Reviews with content warning for Blood - A Thousand Ships

Reviews tagging 'Blood'

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes

89 reviews

rd77's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

4.5

A very interesting read. The author was able to make you sympathize for each woman very quickly, and it was interesting to think about the impact of the war on women, since it’s not talked about nearly enough. The only thing I didn’t like was Penelope’s chapters- for anyone who has read The Odyssey, it’s a tired retelling of it, with little actual insight to Penelope’s side of the story until her last 2 chapters.

Content Warnings

alexisgarcia's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book was amazing. I absolutely adore greek retellings and this women based greek retelling was beautiful. It reads in chronological order with some chapters involving the writing process of the book from a perspective of a man and letters from Penelope. It was beautifully written and so enlightening. I would 100% recommend anyone to read this book.

Content Warnings

meganfischer's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

4.5

Content Warnings

jourdanicus's review against another edition

Go to review page

dark inspiring medium-paced

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

I love a retelling. I also love an audiobook read by its author. The passion was absolutely there. I felt that the characters were real, they were not always likeable which made them that much more believable. I don't think this is going to be my favorite retelling ever - don't get me wrong, it's beautifully written and really infuses the tragedy of the women's narratives. But I think this would be a better read for someone more familiar with the Greek classics. I only have a passing familiarity, and the women's stories were told as snippets so this almost felt like a collection of short stories, so I often felt I was missing something and ended up Googling details about the original legends which kind of took me out of the beauty of the audio. Anyway, I'm glad to see another addition to the recent number of classics retellings from the perspective of women.

Content Warnings

hmatt's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

4.75

Wow. This book is structured in such a neat way and the stories are compelling and empathetic.

I think you probably need about as much knowledge of the Iliad as I have to appreciate these stories, though. There is some internal explaining, but most are told in a way that inserts the reader right into the scenes without a lot of context. I think this adds to the telling, overall, but I can see how it might discourage readers who don't have the Greek myth 101 primer handy.

I'm a little wishy-washy on whether I enjoyed some of the more self-indulgent stories in the collection. I do think it was a smart choice to keep Calliope's and the Goddesses' chapters brief, though. They felt more shallow than the stories from the "actual" women, and Calliope's kind of just seemed too on-the-nose. But I'm not familiar enough with the customs of Greek literature to know if these sections were meant to echo existing conventions, so.

A note on the audiobook: it was certainly a choice for the author to also narrate. I actually think they did a great job, though a few times here and there I felt they were too emphatic. Mostly I took issue with some strange pronunciations of Greek names... and, again, I don't actually know enough about the topic to know if there is debate over these pronunciations. They were just different than what I have heard before. Also, in the Afterword, the author pronounces "quasi" really strangely...

Content Warnings

poppyamber's review against another edition

Go to review page

emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

Content Warnings

gemmascott's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous challenging dark emotional informative inspiring mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.5

Really enjoyed this exploration of the Trojan war and its aftermath from the point of view of the Greek and Trojan women who were caught up in the conflict. It was beautifully written and researched and made me want to read (or re-read) the classical source material in a way no book has in years.

Using Calliope, the muse, to bookend the story (as well as regularly throughout the narrative), brought the book’s connection to the ancient epics alive and I particularly enjoyed the characterisation of the goddesses

My only criticism is that, very occasionally, the book felt a little dry, as it continued to tread what is obviously a well worn plot. However, it was beautifully done and I much prefer it to the Penelopiad - you can definitely tell this belongs to the next generation of classical retellings.

Content Warnings