You need to sign in or sign up before continuing.
Scan barcode
rebecca_77's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Death, Slavery, Grief, and War
Moderate: Rape
Minor: Suicide
ziege's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Graphic: Child death, Slavery, and Violence
Minor: Rape and Suicide
amh9121's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Grief, Murder, Gaslighting, and War
marareading's review against another edition
- 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? Yes
3.25
I did love this book. given that the women weren't actively fighting the battles, it means that the stories are more disjointed, so it almost feels like short stories put together. It all does come together in the end. It is beautifully written. You can feel the wrath, pain, and intensity through these stories.
If you love retellings, this is a must read for a new take on a traditional story.
Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail
thegr1mreader's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Slavery, and Murder
Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Mental illness, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Rape, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment
jeannekmele's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
An exceptional collection of nearly universal tragedy across its heroines, pyrrhic victories are the norm for women whose darkest moments shine with vibrant human spirit on the pages of A THOUSAND SHIPS.
So often left footnotes--wives, mothers, sisters, sluts and daughters written to live, die, and love for the storied men of old--any background knowledge of the classical canon will lend an unerring hand to the conclusions we know these women will come to. Yet you cannot help but root for their success, or their peace if no such thing exist; despite the ends long since written for them, their human resilience and fragility and the womanly grit behind it all almost feels as if history could rewrite itself this time.
It doesn't, of course, but this in of itself is the devoted intersection of care and craft.
Though ATS is tragedy from the first page to last, the deluge of misery and loss roils and settles with the comfortable shape of a story until you're left with a sense of resolution that is not gratifying, but it is real. And that is the way of tragedy, trauma, and war: these things cannot be reversed, nor smoothed over, nor sated.
What of Eris, the instigator? What of Helen, the adulteress, the end of a kingdom? It is very easy, in a song about war, to glorify and vilify to the whims of one's own biases, or heroes, or chosen themes. I don't believe you will find such binary in this book.
I will quote Natalie Haynes' afterword: 'Survivors, victims, perpetrators: these roles are not always separate. People can be wounded and wounding at the same time, or at different times in the same life.'
It would be erroneous to go into A THOUSAND SHIPS expecting anything less than complex women with rich inner lives under extraneous circumstances. In the man-made disaster that is war, it becomes impractical and impossible to keep an orderly measure of right and wrong. The human condition warps into something immeasurable under such extreme duress. Though by no means a soothing read, I nonetheless devoured ATS as I haven't done with a book in a long time.
I will close with this: Grief is a long-lived creature with many faces that may come in any amount or combination at any time, in three days or five years, or decades hence. Grief is angry, and loud, and dead-eyed; it is wasting away and endless tears and twists in our chests that by right of anatomy shouldn't twist there; it is jealousy and accusation and cruelty and violence and submission and insanity.
Grief is ugly, and so often in contemporary western culture it is unsightly and to be repressed. In women, grief is mockingly anticipated, oppressively levied, and mercilessly culled. A THOUSAND SHIPS is an excellent read across the board, but for those who are processing grief and trauma, who may be unsure how to (especially women), it is a cathartic and humanizing portrait of the externally-inflicted and yet worst, most unacceptable parts of ourselves that are too big for our bodies, and too loud for the world.
Graphic: Gore, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicide, Violence, Grief, Murder, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , and War
Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Body horror, Child death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Blood, Trafficking, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Fire/Fire injury, and Classism
Minor: Ableism, Confinement, Death, Eating disorder, Fatphobia, Vomit, Pregnancy, and Alcohol
evieisilliterate's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Graphic: Child death, Death, Misogyny, Sexism, Grief, Death of parent, and War
Moderate: Slavery, Suicide, and Pregnancy
Minor: Rape
The aftermath of a violent war and its impacts on the remaining women.lilworm's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.5
Graphic: Suicide, Violence, and Murder
Moderate: Rape
holly_daze_'s review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and War
Moderate: Child death
Minor: Rape and Suicide
faithmari's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Grief, and Fire/Fire injury
Minor: Sexual assault and Suicide