It’s obvious that I love Greek mythology. Heavily influenced during my youth, I can’t seem to get enough of these retellings that are currently being published.

This month I had the pleasure of reading The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker and the highly anticipated sequel, The Women of Troy, which just published today!
The Women of Troy unfolds with the scene that most would be familiar with- the Greeks hiding inside the Trojan Horse and the Trojans trying to determine just what to do with it. The beginning of the end for the Trojans after a 10-year war instigated by Paris, prince of Troy, abducting Helen from her husband, King Menalaus of Sparta, Troy finally falls to the Greeks. Taking the women of Troy down to their camp at the shore, many of the women become enslaved. Briseis, a former slave to Achilles and pregnant with his child is married to his chief advisor after he meets his demise. She tries to form alliances as the Greeks wait for the winds to die down so they can begin their journey homeward.

This book, although interesting, was not my favorite of the two. There are multiple perspectives; Briseis’ is the main focus, along with Pyrrus, Achilles son, and Calchus, a disgraced priest, but not from any of the other women. I was expecting more about the women of Troy as the tensions between the Greeks and the disgraced Gods arose throughout the narrative of this story. But alas, like the anticipation the Greeks felt about going home and how they were stymied, this echoes my overall feelings about this book. The best part of this book was how Barker was able to provide some fresh perspectives to this tale, which were unfamiliar to even this diehard fan of Greek Mythology. I loved the beginning, being inside the Trojan Horse alongside some of the famous Greeks and witnessing their whispered dialogue. While I appreciated the beautiful prose and the uniqueness, I found the content lacking especially since this is being marketed as a “timely feminist retelling.” It can be read as a stand-alone, but I feel it would be more enticing to a reader familiar with the Trojan War.

Thank you to the publisher and netgalley for the opportunity to read and review this book.

I was excited to read this after I read Silence of the Girls. I was also excited to read this one because it was a new take on Troy and it focused in on the women which is something we don't usually get to experience. Unfortunately, I felt like the writing in this book fell short. I basically had to force myself to get through this book, which I would typically wouldn't have to do with retellings that are done right.

I enjoyed very much the novel by Pat Barker that precedes this one, The Silence of the Girls. It was the story of Achilles at Troy told by Briseis, one of the women captured in the siege of Troy and the surrounding countryside. Later, though, when I read a criticism that a novel supposedly about the Trojan women was mostly about Achilles and Patroclus, I had to agree.

At first, The Women of Troy didn’t seem to have much to add. It takes up the story with the Trojan horse and the fall of Troy. Achilles’ son Pyrrhus is the focus of this novel, a young man trying to live up to his father who is very unstable. However, we do see more of the women, and besides the characters Barker has invented, we find out about Hecuba, Andromache, and Cassandra, the royal women.

Still, although I found The Women of Troy mildly interesting, I don’t think it added very much to the original story. It covers a period when the Greeks are stranded by a fierce wind on the shores of Troy so cannot go home until they bury Priam’s body and the wind breaks.

I read The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker a couple of years ago and very much enjoyed it. I was on a bit of a mythology kick (and who wasn’t after Song of Achilles) and couldn’t get enough. Barker’s Briseis is different than that of Miller’s but just as empathetic and smart and compassionate.

I can’t say I was hankering for a sequel but when I was given the opportunity to read Barker’s follow up, The Women of Troy, I found myself enjoying being back in this world with Briseis even if it uncovered even more of the horrifying realities of being back in that Greek camp. Briseis is now married to Alcimus who treats her kindly as she is pregnant with Achilles’ child. She meets the other women of Troy and I especially was interested in her interactions with Cassandra and Adromache. The strength and resilience she observes was lovely to read and I could have spent hours on the beach outside of Troy with her.

Barker also gives us insight to some of the male characters. Most interestingly Achilles’ son Pyrrhus. All of these characters are struggling under the weight of Achilles’ shadow and none more so than his son. Those were some of the most interesting chapters as Pyrrhus is clearly crumbling under the weight of his father’s legacy.

Altogether this was a great read for people who love Greek mythology and stories in general. A great follow up to Silence of the Girls.

Thank you so much to the publisher and NetGalley for letting me read an advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

Another great book to add to my Greek mythology retellings bookshelf and a wonderful follow up to PB's previous book, ‘The Silence of the Girls.’

I do have a feeling that some readers may find the content of this installment to be a bit boring, however. This story takes place from the moment Troy falls up until the Greeks leave to return to their various homes. And, objectively, not much happens during this time, so there really isn't much of a plot other than post-war logistics.

