Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker

41 reviews

sakisreads's review against another edition

dark inspiring tense 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? It's complicated

3.0

✨ Gifted ✨

My friend bought me this for my birthday and I was super pumped, having just finished ‘Silence of the Girls’.
He did say there was less drama (and he wasn’t wrong), but I still found Briseis’s energy inspiring and necessary. What a woman, helping other women in the horrific patriarchy!

I hated Pyrrhus (and now that I’ve looked at visual depictions of him, I hate him even more) 😂 But I also could sympathise with how he might have been a product of the trauma he went through 😳

3 out of 5 stars for me, thank you ✨ I am really enjoying Pat Barker’s twists on Greek mythology (although I’m unsure whether I’ll pick up the next one or not)!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Misogyny, and Pregnancy

lauramay_reads's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective 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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Genocide, Grief, Physical abuse, Slavery, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Violence, Death, Pregnancy, Murder, Rape, Suicide, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Torture, Injury/Injury detail, Trafficking, Physical abuse, Medical content, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Infidelity, and Rape

theothergrl's review against another edition

hopeful sad tense 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

4.0

I really enjoyed The Women of Troy as a sequel. It was really interesting to read more about the politics of the camp, especially through the POV of a seer navigating these power dynamics very consciously. It was great to read an author write that power is the root of all the violence and misogyny, that these things are distributed by normal men, 'good' men.
I didn't enjoy it as much as the 1st, and I felt there was fatphobia that wasn't just through the 'eyes of the men' as it claims. So I give it a 4.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Trafficking, Violence, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Child death, Death, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Medical content, Fatphobia, Alcoholism, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Rape, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, and Alcohol

Minor: Vomit and Torture

katy_bee's review against another edition

adventurous dark sad medium-paced

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

3.75

I enjoyed this book for the start and middle but knocked a bit off my score for the end. I appreciate that by building on the Greek myths there was a limit to plot points but it felt a little lacking in clear resolution to me. 

Nevertheless I like retellings and this one engaged with the idea of what it actually means to be given as a prize of war- pretty bleak. The way the women were trying to find ways to be - and stay true to themselves- in terrible circumstances was compelling and felt well handled

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Slavery, Kidnapping, Grief, War, Sexual violence, Rape, Misogyny, and Death

Minor: Torture

ckyoung's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism

Moderate: Rape, Death, and Pregnancy

chilivanilli28's review against another edition

dark emotional medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and Murder

Moderate: Pregnancy

blalloland's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Death, War, Slavery, Abortion, and Sexual content

Moderate: Sexual assault, Rape, and Homophobia

gondorgirl's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Child death, Domestic abuse, Alcohol, Animal death, Classism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Pregnancy, Slavery, Sexual assault, Suicide, and War

sarah_speaks's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad 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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Violence, War, Animal death, Child death, Pregnancy, Rape, and Death

Moderate: Torture

prlprl's review against another edition

challenging reflective slow-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? No

3.75

Barker navigates the space between epics with surprisingly sardonic grace.

Unlike the first of the series, there is hardly any magnitude of lore to give Briseis’ bathos depth, which makes this novel more challenging to read by itself. It’s a good continuation however, and lends itself to an enrichment to the first - much like Pyrrhus himself, it suffers some sequel syndrome.

Anima was an interesting iteration of the Antigone story, but in her own right, her relevance to Pyrrhus’ story was underdeveloped and had great unutilised potential. Strong start, but the sad solitude of Pyrrhus’ perspective lost its lustre against Briseis’ pragmatic and unflappable characterisation.

Not as gut-punching as the first; perhaps Briseis’ return to grace alienates her somewhat to the suffering that surrounds her.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy

Minor: Torture and Sexual harassment