The Women of Troy by Pat Barker - Book Review 📖

The Women of Troy (2021)

Pat Barker 

Rating 3/5 

Genres : Historical fiction, ancient Greece, Achilles, speculative fiction, women, 2022-read. 

This book is a sequel to The Silence of Girls by Pat Barker and covers the story from where the part 1 has stopped. This book - the plot,  character development and the pace of the story - just felt okayish. I remember - even if it was quite sometime in thr past - the first book in the series was really amazing..then ofcourse it had the mighty Achilles while this book has not one single notable character in itself. It's a bit boring..on the whole.

  Achilles is dead. The Trojans seem invincible and the Greeks very likely to taste defeat. Odysseus makes a plan for deception of the Trojan Horse with greeks hidden inside. Pyrrhus - son of Achilles - comes to avenge his father and take on his glory. The starting scene in the book has him  huddled within the horse with the other greek soldiers as it gets pulled through the gates of Troy. He slaughters a weak and failing Priam(king of Troy), Andromache and Hector's suckling and toddler son, Priam's virgin daughter Polyxena and becomes the Hero of Troy. He runs the body of Priam through the streets of Troy hitching it to his chariot like Achilles has done with Hector. He dumps the dead body near the sea leaving it open as prey to the sea gulls, eagles, crows and vultures without giving it a proper cremation or burial. Even though the war is over and the Greeks have won, they are stranded on the land of Troy because the weather doesn't suit them for their travel..the gales of wind and storm keep up for days without subsiding..leaving them no choice but to hitch temporary tents and homes along the sea coast. 

Coming to the women of Troy..Briseis is pregnant with child of Achilles. She is married off to Alcimus after his death. Andromache is the prize of honor to Pyrrhus, Hecuba to Odysseus,  Hecamede to Nestor. A bunch of slave girls - most of them born into slavery - live in a hut near to Briseis and among them,Amina is a brave one who dies trying to give a proper burial to Priam.

The greeks finally set sail after appeasing the gods and Pyrrhus is forced to swallow his pride..accept a minor setback and disgrace. Pyrrhus harbors ambitions to be a befitting son to his famous father but he is all too aware of his shortcomings just like the people who surround him. He wants to be strong and ruthless but is actually quite soft at his core.