I didn't mind this, personally, as this part of the Trojan War isn't often retold (there's not a lot of source material for it), so I found the speculations PB made about the characters and their actions to be very interesting. I think she does a wonderful job at making the characters her own, but staying faithful to the originals, especially when it comes to Pyrrhus. And, as always, PB's writing is so, so pretty. So all of these things made the story a worthwhile and enjoyable read for me.

Easily recommendable to fans of Greek mythology, particularly those who want to read more about the characters of the Trojan War.

The Women of Troy picks up right where The Silence of the Girls left off, both in the story of Briseis’ survival and with the same brilliant writing of Pat Barker.

This book dives into the heart-wrenching and devastating point of view of the women who were nothing but objects in the stories of men. So many classics are the tales of male heroes. There was no thought of the women when these stories were first created and now. Barker fills in those gaps without shying away from the brutality and loss those women would have dealt with every single day.

One thing I really loved about this book was the way Briseis was caught in the middle. Having her story with a bridge to both sides really showed the survival choices the women had to face. To the Trojans she was set with a Greek husband and Achilles baby, but the Greeks were still the ones that murdered her family and enslaved her. There’s a loneliness of not just losing a physical home but also of having no one or nowhere to belong.

I did wish there was a bit more to the story though. The Silence of the Girls was so strong following along with the war whereas The Women of Troy was mostly about waiting around and reading it definitely felt like just waiting for something to happen. I still highly recommend this book.

Happy publication to The Women of Troy! After reading Circe and Ariadne, I was so excited to add another feminist mythology tale to my shelf - thank you Doubleday Books for my gifted ARC!

Pub date: August 24th
Series: The Women of Troy #2

Do I need to read The Silence of the Girls first? I didn't, and I still enjoyed the book. If you are familiar with the Iliad/The Trojan War, I think you'd be fine reading them in either order - if you're not, it's probably better to read in order. Either way, you may end up googling character names to keep everyone straight - there are a lot of characters.

In one sentence: Trojan queen turned Greek slave Briseis finds herself and her fellow Trojan women battling for survival after Troy's fall.

Chances are you had to read The Iliad and/or The Odyssey in school, and I'm so glad that writers like Pat Barker are reinterpreting these tales from the female perspective. Briseis is a strong narrator, and her statements on the fall of Troy really made me think. She accuses the Greeks of attempting to destroy the entire Trojan people - not just by killing the men, but by impregnating the women as Achilles did with Briseis. I could feel her anger so acutely in these pages, and I enjoyed getting inside her head. Antagonist Pyrrhus, son of Achilles, is a perfect villain - evil but complex - it's clear he suffers under the weight of his father's legacy, and Barker does a nice job exploring these feelings.

This novel is a bit of a slow burn, but I recommend it if you like character-driven stories, literary fiction, mythology and/or feminist themes. I think this would be a great buddy read or book club book!

TL;DR REVIEW:

Those who loved The Silence of the Girls will love The Women of Troy, its sequel. It offers a powerful look, through the eyes of Briseis, into the aftermath of Troy’s defeat and what it meant for the Trojan women who became slaves.

For you if: You like feminist Greek mythology retellings. I recommend reading The Silence of the Girls first!

FULL REVIEW:

First, thank you Doubleday for the gifted finished copy! I loved The Silence of the Girls, its predecessor, and had a feeling this one would also be for me. I was right. The Women of Troy is gutting, thought-provoking, and intelligently, beautifully written. If you love Greek mythology retellings, this one’s got your name written all over it.

The Women of Troy picks up where The Silence of the Girls ended, picking up Briseis’s story at the end of the Trojan war. Briseis, who was Achilles’s bed slave while he was alive, is now carrying his child and married to one of his former counselors. We also get a few chapters from the perspective of Pyrrhus, Achille’s son, who is grappling (and cracking) with the enormous pressure of upholding a legacy.

Two big things shined for me in this story. First, the way Barker continues to give enslaved women voices, showing the unimaginable things they were expected to just absorb and live with; to go from being Trojan royalty, mothers, daughters — to bed slaves of the men who murdered everyone they loved. We already saw Briseis go through that in The Silence of the Girls, and it’s fascinating (and devastating) to see her attempt to coach her friends through it while also attempting to still protect herself and grapple with the distance her privileged position wedges between them, between her very identity as a Trojan. The gulf widens even as she grasps at it.

The second thing was Pyrrhus’s spiral. Before I read this book, I brushed up on him, and I ended up reading a two-part blog series from Madeline Miller. She says there are two famous depictions of him: the first, and most well known, is Vergil’s portrait in the Aneid of a narcissistic psychopath. The second is from Sophocles’ Philoctetes, which shows him as a child attempting to do right by his father. In this book, Pat Barker seems to have merged these two versions, showing a boy cracking and breaking under the weight of his father’s legacy.

