The Silence of the Girls

Because make no mistake, this was his story... Briseis says this line somewhere towards the end of the book, and it comes a little too late. The Silence of the Girls starts out great, presenting The Iliad to us from the perspective of Briseis, the young Trojan wife who becomes Achilles' sex slave after seeing her family slaughtered by the Greek hero. Briseis is our eye on the fate of the many girls and women who don't get acknowledged as more than just war prices or objects by the Greeks, and likewise by the men who wrote and propagated this story. Yet halfway in, after having been 95% Briseis' POV, Achilles and Patroclus receive more and more chapters until suddenly it feels Briseis is only there to be a fly on the wall of their story. The disappointing thing is that this happens at half-way point and rather surprisingly, as if the author had a change of heart. So, what I thought was a fascinating idea at the beginning, falls a bit apart towards the end. Besides, anyone who was read [b:The Song of Achilles 11250317 The Song of Achilles Madeline Miller https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1331154660l/11250317.SX50.jpg 16176791] and [b:Circe 35959740 Circe Madeline Miller https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1508879575l/35959740.SY75.jpg 53043399] will have a hard time judging this book for itself, without comparing it to these (and possible other) recent Greek myth retellings. My recommendation would be, read those two instead. The Song of Achilles gives you the Achilles and Patroclus story, and Circe gives you the feminist take on Greek myths.