Troy

Gary

Rating: really liked it
Adele Geras takes the story of the Iliad, and while recreating it in way that mingles high adventure, tragedy, humour and fatalism, focuses specifically on the fates of five young people and is essentially a romance set in the framework of the Trojan War.
While the war rages, and Hector leads the Trojan armies in protection of the cities walls against the Greek hordes of Agamemnon, the goddess of desire Aphrodite plays a cruel trick, as is the habit of the Greek gods to toy with the lives of mortals, on two young Trojan sisters, the strong-willed yet gentle Xanthe, and the quiet and spiritual Marpessa by making them fall in love with the same young man, the warrior Alastor.. Meanwhile the stable hand Iason is in love with Xanthe, and Xanthe's friend Polyxena passionately loves Iason . But we also get to see the great events of the Iliad, such as the slaying of Hector by Achilles, and his desecration of Hector's body by dragging it around the gates of Troy, in his chariot, and the delivery of the wooden Horse to Troy leading to the horrific genocide of Troy that we read about at the end-after all this story is about war as much as about romance.
We read about the characters of Helen, Paris, Hector, Adrymache, Priam and the myriad of gods and goddesses and the author's own unique interpretation of them. What follows is an absorbing and sensitive read, if not quite an epic.

Chelsea

Rating: really liked it
I swear, if one more god turns up and tells one of the characters exactly what is going to happen only for them to forget everything about the entire encounter 30 seconds later, I will scream. It happens every other chapter! They're the Greek Gods of the Parthenon, the epitome of vain! They wouldn't want to be forgotten! I call shenanigans!

Excellent writing, depressing and poorly handled (and someone else's) plot, "eh" original characters. I'm not quite sure why this won so many awards.

Jackie

Rating: really liked it
The worst re-telling of all time. Nothing original, except for a ridiculously juvenile love story of minor characters that was more filler than story. Exceptionally bad dialogue.
I assumed this was a debut novel because it was so bad. I was astonished, upon completion, to find that Geras has written many books. I would say 'Don't quit your day job' but apparently this is her day job.

Maninee

Rating: really liked it
It's a sad time in the city of Troy. The war has been going on for 10 years and it has spread it's roots into each and every household, spreading misery and death and sorrow. Soldiers go out to war every morning, leaving behind widows and orphans; women spend the day in terror, wondering whether their husbands, sons and brothers will come back or not. Food is scarce, thanks to the siege and money is spent endlessly on the war, on the weapons and food for the horses. Anything that is moving is cooked and served on the table. Even the palace can not afford much luxury.

And in the middle of all this sadness are two sisters, Xanthe and Marpessa. The two are orphans, found on the mountain and brought to the palace, where they grew up working for the princesses. The elder, Xanthe, works in the blood room, the place where all wounded soldiers are brought and given treatment. She works there looking after the wounded, caring for them, healing them. She also works for Andromache, wife of Hector. She looks after their son, Astyanax, a baby just learning to speak. The younger one, Marpessa, works for Helen who loves her as though she were her own daughter. Marpessa is gifted, she sees the Gods and speaks to them, and more importantly, is the only one who actually remembers seeing them. These two sisters work hard, supporting each other in these troubled times and caring for one another. Till something comes between them.

A young warrior named Alastor. He first wins over Xanthe's heart, and then promptly loses his own to Marpessa. Now the two sisters are set up against each other and by none other than the goddess Aphrodite herself.

The story is set in the background of the war, there are many narratives and threads and the author shifts easily between them. The writing is fluid and intoxicating, the descriptions are easy to follow. What makes it even more exciting is the inevitable doom we all know is coming. I really like the way the author blends in the gods into all of this, the way she shows the multiple love triangles from every characters point of view, not slighting any character and giving each one a chance to justify their actions. Alastor, I think, is a bit underdeveloped as a character. He does nothing but chase Marpessa for most of the book lusting after her before suddenly falling in love with her abruptly in the end. Xanthe too, is a bit pig headed throughout the book, refusing to see that the one she loves does not return her affections. But all in all it is a beautiful story.