And throughout, of course, we have Pat Barker’s beautiful prose. Read The Silence of the Girls, if you haven’t yet, and then read this!



CONTENT WARNINGS:
Use of the R word; Sex slavery and sexual violence; Brutal war violence (see: the Iliad/Aeneid)

I am burned-out on retold myths. Yet I was eager to read Booker prize winner Pat Barker's "The Women of Troy," the sequel to "The Silence of the Girls. "

 In "The Silence of the Girls" and "The Women of Troy" - and I suspect there will be a third book - the narrator is Briseis, Achilles's prize in the "Iliad." ln the new novel, Briseis's status has improved:  pregnant with Achilles's child, she is now married to kind Alcimus. As a married woman, she has more freedom and can roam where she will.  She no longer works in the hospital - the war is over.  The Greeks are stuck in the camp, restless and claustrophobic, waiting for the wind to change. The women are terrified of their fate.


And so Briseis tries to lift the spirits of the women.  She comforts the slaves in the women's quarters, among them Hecuba (Priam's wife) and the traumatized Andromache, who are now concubines of Odysseus and Pyrrhus respectively. Cassandra is also enslaved, married to Agamemnon.  No one believes Cassandra's prophecy that Agamemnon's wife will murder both of them.  They think she is histrionic.



Barker amazes us with stylistic pyrotechnics and her keen understanding of psychology: she even gets into the head of violent, insecure Pyrrhus, who feels he can never live up to his dead father, Achilles. Pyrrhus botched the killing of Priam, who died in harrowing pain as Pyrrhus hacked away at his neck; now the rotting body is displayed on the beach. Although Barker can do almost everything, one episode went on far too long for me. An Antigone-like Trojan woman is determined to bury Priam, even though it is virtual suicide.  Somehow this dragged on and on, and seemed the least effective part of the novel.

And that is the problem with retold myths; spinning tales from epic can work, but Sophocles's tragedy cannot be adapted in prose.  I felt that Colm Toibin's House of Names, an elegant retelling of Aeschylus's Oresteia, failed for the same reason.  Well, not failed.  Pat Barker and Colm Toibin cannot fail.


I'm sure it's just me. I've probably read too many retold myths.

I really enjoy retellings of old stories from a female perspective and this was no different. I loved learning more and hearing more from the women of the Trojan War however I had a hard time with the writing. It felt a little flat at times and the words that were used in spots made it a harder read than it should have been.

2.5 stars. After really enjoying Barker’s Silence of the Girls, I was looking forward to this new book but unfortunately it fell flat for me. I liked Briseis as I did in SOTG but having Pyrrhus and Calchas POVs just did not hold the same interest as Achilles’ did. And though reading about the period of time directly after the fall of Troy was new, it just isn’t a very interesting time to read about when compared to the events of the war. Nothing really happens. So overall this book just felt a bit boring to me.

I read This Silence of the Girls earlier this year and loved it. So I was thrilled when I was approved to read and review The Women of Troy.

Brielis is one of my favorite female literary characters ever. The compassion and level headed coolness she somehow holds on to despite her dire situation, can only be described as miraculous. Need of survival never overriding her need to hold on to her humanity.
I absolutely love Pat Barkers writing style. This is a unique take on the fall of Troy from the perspective of the women who survived only to become enslaved. I found it to be raw and unapologetically brutal is it’s execution. Strongly recommended for anyone who read the first novel and loved it.

Strong trigger warnings for; Murder, rape, death of children, desecration of a corpse, domestic abuse.

Thank you @netgalley for allowing a copy in exchange for my honest review.

The Women of Troy was a visceral take on the post-war effects of the Trojan War, specifically following the women enslaved to the Greeks from Troy. The main character is still Briseis from "The Silence of the Girls," but we also have a new character Calchas and Achilles son Pyrrhus as a few POV poins throughout the story.
My memory doesn't quite recall a lot of the scenes from "TSOTG" besides just what I know from Greek myths in general, but I have to say this sequel was pretty great. Yes, it is monumentally slower paced, and there's little violence, in my opinion, besides the very beginning and a few other moments. It was so intriguing to read a book solely focused on the aftermath of war. From the differing arrays of PTSD (warrior males, enslaved women, and Briseis' experiences with Achilles and other kings) to this deep desire to return home, the Greeks and Trojan women really tugged on my heart strings. I didn't mind the slow pac because this story was about all of them, and this unified broken heart over war. So many have died on both ends and Patroclus and Achilles are one of the main deaths to still haunt everyone. It's tragic and real and lovely. A good representation.
Although, here were a few phrases/ moments in the story that didn't feel necessary to me. The r-word is used multiple times, and due to many peoples trauma with that word, I think another word could've suited the scene better. The same thing goes for the fatphobia against Maire. Her weight is condescendingly discussed numerous times whether about how that makes her less desired, beautiful, etc. It made me uncomfortable as someone who has struggled with their weight in their life, and since it didn't add much to the story (Maire has a baby son who all the enslaved women go around protecting), I think it could have been left out.
Overall, this sequel has proven just how much I adore Pat Barker's Greek retellings, and I cannot wait to reread "TSOTG" and see what else Barker has in store for us!
TW: Rape (discussed heavily), gore/ violence, murder, death of a child, desecration of a corpse, genocide (all Trojan males murdered as punishment even babies), sexual assault, slavery, domestic abuse, PTSD, r-word used, and fatphobia comments.

