Reviews tagging 'Suicide'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

124 reviews

stitchbooks22's review

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

2.0

The silence of the girls wasn’t badly written and was easy enough to get into reading.

However, can publishers and marketing teams stop pushing the term “feminist retelling” onto books that are so clearly NOT a feminist retelling? That is my biggest issue with this book. If the book had been done differently, it had the potential to be a feminist retelling. But trying to focus a bit more on the women in a story that is male dominated and being unsuccessful at focusing on the women and their own lives does NOT make a book a feminist retelling. That is my main gripe with this book.

So if you’re looking for a feminist retelling of Greek mythology, this is not it. Otherwise it was an okay book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Physical abuse, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Death, Toxic relationship, Suicide, War, Slavery, Infidelity, Medical content, Torture, Child death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Vomit, Animal death, Blood, Body shaming, and Violence

ltsang08's review

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Death, Murder, Slavery, Sexual violence, Violence, Adult/minor relationship, Domestic abuse, War, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Death of parent, Suicide, Trafficking, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, and Rape

chialozito's review against another edition

dark inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Pregnancy, Murder, and Rape

Minor: Suicide

katelynwillliams's review against another edition

dark reflective fast-paced

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

4.5

i loved how this book used the classic narrative techniques and themes/struggles of the Iliad to recall the original text, while also adding new meaning. For example, she uses a catalog to evoke the stories of the numberless men who die at Troy, but it is through their mothers’ stories that we hear of them. Similarly, themes of choice, fate, honor, hospitality, and glory were explored through Achilles, like the original text, but also through Briseis, who reflects on her own feelings as well as Achilles’. 

For all it’s accuracy to the original epic, the amount of British slang really bothered me. While the imagery could evoke the distant past, the constant use of “bloody” / “bloody hell” brings the reader immediately back to the present. It also made this dark book on the realities of war comical in a way. 

Though the British slang was kinda crazy, this was an accurate and refreshing retelling of the Iliad. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault

Moderate: Fatphobia and Suicide

alice451's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Child death, Suicidal thoughts, Emotional abuse, Rape, War, Violence, Genocide, Sexual assault, Blood, Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Sexual content, Slavery, Animal death, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, and Suicide

emmagossage's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual harassment, War, Violence, Slavery, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Physical abuse, and Suicide

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

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

beesleybob's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content, War, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Miscarriage and Suicide

dazzy's review against another edition

dark emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Injury/Injury detail, Self harm, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Suicide attempt, and Suicidal thoughts