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A review by spatterson12
Helen of Troy by Margaret George
4.0
Ooh buddy. Anyone who I came in contact with while I was reading this was given fun facts they certainly didn’t ask for.
This was probably one of the slower reads I’ve had in a while, with it taking about an hour to read 30 pages - but truly, it was well worth it.
Helen is SO messy, dramatic, self-involved, foolish, and I LOVE it. She trusts a snake’s approval more than the prophecies from like 50 other people. Girl is wild. How is she going to convince Menelaus to run for days and nights to prove his love for her and then dump him for the first teen that gives her attention? Respect the cougar at work.
Menelaus isn’t perfect, obviously. He had a woman on the side and a casual family curse that would doom him forever. Meanwhile, Paris probably needed to work through some family issues of his own before taking another man’s wife to his home.
I’ll forever think it’s crazy that Helen saw that Menelaus was bored, asked her king dad if he could give Menelaus some little tasks, only for the dad to be like “he can have my title even though he’s not from here, I’m ready to retire.” Then, she becomes queen of Sparta only to run off with Paris (taking the LONG way), and commits to life as a Trojan. Loyalty is not for the weak.
I did enjoy how petty the gods were. Truly, could’ve had more content on them, especially Athena. Helen was constantly disrespecting Aphrodite, so she got what she got for that behavior.
I need to know what the horse looked like to the Trojans after years in battle for them to want to bring it into their walls. Were they blinded by its craftsmanship? Their ego? Complete desperation to have something to prove that the war was for something other than a shady woman?
Also, would like to give props to Hermoine for calling Helen out later in life.
Clearly, I didn’t realize how little I knew about Helen, Paris, and the gang until really diving into every detail of Sparta and Troy in this book. I’m really interested in this author’s book on Cleopatra, but might wait a bit for that commitment.
Can’t do a 5 on this one because there were moments were I fell asleep. Just keeping it real.
This was probably one of the slower reads I’ve had in a while, with it taking about an hour to read 30 pages - but truly, it was well worth it.
Helen is SO messy, dramatic, self-involved, foolish, and I LOVE it. She trusts a snake’s approval more than the prophecies from like 50 other people. Girl is wild. How is she going to convince Menelaus to run for days and nights to prove his love for her and then dump him for the first teen that gives her attention? Respect the cougar at work.
Menelaus isn’t perfect, obviously. He had a woman on the side and a casual family curse that would doom him forever. Meanwhile, Paris probably needed to work through some family issues of his own before taking another man’s wife to his home.
I’ll forever think it’s crazy that Helen saw that Menelaus was bored, asked her king dad if he could give Menelaus some little tasks, only for the dad to be like “he can have my title even though he’s not from here, I’m ready to retire.” Then, she becomes queen of Sparta only to run off with Paris (taking the LONG way), and commits to life as a Trojan. Loyalty is not for the weak.
I did enjoy how petty the gods were. Truly, could’ve had more content on them, especially Athena. Helen was constantly disrespecting Aphrodite, so she got what she got for that behavior.
I need to know what the horse looked like to the Trojans after years in battle for them to want to bring it into their walls. Were they blinded by its craftsmanship? Their ego? Complete desperation to have something to prove that the war was for something other than a shady woman?
Also, would like to give props to Hermoine for calling Helen out later in life.
Clearly, I didn’t realize how little I knew about Helen, Paris, and the gang until really diving into every detail of Sparta and Troy in this book. I’m really interested in this author’s book on Cleopatra, but might wait a bit for that commitment.
Can’t do a 5 on this one because there were moments were I fell asleep. Just keeping it real.