Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

117 reviews

introverted_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Grief, Child death, Death, Slavery, Religious bigotry, Violence, War, and Sexual violence

Moderate: Rape, Cursing, Death of parent, Sexism, Pregnancy, and Suicide

Minor: Animal death and Excrement

theweepingwillow_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark informative sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Great, but sometimes forgettable

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexism, Violence, Trafficking, War, Slavery, Rape, Gore, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Suicide, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Misogyny, Medical content, and Kidnapping

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

wholewheatbagel's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense slow-paced

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

3.75

this book did what it set out to do well enough as a greek mythology story from a (somewhat) female perspective. the book does a nice job of blending classics and fiction, and the main character briseis is likeable enough. i understand the frustrations of the book being marketed as a female perspective but also including achilles and patroclus pov, but I felt like i could understand all of the characters more while still getting briseis’s perspective. however, the book was boring at times and some parts took me a bit to get through. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Suicide, Slavery, Murder, Child death, Sexual violence, War, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Violence, Sexism, and Genocide

velokei's review against another edition

dark sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

3.25

How do I even begin to describe how I feel about this book. 
I like it in the way you like an ugly but healthy puppy, is it ugly? Yes, but it’s still living and breathing and you end up developing an attachment to it anyway. I could barely put it down, but at the same time I really wanted to put it down. 
Briseis (our main character) is boring and just bland. I don’t like her and that should not be the case!  In a book supposedly meant to be centred around women, why is there only one woman’s pov but two mens? And why are both the men far more interesting than the woman? Pat if you wanted to write specifically just about Patroclus and Achilles, that’s okay! My favourite parts of the book involved just the two of them. 
I also don’t get why the last line is ‘Now, my own story can begin’ if the books whole point was supposed to be the story of Briseis, and I didn’t like the changes to the myth including who she marries and

The reveal of her pregnancy, like??? Bit weird but okay 


Tldr
Loved Patrochilles moments 
Hated Briseis she was boring 
Didn’t like the changes to the myth 
This didn’t feel very feminist 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Child abuse, Death, Excrement, Genocide, Gore, Vomit, Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Classism, Cursing, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, and War

beauvisseau's review against another edition

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? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

One word: breathtaking. This retelling of a story as old as time was done so well, you can almost taste the love that the author has for Greek and Trojan mythology. The writing style was impeccable, and I can clearly see all of the conscious choices that the author made regarding things like speaking style, active versus  passive speaking styles and the investment in certain themes. 

Although the main character, Briseis, does not have a highly developed character, I feel that it fits with her state of being. The grief of losing her loved ones but also one's self can turn you into a shell of memories and thoughts.
One point of criticism though, is that I would have liked to see more perspectives of different women there. It is a missed opportunity to switch between Briseis, Patroclus and Achilles, when two of those three narratives have already been explored for centuries but so many narratives are missing.

Amazing work of fiction that truly expands upon the existing narratives and opened my eyes to many new ideas about war, feminism, story-telling, slavery and power. Would recommend to anyone.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Alcohol, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Medical content, Medical trauma, Murder, Pedophilia, Sexual violence, Torture, Toxic friendship, Trafficking, Child death, Classism, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Suicidal thoughts, War, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Domestic abuse, Self harm, Slavery, Terminal illness, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Genocide, Gore, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual harassment, Violence, Physical abuse, and Xenophobia

marimarifer's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

• 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? No

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death, Gore, Body horror, Rape, Child death, and Sexual assault

glutenfreemaggie's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-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? Yes

3.75

The title of the book is contradictory in that only the first part of the book is from Briseis’ perspective. The second and third parts rotate between Achilles’ POV, Briseis’ POV and like a third person narrator? Idk it took away from the story a little bit for me because it was literally a silencing of the girls. Not sure if that was intentional. I understand why we got heavily into Achilles’ perspective once Patroclus died, but the story was supposed to be about Briseis’ experience so the story lost its structure.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Excrement, Gore, Kidnapping, Murder, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, War, Physical abuse, Sexual violence, and Suicide attempt

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

dark emotional informative tense 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? Yes

4.0

This was an amazing look into more of Briseis’ story. It tells her as a main character, instead of usually having her as a side character with Achilles as the main character. It was incredibly refreshing

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Gore, War, Vomit, Suicidal thoughts, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Slavery, Grief, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Violence, Suicide, Sexual content, Sexism, Rape, Medical trauma, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

lotten4's review against another edition

dark fast-paced

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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Kidnapping, Gore, Blood, Violence, Rape, Trafficking, Slavery, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Death of parent, Death, Child death, Animal death, War, Murder, Misogyny, and Genocide

Moderate: Suicide, Pregnancy, and Pedophilia

Minor: Vomit, Self harm, Medical content, and Alcohol

princess424's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense slow-paced

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

3.0

I really liked the concept of this book. Giving the power back to the women of the Trojan War. This book was good. I kind of wish we had the pov of Helen but I absolutely love Briseis and her story was different because we usually get perspectives of the Greeks and how they fought the war and it’s a one sided war but this book gave the Trojans names and opinions and stories which was great

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Kidnapping, War, Child death, Death, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Emotional abuse, Physical abuse, Rape, and Murder