Today I am going to talk about my thoughts on The Silence of the Girls. This will be more of a book talk then a book review. Here we go.
Let me begin by telling you what this book is all about.
The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of some of the events from The Iliad by Homer, the story of the Trojan War. In this retelling we follow the events from the point of view of Briseis, Achilles slave and some little parts from Achilles point of view.
Now that we know a little of what this story is about I will tell you more of my thoughts on it.
Let's begin with the plot and the execution. This book takes place over the course of a few months and I thought it beautifully done. It starts on the day that Briseis becomes Achilles slave after he ransacks her city and kills all the men.
Pat Baker is in control of the story at all times and has set a good tempo which she is able to maintain throughout the book. There is a steady buildup towards the end and the ending itself is well executed. It isn't a quick ending of someone who doesn't know how to end her story. It is just wonderful to read a book like this.
All though I absolutely love the pacing of the book and there is a good plot line, I do feel this book is more character based and so the story might be a little slow paced for some.
Since I mentioned the characters let's talk some more about those.
We have a big cast of characters although we do mostly follow Briseis and her relationship with Achilles -if we can call it that. But we also follow the relationship between Achilles en Patroculus, Patroculus and Briseis and of course that of the slave women in the camp. And a little bit of the Greek kings among themselves. The characters all have distinct voices and are well rounded and very believable which I always appreciate. At some points I had to remind myself that these characters were fully fictional and were not historical figures who roamed the earth. All be it long ago.
It's safe to say I was really invested in the story and what would happen to these people.
I love it when a book is written so well you just feel like you are actually there.
Another thing Pat Baker did really well, was making the retelling so good that it is a book that transcends simply being a retelling and become a book of it's own right. I feel this is sometimes a hit or miss with a retelling so i have to applaud it for that.
It had some twists and spins on the original that I really enjoyed.
I do have to quickly say to that this is not exactly a happy story. There is rape involved and blood and sickness. It can get a little graphic at some points so if that is something that sets you of, you might wan't to reconsider reading it. Although in my opinion it's not to bad and the scenes don't last to long.
I don't give star ratings to books, I only say whether I enjoyed it or not and if I would recommend it.
I really enjoyed this book and definitely recommend you give it a go.
That is it for me. I hope you enjoyed this book talk and that it helped you.
-E