Review: The Silence of the Girls

The Silence of the Girls

By. Pat Barker

☕☕☕☕

"Every man in the city died that day..."

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Synopsis

    The Silence of the Girls is a story the Trojan women who were captured and used for the soldiers pleasure during the Trojan War. We follow Breseis, the wife of the son of the King of Lyrnessus which has been overthrown by the Greeks; all the men and boys butchered, and all the women allocated to their new owners. Breseis is rewarded to Achilles, the commander of the troop that overthrew her city and killed her brothers and father. She is a strong women, learning to adapt with her new life as a slave with as much dignity as the men will allow her (which isn't much). Achilles is a quiet but brutal man, his mother is a sea goddess and his father is a king. He has the mindset of a child, mourning his mothers touch, but the rage and brutality of a starving bear in a cow field.

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My Review

    I need to start out with a confession. I actually have read this book before...4 years ago..in High School. Its been a very memorable book for me, a certain disgusting line randomly pops into my head (if you read it and you get there...you know what I'm talking about...) and for what ever reason it makes me want to read this again and again (even though once I get to said line I have to put the book down and try not to throw up because *shudder*). I also want to say every review on this book I've rea has compared this book to The Iliad...which I find super strange considering The Iliad was the inspiration for this book...so of course they will be similar, they're telling the same story just from a different perspective (kind of...we'll get to that). So having not read The Iliad, I'll be able to review this book without that comparison. 

    The Silence of the Girls is a great story with such brutal description it really helps you build an image for what's going on, however the world building was pretty much non-existent. There was very few descriptions of rooms and the camps layout and yet there was a ton of movement within them. I found it a little bit difficult to navigate the encampment because there was no map made or described, then Breseis is going between buildings I wanted to feel like it was tiring and brutal for her but I had no idea how far apart different tents were so it was hard to sympathize with her labor. While we're on the topic of labor, I found it super strange that she didn't seem to do the same tasks as other women even though the other women were given to men of similar rank to Achilles. Most of the women were weavers or cooks or nurses, Breseis seemed to just float around jobless until there was a battle and then she was a nurse but at that point most of the women were so that was expected. The most labor she had was filling drinks during meals, cleaning up afterwards, and then going to Achilles so he can use her for the night and then go to sleep. Like...it's a brutal thing the war is but honestly compared to what most women in her situation had, she had it VERY easy, which I thought was a bit strange but maybe that's the story!

    I really loved the "relationship" between her and Achilles. I love that she stays firm with her hatred of him to the end (sorry romance readers!), maybe it softens slightly but she still very much does NOT like him and makes it clear that she never will. The only Greek she genuinely likes in Patroclus, but he's an actually decent guy so of course she likes him, but throughout the book she has to remind herself who and what he is, and I like that. I would've absolutely hated it if Breseis dropped her hatred for the Greeks just because a few of them were nice to her. 

    I love how strong she is. She holds her head high (internally because she'd probably get beaten for actually raising her head at her captors). I love how she supports her fellow women in this terrifying time while still keeping herself safe. I will not lie and say she's selfless here, but she is definitely generous and caring to say the least, and for that she has my utmost respect.

    I also have a slight problem with how little Breseis starred in her own story. This was clearly meant to be a telling of the Trojan War in the perspective of the woman (mainly Breseis) but instead we follow Achilles and his personal problems much more. It's almost like she's a side character in her own story. I can see the poetic meaning to this; "women back then were supposed to live in the background." but that's not what it felt like. It felt like it was trying to be from her perspective, but not much of her perspective was given until she was in bed or serving the rare occasions at night. I really wish the story was told from maybe a different woman and we got to hear the behind the scenes banter of the loom tents. I would be very interested in a book of that manner (And I believe Pat Barker did give us this in Women of Troy.) 

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My Thoughts

Honestly I cannot stress enough how solidly this book is imprinted on my brain. I have ADHD so not many things stick in there but my god this book is STUCK in there! I loved it! I really love the strong female character roll, I only wish we saw more of her and less of her captor. If you would like to read this book I want to warn you of the triggers; Rape, abuse, death, gore, suicide, death of children, mutilation of children, mutilation of adults...I think that's all of them. There's a lot. This is not a soft gentle read and for those who want this to be a love story between Breseis and Achilles, I'm sorry to say it definitely is not that!

