***This review contains spoilers for Pat Barker’s “Silence of the Girls”, but “The Iliad” story has been around for three millennia, so no spoiler warnings there.*** 

Pat Barker’s “The Silence of the Girls” (2018) landed on the radar as a direct response to a new literary trend hitting the market – Greek mythological retellings. Classical stories are being rewritten with contemporary themes, though at the end of the day, it would be nice to have an original story. 

It’s difficult to determine what prompted this modern-day Renaissance – perhaps it’s the political upheaval across the globe or authors are running out of stories. Either way, the literary world has turned to the Ancients once before. 

Barker’s novelization was a natural progression for readers of Madeline Miller (“Song of Achilles” and “Circe”) or Claire Heywood (“Daughters of Sparta”). Where Miller brought to life the LGBTQ+ relationships, Barker aimed to highlight the enslaved women’s stories that Miller could not focus on. 

Sold to be a feminist story told through the women’s voices, readers expected a new story — that of Briseis, who amounted to a shiny trophy – an object – in the original homeric poems; a toy for boys to fight over. However, the novel diverts from that mission with its shifting perspectives during heightened beats. At the end, the novel really is just another Achilles story. 

With brutal and captivating writing, Briseis as a narrator retells Achille’s story. Drawing comparisons, Miller decisively told Patroclus’ story in her “Song of Achilles”, with his story beginning with his birth, while Baker starts Briseis’ story upon her capture by Achilles. Readers meet Briseis as her life ends – as the fighters of Greece storm the gate, slaughter her family and every man in the city, and take the women hostage. 

No time is spent with her family, who she witnesses being murdered by the Greek army. It’s as if after their death, the readers forget where Briseis even comes from.

Briseis’ story does not start when she is captured by Achilles like Barker writes. Even in the early chapters, Briseis is more concerned with her husband’s family – sneaking from the citadel in the middle of a siege to check on her unpleasant mother-in-law. 

When Briseis is alone, she spends her time examining, worrying, and describing whatever disgusting thing the men around her are doing. When Barker does not have anything of contribution for Briseis, the writing switches to a man’s perspective. 

Not that any of these feminist criticisms discounts the writing – it’s beautiful. Barker writes grief in a way that makes the complexities tangible. She characterizes it, exposes what it does to our body and mind – but not to the body and mind of Briseis, even. 

Barker’s writing is sensual, enveloping the reader in sights and scents, building tension and snapping back. She does not shy away from how vicious the Greek army was known to be. 

“Silence of the Girls” is one in many novels centering on the women of these stories. Barker has two others out, “Women of Troy” and “The Voyage Home.” Next on the reading list, however, should be Natalie Haynes’ “A Thousand Ships” for readers really looking for a feminist retelling. 

The Guardian writes that Barker “puts the experience of women… at the heart of the story” and highlights women such as Andromache (wife of Hector, who was forced to become concubine to Achilles’ son), but if that were true, the story would be in the perspective of Andromache. 

Geraldine Brooks, Australian-American author, wrote her review for The New York Times: “Unfortunately, Barker’s voices are dissonant and unpersuasive. The girls, alas, remain silenced.”

Over the last few years, there has been an uptick in narrative retellings of classical myths; mainly from the Greek pantheon. Reaching us through thousands of years of oral tradition, these ancient stories were compiled into poems and attributed to a man known only as Homer, who poeticized the events of the Trojan War (“The Iliad”), and the 10 year journey home of one of its heroes (“The Odyssey”). 

Media has entered a new classical age with recent obsessions in Greek mythological retellings. From the 2011 bestseller “Song of Achilles” to Christopher Nolan’s upcoming film, “The Odyssey,” releasing in 2026. There is a resurgence of these stories, and any childhood fan of the “Percy Jackson” series is as excited about this new trend as Zeus is about cheating on his wife. 

*Mavrie has been serving as editor for the ThunderWord since 2024. She is also the founding president of Highline’s Non-fiction Writers Circle.