Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - The Silence of the Girls

A retelling of the Trojan War that provides a particularly graphic and brutal depiction of the Greek army as the bloodthirsty villains instead of the heroes presented in the Iliad.

I tried and failed to read this book twice before finally getting through it. It is a very slow-paced book that only really picks up in the second half. What really threw me off, however, is that while this book is marketed as being narrated by Briseis, there are many chapters (starting from about a third of the way in and gradually getting more frequent) where the point of view suddenly shifts to some of the men - most often Achilles, but also at points Patroclus and Priam. While this does provide an interesting perspective of the war, since few writers have dared to examine the depths of Achilles’ psyche in such detail, it was really not what I was expecting from a book that wanted to tell a more female-focused version of the myth. The dilemma is this: women are notoriously silent in Greek mythology and hardly ever have the freedom to tell their own story, so why, then, in a novel where Briseis is presented as reclaiming her own narrative, is a male perspective inserting itself into said narrative just like they have done for the last two thousand years?

The novel is still very enjoyable and well-written, and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone interested in Greek mythology, but I can’t help feeling a little disappointed that I seemed to be reading a different book to the one that was advertised.

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lifesarosch's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated

5.0

Beautiful, devastating. Women!

Content Warnings

condygurl's review

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challenging dark emotional 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? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.5

Trigger warning! There are quite a few scenes regarding violence towards children and women, these take the forms of not only physical abuse, but also rape, molestation, and murder.

This is a story of the war between the Greeks and Troy due to Helen. Helen plays a very minor role in the story.

The story is from the perspective of a captured woman who once was going to be Queen, but instead becomes the slave to the most fierce warrior of all time.

The only part I was truly upset about is the author silencing the girls. The beginning starts out very strong, but then we switch POV, and poof, out goes the female voice, and in comes the crazy male voice. It also got a bit repetitive in the camp, but I guess that is par for the course because how different is daily living from day to day when you are a slave?

Very good story but I think it could have been better if the author stuck with one pov.

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ccee's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

3.75

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