I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it’s a good
telling of the story of the Trojan War from the perspective of two young
sisters who live within the walls of Troy. And it remains fairly faithful
to Homer’s story line and to the mythical aspects of the story. One
of the girls works in the Blood Room where all the injured warriors are
brought for treatment and also cares for the young son of Hector when his
mother needs to do her royal duties. The other young girl is a maid and
assistant weaver in Helen’s household. She has the gift of being able to
see the gods for who they are thru their disguises which makes for some
interesting conversations. Both are caught in the crossfire of the war
and its aftermath. And war is not pretty in Geras’ story, nor is it a
glorious exercise of national pride. Unlike Homer, Geras brings into the
story real human emotions and conflicts. She’s not writing a heroic epic.
She’s giving us a personal narrative that is behind the epic story. And
it’s really well told.

And that’s where my problem comes in. The story is so good and yet Geras
throws in some very inappropriate sexual content that just
bugged me. And it bugged me more when I saw the litter of awards and honors
for young adult fiction this book has gotten from all sorts of “reputable”
organizations. The conflict/problem in the book isn’t caused when one of the
sisters has a roll in the hay with a young warrior. The problem is that the
other sister also has her eyes on him. It just made me uncomfortable reading
this as a young adult book. She could have done it as well, if not better
without the sexual content. As an adult, I enjoyed it. As a mother, I will
not be giving this to my 14-year-old daughter.