The brilliant Pat Barker picks up what she left in The Silence of the Girls, bringing us more insight and wisdom through the eyes of the "silent women".

The Woman of Troy begins with the fallen Troy empire and progresses with Briseis as she finds her world changing after Troy's defeat. In the beginning of this one especially, we do have some insight from some of the males, but it remains mostly of Briseis that we hear from, providing inspiration and insight into her world as she stands up and attempts to help others around her given her new position of power as Alcimus' wife.

Beautifully crafted and wonderfully remastered story told with a true gift for words and Barkers hear seeping through the pages. I'd recommend you read The Silence of the Girls first, as that will give you a better foundation leading in to this story, however you can piece things together if you are not familiar with the first book.

The Women of Troy is one of many retellings hitting shelves right now but I'm confident that the well planned, well researched and beautifully composed novel will stand out and shine far above the other works, making this a sure hit with fans of Madeline Miller or just mythology in general. I know I will be reading this again and again as well as looking out for anything else Pat Barker may have in store for us readers.

Thank you so much to netgalley and to Pat Barker and publishers for providing an advance ecopy in exchange for my honest review.

I can happily say that I highly recommend not only The Women of Troy but everything that has been or will be released from Pat Barker.

I was so eager to read a new take on Troy, and the women in particular, but I couldn't make it all the way through this novel. I found the writing, some of the language, and the narrative voice to be too vulgar and commonplace; I felt it read more like a supermarket romance than a historical fiction.

The Trojan War was horrific and that same brutality is present in the aftermath. This book pulls no punches with the tragedies and atrocities committed during wartime, but focuses on the women of the story rather than the men. It's devastating watching women be raped, ostracized, and enslaved. This is definitely a book for history buffs rather than those who prefer the fantasy of mythology, but I still enjoyed it.

*Thank you to Doubleday and NetGalley for the ARC in exchange for my honest review*

I haven't read Barker's prior novel, The Silence of the Girls, so my review is solely based on this novel if read as a standalone. I really enjoyed reading this one. I love the unique perspective, the exploration of the traumas and tragedies of war, and especially the impact on women - those who didn't fight or sign up to be part of this battle of the male egos. This novel is captivating and I'm only annoyed that I had no idea that it was a "sequel" in a series. Regardless, now I have to go backwards and read The Silence of the Girls because I've heard that it was even better than this one. Overall, I would recommend this to anyone who loves greek myths and retellings of old classics.

Thank you so much to Doubleday Books and Netgalley for providing a digital arc in exchange for an honest review and introducing me to this author.

*Full review to be posted to NetGalley, blog, Amazon, & Goodreads closer to publication*

When I first read The Silence of the Girls, the first part in Pat Barkers Women of Troy series (?), I had no idea that there would be a sequel to follow up, so right off the bat I was excited to dive in The Women of Troy. I am a huge fan of the Classics and received finished up a Master's in Classics, so I am always excited about anything set in that period. I think Barker did excellent work in capturing and continuing Briseis' story and continuing this tale in a reasonable and seemingly authentic manner. It never felt over the top or overdone, but rather respected the time period and told a fascinating tale with vivid characters and difficult situations. There are a few areas that I felt interrupted pacing or didn't work quite as well for me personally in connection to the source material, but those are all very personal opinions and I don't think took away too much from the experience at all. Overall, I would continue to recommend these books to any fan of historical fiction!

I absolutely adored The Silence of the Girls and was so excited to receive an ARC of The Women of Troy!

I enjoyed this book, as Greek retellings are one of my favorite subgenres, but it definitely didn't reach the high bar that The Silence of the Girls set. The story seemed to drag often, sometimes I really did feel like one of the Greeks impatiently waiting for the wind to change. I also found the characters in this book to be far less likable, I had a hard time really rooting for anyone.
I still enjoyed this book and found it to be very immersive when it comes to historical fiction. I loved reading about what they ate and how they lived their daily lives.

The Women of Troy by Pat Barker is a brilliant story. I loved all the characters and I found it so fascinating and interesting.