I will for sure be buying Women of Troy, I love Pat Barker's writing style and am so excited to rad the next book in this story!

Spinning Silver Review

Spinning Silver

By. Naomi Novik

☕☕☕

 "A robber who steals a knife and cuts himself cannot cry out against the woman who kept it sharp."

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Synopsis

    We follow the story of three strong minded women, one who values her family and freedom over all else, one who values the lives of her brothers over her own, and one who values her kingdom over her own happiness. Though they all live very different lives, their stories find their way to each other with a common goal, to stop the winter that has rampaged over the land of Lithvas for the last 7 years, slowly killing all life in the kingdom. 

    Miryem is the daughter of a Jewish moneylender, not a very good one at that. When her mother is laying on her death bed and they are unable to buy the medicine she needs, Miyram takes it upon herself to collect the money her father lent to the people of their village gaining a reputation for turning silver into gold. In doing so she attracts the attention of the Staryk King. He presents Miryem with a challenge, she must turn 3 quantities of silver to gold or else he will kill her and her loved ones, but should she succeed, he would take her back to his kingdom as his bride and she will turn all the silver he gives her to gold.  

    As Miryem claims what is owed, she hires a woman, Wanda, to aid her household as payment of her father's debt, in doing so she saves Wanda from being her fathers source of income to pay for his own indulgences, and she and her two brothers escape his ruthless abuse.

       We also follow the story of an unfortunate looking woman, Irina, who's fathers buys the silver jewels Miryem creates in exchange for gold, in doing so the attention of the Tsar is captured and they are wed, but the Tsar has a burden of his own and that burden threatens the future of the kingdom. Irina takes upon the mission of fighting this burden to save her people and to free herself from her unwanted marriage. 

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My Review

    I loved this story but I hated this book, if that makes any sense at all. Spinning Silver is an interesting, loose, take on the old folks tale, Rumpelstiltskin. Where this book lost me was the sporadic change of point of view, and for the number of different changes, I really wish she had labeled them, or at least stuck with just the 3 main characters. I believe we followed the POV of 6 different people which got super confusing and it honestly made me struggle to process the story. I spent too much time trying to figure out who I was reading rather than what. 

    I've also come to the conclusion that Naomi's writing style is just not for me. I found this book to be really hypnotic, in a bad way. Something about the massive amounts of run on sentences, super long paragraphs that would take up about 3/4ths of the page, the lack of actual talking or action or reaction from the characters just put me to sleep. It was almost boring except every once in a while something interesting would happen that would wake me up again and suck me in, only for it to get smothered by excessive description. 

    I really wish I loved this book because the story itself is absolutely stunning. The ending, unfortunately was the best part of the book for me. I practically jumped out of my seat screaming at the last few pages...but unfortunately that was the most enthusiasm the book got from me.

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My Opinion

    So overall, this is an amazing story, once you get to it. I'll probably try to read this book again later, but I don't think I will buy any other works of Naomi's just because I am not a fan of her writing style, but that's not to say this is a bad book. I'm sure people who are big into this type of writing would rate this book better then me and I respect that. I do recommend this book to people who are big into descriptive writing, I don't recommend it to people who are big into action packed fantasy books. 

The River is DEFINITELY Enchanted!

A River Enchanted by Rebecca Ross 

 ☕☕☕☕☕

"Do you ever wonder if we are unknowing participants in a spirit's game? If they move us like pawns on a board and glean with pleasure from provoking our heartaches?"

 

How The Lost Apothecary Got Lost

The Lost Apothecary

By Sarah Penner

           ☕☕

"It's okay to change," I interrupted, "but it's not okay to hide, to bury parts of ourselves."

Why You Need to Read The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

 The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

☕☕☕☕☕

 

“Books, she has found, are a way to live a thousand lives--or to find strength in a very long one.”