Submitted by Fast_Chocolate_8288 t3_zoiho9 in books
For a book that has such glittering reviews, I'm finding it a shockingly bad read, so much so that I had to write this post. It's full of clunky nonsensical similes and equally stupid dialogue. Barker is either incapable or lazy, often telling you how to interpret descriptions or events instead of conveying meaning through the writing. Supposedly meaningful events feel hollow. Moreover, it's convoluted and often feels a bit disjointed. Seriously one of the worst books I've ever read, even more disappointing for the extremely positive critical reception.
I can only imagine the reviews are good because there's an appetite for feminist literature and all its horrendous flaws were overlooked in order to support the sisterhood. As a piece of feminist literature it ranks very low in my opinion indeed, its so on the nose and sometimes feels like a tedious list of women and their respective stories of abuse. Because of all of the above it lacks any immersive quality, character relatability, and therefore any communicative power at all, I just have nothing but contempt for this book.
That's my opinion anyway. Rant over. I'm keen to hear how other people felt about it.
nameisntfranco t1_j0npske wrote
After reading Circe by Madeline Miller I really got the craving for more so I tried The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and was really disappointed. I think partly I misunderstood the synopsis because I thought there would be more about Helen in the book which there wasn’t. But also the writing just was not my style. If your looking for a good feminist Greek retelling I suggest Circe, The Song of Achilles was also amazing.