The Silence of the Girls ~ Pat Barker

The Silence of the Girls is a retelling of the story of Achilles but from the point of view of Briseis, one of the women that were captured to be a slave. Pat Barker starts the story when Briseis’ home is sacked by the Greek soldiers and Achilles killed her husband and her brothers. After being taken slave by the soldiers, Briseis is then chosen to be Achilles’ prize. What follows is her account from the sidelines of Achille’s story.

The Silence of the Girls has been on my TBR for a little while now after seeing lots of good things about it. I saw it on the shelf in the library and it had been a few weeks since I last read something set in Greek mythology (I think it’s safe to say that mythology retellings are my favourite genre at the moment). 

The book opens with Briseis equating Achilles to a monster. I was fully expecting this story to demonise Achilles, Patroclus and the Greek soldiers and to start with it did. However, I loved the progression of beginning to see everyone from both sides as human. For a story that includes the influence of the gods, all of the characters are very human and are neither entirely good nor bad. Despite the story of Achilles being fantastical, Pat Barker managed to make everything feel like a real historical event. 

I really enjoyed this book, it was a fun read but made me feel quite despondent about the fate of women in history. The emotion that seeped through the pages of the book was quite hard-hitting but fit perfectly. 

Overall, I gave it four stars and recommend it to anyone who wants a feminist retelling of the story of Achilles.

C🌙