Sometimes it feels as if my heart's only purpose is to beat for Greek mythology, and this book is a gift, straight from Zeus himself, to give me life. This retelling of the Trojan War in *The Silence of the Girls* by Pat Barker is, simply put, stunning. While classic myths tell about the glory and conquests of men, this focuses on the quiet and unassuming presence of women. Elegantly written from the point of view of Briseis, the reader is given a unique perspective that is often overlooked. ‘...

“The defeated go down in history and disappear, and their stories die with them.” The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is a dark and weighty retelling of the Iliad. Told from the voice of one of the defeated, Briseis, the reader is offered a different perspective on the destruction of Troy. Briseis, once a queen, is now a prized possession of Achilles--the same man who destroyed her city and butchered her family. Relegated to be Achilles’ “bed girl,” she is merely serving a purpose in ...

Pat Barker revisits her familiar themes of war, delivering a brutally visceral portrait in this retelling of The Iliad, but this time, she amplifies the voices of the women who were missing from the original epic. After her family is slaughtered by Agamemnon's forces, Briseis becomes the coveted prize of the ultimate warrior, Achilles. Barker crafts complex and nuanced characterizations, portraying the women as slaves, prostitutes, and nurses, while also presenting an Achilles who is less a hero...

I'm calling it quits at 30%.I guess what I don't understand is this: if you're going to rewrite *The Iliad* from the perspective of women, why do all these women do is talk about men, observe these men, and that's it? Literally, two pages are dedicated to Briseis's life before her capture. The rest, at least so far, is her watching men do things – mostly disgusting things – and being abused, with the occasional break for a feminist lecture that feels way too modern for the story. Why isn't any t...

All the stars to my new favorite read, The Silence of the Girls!Today I have a book that came highly recommended by my friend, Paula, at Book Jotter, and my Goodreads friend, Tammy. If you're looking for historical fiction book reviews, you've come to the right place!My Thoughts:The Silence of the Girls is referred to as a masterpiece in its synopsis. Yes, it is absolutely a stunning masterpiece.For over 10 years, the city of Troy has been under siege and in battle over Helen, a woman who can ob...

I was a slave, and a slave will do anything, anything at all, to stop being a thing and become a person again. This is a truly excellent historical novel. And let me be clear, it's *not* a historical romance. If you pick up "The Silence of the Girls" expecting hearts and flowers, prepare to be very, very wrong. It's a relentlessly brutal story. If depictions of rape are triggering for you, you should probably avoid this book. However, it's presented as a stark reality of the time, not used gr...

This was my pick for the September 2018 Book of the Month box! “Looking back, it seemed to me I’d been trying to escape not just from the camp, but from Achilles's story; and I’d failed. Because make no mistake, this was his story—his anger, his grief, his story. I was angry, I was grieving, but somehow that didn’t matter.” Hi, my name is Melanie and 2018 has been the year that I constantly talk about my love for Greek myth retellings. *The Silence of the Girls* by Pat Barker is a femi...

"I was a slave, and a slave will do anything, anything at all, to stop being a thing and become a person again." This book wasn't quite what I was hoping for. After devouring Circe earlier this year and absolutely loving it, I was so eager to dive into more historical novels based on Greek Mythology.But while *The Silence of the Girls* promised a retelling of the Iliad from the perspective of the girls (plural!), we really only get one. For a good chunk of the book, anyway.The beginning and...

"Great Achilles. Brilliant Achilles, shining Achilles, godlike Achilles . . . How the epithets pile up. We never called him any of those things; we called him ‘the butcher.’" The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker is a retelling of Homer's The Iliad that finally brings in the stories of the women and girls who were, essentially, collateral damage in the Trojan War. If you're looking for insightful book reviews, keep reading. Briseis is the narrator. When Lyrnessus falls to the Greeks, she bec...

It's tough to separate my love for the *Iliad* from my experience reading *The Silence of the Girls*, but I think that's partly what makes Pat Barker's novel such a fantastic reimagining. Told primarily from the perspective of Briseis, a Trojan captive given to Achilles as a war prize, *The Silence of the Girls* endeavors to tell the untold stories of the women who populate the background of the Ancient Greek epic. And Barker does a brilliant job. The pleasure I get from reading retellings, esp...