Isaac

Rating: really liked it
This book was pretty boring. It wasn't on my list of books, nor was it recommended by anyone, so I took a chance. The only reason I got it was because I just finished Les Miserable and wanted a short one to off set that monster.

The story is basically just what goes on in the life of a few girls who live in Troy during their war with the Greeks. It had no plot or if it did it was so bland and transparent that I didn't catch on.

Random gods would appear to different character for no reason whatsoever. They didn't add to the story in the least and the characters would forget anything they would told by them anyway. The only reason I could see that they were in the story was to show that the gods where involved in the fate of Troy and its inhabitants.

So, in short very boring; skip this one.

Natasa

Rating: really liked it
A wonderful re-telling of the story of the Trojan War, from the perspective of the Trojans instead of the Greeks. Make the characters very human and is highly readable and interesting. Full review you can find on my blog: https://poetryofreading.blogspot.com

Rashmi Umashankar

Rating: really liked it
I'm studying for my Greek Mythology final (yay for fun electives!) and I couldn't help but think of where my fascination for Greek myths started. Before you say the obvious, nope, it wasn't Percy Jackson. Don't get me wrong, the Percy Jackson series helped me firmly establish my love for greek myth but it wasn't what got me started in the first place. It was this seemingly random choice that I made at a bookstore that I don't even remember that started it all. Troy by Adele Geras isn't a great book. I'm not going to wax poetic about it and give it 5 stars. But what I will say is that this book is very close to my heart. So close that probably 10 years after I read this, I still remember the names of the characters - Xanthe, Marpessa, Polyxena, etc. I love how my first book on the Trojan war didn't actually focus on the war itself nor the Gods but revolved around a few Trojan citizens. The backdrop of the war that one doesn't often get to explore. Was pretty cool, that.
Also, cuz I'm reminiscent, this book gave me my first encounter with a penis euphemism. Something, something boiled squid, if I remember right. Hmm.

Andy

Rating: really liked it
This was a great retelling of the Trojan war, but from the perspective of normal people. None of our main characters were big heroes in the war. Ten years in, the war is still going strong. Sisters Marpessa and Xanthe play different roles inside the city, but remain close. Xanthe is a healer of wounded soliders. Marpessa is a weaver who can see the gods. When Eros strikes Xanthe with an arrow from his bow, the sisters become entangled in a love story as complicated as the gods.

I loved seeing the Trojan war from a different perspective. It was compelling in a different way than other retellings are. While we still hear and see of the key characters of the war like Achilles, Hector and Odysseus. They are side characters here. I really enjoyed seeing this different facet of life in Troy. I also liked seeing more about Paris and Helen. Often times, we only see that they were one cause of the war, but in Troy we become entangled in their life.

The story of the sisters and their entangled lives was captivating in a slow moving and loving way. I enjoyed seeing the conflicts between them rise and fall. Seeing the ending of the Trojan war from their perspective was awful and despair-inducing. That's about where my interest stopped too. I couldn't seem to stay focused on it after that point. I don't know if I was tired of war or if it was the book itself.

Overall, would recommend for a different kind of Trojan war experience.

Jaclynn

Rating: really liked it
I expected more only because of how many awards it has won. I was hoping I could recommend it to my teenage students but there is too much sex and adult content for Taiwanese teens. How did it win children's book awards?
Not a bad story, just not very creative and far too ridiculously juvenile love story. Random gods and goddesses would appear to a character for no reason whatsoever. They didn't add to the story in the least and the characters would forget anything they would told by them anyway. The only reason I could see that they were in the story was to show that the gods where involved in the fate of Troy and its inhabitants.
I think adults can skip this one.

David

Rating: really liked it
I tried, but I couldn't move beyond page 133.

While I can appreciate that Geras is introducing the myths of the Trojan War to young readers, I fault her for not making it her own. I have read the Iliad, the Odyssey, the Fall of Troy, and the Aeneid, and this story just felt like a less-interesting retelling. I couldn't get invested in either the story of the three servant girls or the re-told events of the Trojan War. There just wasn't enough of a focus.

