A Thousand Ships

3.75 stars/5

Okay this was a good book! But I just wanted more. Especially more insight into the goddesses of this war. Like some straight chapters of Athena, etc. Maybe an unpopular opinion. But this lower rated review doesn't have me looking at the high reviews in disgust (like a lot of other books - Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires, I'm looking at you). I honor those and can see how people would feel that way about this book. This is just my opinion.

Okay ima shoot you all straight I wish she put the Afterword as a Foreword because I was super unaware that this was her attempt as an epic and I think I would have appreciated it more knowing that ahead of time.

One thing I think was unique to this book (besides showing a woman's perspective on war and strife), is the underlining of grief that scored the whole thing. Let me explain: when there is a work that discusses or dives into war, grief is always an inevitable part of that. However, those works primarily focus on the violence. This movies being rated ‘R' with a disclaimer of ‘gore and violence', but there is never a warning about grief. To me, the grief is almost more impactful because you cannot explicitly see it. You can see someone getting torn to shreds, blood oozing on the battlefield but the only grief one can see is through a characters experience. Because of this, it is emotional. When we see grief, we are seeing an individual going through an experience and how that unique individual processes this. This is what Natalie Haynes does so incredibly well in this work. She works through countless women with many separate personalities, but writes as those personalities seeing through a veil of grief. This is constant through the whole novel.

I would say if you're looking for some high points as a respite from the feelings of loss and grief within this book, you are looking in the wrong place. It took me so long to get through it because I did not realize the emotional impact of subconsciously dealing with all that was like a buffering symbol on my head.

In other words: would highly recommend the works of Madeline Miller if this is your thing!