Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker

45 reviews

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

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

kredeprnz's review against another edition

dark emotional informative reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.0

Wow. I am actually broken because of this book. I'm writing this fresh after finishing it and just, wow. 

I came for another retelling of the Iliad, hoping it would be as beautiful as so many others, and it was. It was beautiful because of the story of Briseis is not. Her story is absolutely ugly and terrifying, a true tragedy as the life for women in ancient times were. It's realistic and historic in it's own ways. Her reactions to the traumas were painted in a way that weren't triggering, but you still felt her raw emotion, the raw emotion of a human being so hurt and tortured. This book was amazing in telling her story and the stories of many other trojan women that were looked over and ignored so many times throughout history. A truly powerful story. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Suicide, and Pregnancy

Minor: Body shaming, Infertility, and Miscarriage

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

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

honorablemmmention's review

slow-paced

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

1.0

I hate this book with a passion. Not only does it not follow the blurb, meander, and waste your time while telling you "that's the point", but it pretends to be feministic with nothing to actually say, and also fooled me into buying it by having one of the best first chapters I've read so far. Such an insult.

Only read this if you like ancient Greeks speaking and swearing like British people in modern day. 

I use this book to see if i can trust someone's reccomendations. If you like this book i just can't take you seriously.

 

there are just SO many chapters of men bickering. And the ending with briseis telling us that NOW her story can begin was a huge slap in the face for reading the entire thing.

This is NOT briseis' story - it's her complaining.

It even fails at checkov's gun! Why would you make a big deal of the big sharp rock if you're never gonna bring it up again!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Body horror, Death, Rape, Slavery, Murder, and Sexual harassment

thevintageflowerfaerie's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicide, Torture, Trafficking, and Murder

Minor: Child abuse, Mental illness, and Alcohol

auntie_em's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense 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

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

imkex's review against another edition

dark emotional inspiring sad slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Trafficking, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Suicide