Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - A Thousand Ships

wow. just wow.

haynes is definitely an auto-buy author for me now.

the way she was able to make every woman feel so real and give them so much depth was incredibly to read

i 100% recommend the audiobook as it's narrated by haynes herself and you can hear exactly how she intends each character to be heard.

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meg_sc's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

The book I wanted to read when I was 16 that didn't exist yet.

Natalie Haynes combines spectacular prose with clear passion for and insight into classical mythology. A powerful portrayal of figures that have been widely overlooked until recently. It would be easy for this book to not be engaging for those with a good knowledge of the stories surrounding the Trojan War, but the prose really pulls the book together. I knew what was coming next but not how it would be presented. I'm really looking forward to reading her other books having seen the care she crafted this one with.

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doodlebooks's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective fast-paced

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

5.0

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spooderman's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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conspystery's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

5.0

First: I listened to the audiobook version of A Thousand Ships, performed by the author, and it was absolutely incredible. Her performance adds so much power to the story and perfectly complements its themes about giving voice to the unheard. This book’s task is ambitious-- portraying sides of war that are often overlooked entirely-- but it thoroughly succeeds in its effort.

The writing of this book is engaging, evoking all the tragedy, sorrow, and grief of war and loss while also emphasizing moments of contrast as they appear. Every emotion the characters experience is relayed in detail through its language and syntax. The book is segmented into chapters by character, and the writing shifts to give distinct, detailed voices to each of the people it explores: the muse Calliope is familiar and playfully casual yet powerful and solemn, Creusa is intelligent and determined with a keen concern for her family, Penelope is dotingly exasperated but evolves into near-spitefulness and doubt, Iphigenia is self-assured and ironically enthusiastic, and so on. The narrative’s framing via the muse is the perfect conduit for exploration of these women’s stories, and the structure of the novel is aided by the thoughtful prose it employs to communicate its pathos.

I loved the lengths this book goes to in order to give depth to each character and, thus, emphasize its point about war’s endless impact on humanity. Every story was detailed and compelling, each presenting a newly intriguing lens with which to view the contextualizing events of the narrative. The scope of this novel is wide, but the book doesn’t feel stretched thin; rather, it is all-encompassing, and gives each character’s story the space to be told in detail. The result of this is a deeply moving portrait of each of the cast for every chapter, one that fosters connection with and understanding of the emotions, actions, and selves of the characters in all their multifaceted, complex glory. As far as favorites go, I’ll specifically note Oenone, Cassandra (her unexpected kinship with Clytemnestra was fascinating!), and the more general chapters about the women of Troy (I especially loved Hecabe and Helen, in the limited capacity in which she appears), but genuinely, all of the chapters of this book were immensely compelling, and I can’t pick one character who resonated most deeply with me. That’s the point-- all the stories are worth telling, just as all the women are worth consideration.

I’d like to present a defense of this book’s Penelope. Based on the reviews I’ve read, her chapters seem to be the most polarizing; the main argument is that she is too detached from the main narrative of the story, and that her chapters center too heavily around Odysseus to effectively communicate the agency the rest of the women in the novel are afforded in their storytelling. Comparisons arise between this book’s Penelope and that of Margaret Atwood’s The Penelopiad, which explores the details of Penelope’s life while her husband is absent-- A Thousand Ships, though, offers Penelope’s perspective on her husband’s story as her own narrative, without as much detail afforded to the events of her daily life. I don’t think this takes away from A Thousand Ships’s Penelope, however. I disagree with the assessment that her chapters are detached and boring or too focused on Odysseus. Penelope’s chapters are some of my favorites in this book (to the extent that I could pick favorites!) precisely because of how her relaying of Odysseus’s story communicates her character. It isn’t reductive that Penelope is narratively tied to Odysseus-- he’s important to her, and she’s lost him! Of course she thinks about him, of course she considers herself in relation to him! I think exploring her struggle to come to terms with the stories she hears of him in the thoughtful, personal manner this book does is a commentary on how the mythologizing of Odysseus shapes her as merely a devoted, waiting wife in the Odyssey.

This book’s Penelope reflects on the layer of stories that have indirectly defined her through her own voice. She examines herself through Odysseus’s story rather than recounting her own with his absence for context, as The Penelopiad does. These two books are not trying to accomplish the same goal. Both have their own merits, but they are very different ones. The Penelopiad emphasizes Penelope’s independence as her own character; A Thousand Ships acknowledges a Penelope who willfully incorporates her relationship with her husband into her identity, while also questioning her role in that relationship. Her dissection of his story doesn’t dilute the fact that it’s her interpretation we’re hearing as she examines herself through it. Not to mention her wit, her exhausted devotion, her balance of hopefulness and grief, giving up on Odysseus but loving him the same, her strength… to write off this Penelope as a mere product of her husband’s mythologizing is to miss the point. It’s why she’s presented this way at all. What can we learn from a Penelope who is aware of how her husband’s story defines her and actively considers her identity in turn? That is the very question A Thousand Ships wishes to answer with its Penelope chapters, and it’s why I love them so much.

Ultimately, A Thousand Ships paints a tragic and powerful picture of the reality of war in its impact on those whose stories are often overlooked. Its portraits of the women it examines are poignant, realistic in flaws and virtues alike, and tragically ironic at times, always multifaceted and brimming with the possibilities for interpretation. This book brings attention to the importance of storytelling in a brutally heartaching manner, and it furthers its own point in how it voices the stories it does. I adored it.

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careinthelibrary's review against another edition

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emotional mysterious sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated

3.5

I liked this! I picked it up because of a recommendation from a friend and she definitely knew me well. I already know and love the story of The Trojan War and The Odyssey and this retelling satisfied my <i>dissatisfation</i> regarding the misrepresentation and underrepresentation of women in the ancient Greek stories. This gives those figures on the outskirts a voice and more agency.

My favourites would be Penthesilia, Cassandra, and Penelope (oh my God, I never thought of so much of The Odyssey from her perspective and I'm hooked!). I wish we'd had a chapter from Helen's perspective, it's conspicuous that we don't.

I think having so many perspectives did stretch the narrative a bit too thin. I would have loved a few of these culled to give more space to the others to be deepened and more explored at length. I'm looking forward to reading more from this author, perhaps with a focus on ones with fewer PoVs.

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nagoatsis's review against another edition

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dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

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