The chapters are jolting--very short, skipping from one vantage point to another and moving from one setting to another. There's no time to be invested in anybody, and I was left just not caring, which was why I abandoned this book before getting halfway through. There were times when I was interested in the picture of Paris as a slimy man or Helen as a bit of a bimbo or Hector as a man struggling with his love for his wife Andromache and his attraction to Helen, but again, the chapters were far too jumpy to maintain a train of narrative. Perhaps that's the nature of trying to tackle an epic with a huge catalog of characters.

And the gods--well, they, too, were uninteresting. They were just the same old gods, without much originality of interpretation. Geras takes them too literally, showing Venus whenever someone is falling in love or about to make love. Or even worse, she has Cupid strike one of her characters with an arrow. Talk about hackneyed. Maybe I've read too much about them and have lost interest, but bringing us into contact with Hephaestus or Mars just isn't enough. You've got to do more with them.

Margaret

Rating: really liked it
Troy is a good retelling of the Trojan War from essentially the beginning of Homer's Iliad to just after the fall of Troy. Geras's heroines are Xanthe, nurse to the son of Hector and Andromache, and Marpessa, handmaiden to Helen; she weaves her own characters skillfully into the tapestry of the characters familiar from Greek mythology. We all know how the story ends, but by providing her own characters and making them sympathetic, so that the reader wants to find out what happens to them, Geras instills new interest in the inevitable fall of Troy.

I also liked how Geras handled the gods; Marpessa has God-sight and can always see and speak to them when they're present, but generally, the gods appear in visions to the characters, reveal what they've come to reveal, and disappear again, upon which the character they've spoken to forgets the encounter, though often retaining a feeling of foreboding. I'm picky about my Greek mythology retellings, and I thought Troy worked very well.

Megan

Rating: really liked it
I am currently reading The Iliad and so I've had the Trojan War on the brain, and the other day I suddenly remembered this YA fiction novel that I read many, many years ago. I used to have a paperback copy but I must have gotten rid of it at some point. I vaguely recall liking it. But I don't remember enough about it to give it a rating. I'm just adding it to my 'read' shelf.

Kristen Fort

Rating: really liked it
Um. I thought this would be something I could suggest to students to read if they like the Odyssey, Greek mythology, etc. I may suggest it for a mature student - though marketed as YA, if it were a movie, it would most definitely be PG13, could be R. I didn't need Paris making advances on one of the young female protagonists. I didn't need Boros and his sexual advances or crude, lewd dialogue. The gods and goddesses coming and going and then they're forgotten about as soon as they leave the mortals. And biggest pet peeve has got to be Hera coming to comfort Andromache after Hector's death, telling Andromache that Paris will kill Achilles. Like Hera would give a shit. She was turned down by Paris for that golden apple. She would cause the Trojans much grief on their voyage to establish a new colony. Makes me wonder what version Geras was using as inspiration for her novel. The only thing I liked was the pace of the city destruction. That, Geras got right, or at least, met my expectations. Now, do I be that glutton for punishment and read the Ithaka novel I have somewhere around here? Or do I take a break before reading something potentially as bad?

Kara

Rating: really liked it

This oddly feels like two completely different retellings of the Iliad smashed into one.

One one hand we have a quite excellent Lower Decks POV of the end of the Trojan War, following the servants and lesser nobles as they assist the main Trojan characters, and we see all the anxiety and pain, followed by tragedy and horror that the ordinary folk of Troy went through.

But on the other hand, we have this story of the gods themselves meddling in the the Iliad, all of them popping up here and there to throw in some magic, meddle with some actions, sport some prophecy, and then vanish, pulling a Men-In-Black memory wipe whenever they exit.

Its maddening to have these two different genres spliced together in a way that doesn't really gel together. Geras should have dumped all the god stuff and just stuck with a really good story about what it means to be an ordinary person trying to survive being a civilian in a war zone.

Rhia

Rating: really liked it
I really enjoyed reading this book, as it gave another perspective of the Trojan War compared to the Song of Achilles.