physical abuse, Alcohol, Blood, Domestic abuse, Sexual content, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Animal death