Reviews tagging 'Blood'

The Iliad by Homer

36 reviews

cpratreads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark informative sad tense 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? It's complicated

2.0

I did not enjoy reading this book. It was such a slog. 

I am not a big fan of war focused narratives, so that part is on me. But the descriptions are simply too in-depth. I also would have an existential crisis if I lived in this book, as the Gods seem to always do what they want, except when they don't, so it doens't even make anything feel important. 

If you like lists, then boy do I have a story for you. The lists in this book are endless, and include: the name of every ship being sailed including a description and how many men are on board - the name of every person who dies ever in this war, how they die, and who they are related to - the names of everyone that participates in any sort of game, wager, race, etc.  A list lovers dream, truely. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Sexual violence, and War

Moderate: Blood, Gore, and Fire/Fire injury

Minor: Alcohol

prettiestwhistles's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad tense slow-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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Gore, Grief, Violence, Death, Blood, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Classism, Death of parent, Infidelity, Misogyny, Sexism, Animal death, Slavery, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape, Kidnapping, and Alcohol

nicoles_reading_corner's review against another edition

dark reflective sad slow-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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Child death, War, Blood, and Death

gilnean's review

adventurous challenging dark tense slow-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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Misogyny, Sexual violence, Alcohol, Infidelity, Grief, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Sexism, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Violence, Death, Blood, Kidnapping, Animal death, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Ableism, Body shaming, Genocide, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Incest, Vomit, Gun violence, Child death, Physical abuse, Body horror, Sexual content, Alcoholism, Domestic abuse, Animal cruelty, Toxic relationship, and Excrement

chaos_positive's review

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad slow-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

as dense as a overbaked fruit cake but if you are willing to take the trudge, it has a lot of very poignant themes, Achilles being chronically very angry, so many different ways people get killed by spears, genuinely very impressive, and if you choice to listen to it, even the very very long lists of who killed who and who's son they were become very rhythmic almost like a drumbeat march of the dead. also if you're tired of men in media not showing emotion you best believe these murder hobos clad in bronze cry for their fallen friends. also it might even make you laugh a few times like

there is actually two ajaxes and they are by in large referred to as ajax and ajax , also my favorite quote is, "ajax, you are excellent at quarreling and terrible at thinking" an absolutely marvelous insult

you might not like it if you are really put off about women literally being treated as objects, it was written a few thousand years before the suffragettes made that unpopular. (if you want the same vibes but with women with more agency check out the odyssey, women hold more power in that one and aren't traded like baseball cards)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Violence, Grief, Blood, Animal death, Slavery, Child death, Death, Injury/Injury detail, and Infidelity

Moderate: Sexism

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, and Misogyny

it's very bloody and unforgiving, nobody is spared the suffering, but it's written in a way that distances you because it is so matter of fact about these things, a "this is how things are, no point dwelling on them unnecessarily" attitude.

mkordziel's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

4.25

The Iliad is an epic of epic proportions. The story revolves around two conflicts: Greeks and Trojans and Achilles and Agamemnon. With interwoven themes of love, brotherhood, and honor the story still holds up thousands of years later. My only gripe with it is its abrupt ending, which left me a bit unsatisfied.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Slavery, War, Blood, and Violence

elizabethjane's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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? Yes

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Blood, Death, Violence, War, Grief, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Misogyny

caelfind's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional 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? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, War, and Death

Moderate: Violence, Blood, and Murder

Minor: Sexual assault

tourmaline1703's review against another edition

adventurous funny tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

Overall, I did enjoy this story, and I will accredit that to the translator. As a lover of the Classical world, it's obvious I read the Iliad, following my reading of the Odyssey and Metamorphoses last year (both in translation). Whilst this has not overtaken Metamorphoses as my favourite of the epics, it was still great.
The translation was witty and funny which helped balance the gritty violence of the war ongoing in the poem. Of course there are sectios which are just lists of names, but in this story, I needed the reminders of who was who because there was such a large amount of characters. I loved the dialoue in this, the humour was great and it captured the emotions of characters so well.
What confused me about this is it doesn't tell the story of the whole Trojan War.

It stops after Hector's death

which confused me because, whilst this is a crucial emotional moment, the war continued after this and the story feels unfinished. It does feel like an abrupt end which is confusing after you have read hundreds of pages of action. Despite it consisting almost entirely of battle scenes, it doesn't feel too repetitive and the different points of view help keep the story moving and interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, War, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and Violence

Moderate: Ableism and Blood

Minor: Slavery, Animal death, and Rape

careinthelibrary's review against another edition

adventurous challenging sad slow-paced

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Death, War, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Animal death, Kidnapping, Blood, and Gore

Moderate: Sexism, Rape, Sexual violence, Misogyny, Trafficking, and Sexual assault