I love the trend of feminist retellings of Ancient Greek stories, and this was a really interesting one. Having read The Iliad and Odyssey a few years ago, the Iliad part of Natalie Haynes' book is much more interesting than the original IMO, and I think would be interesting to read back to back together.
A Thousand Ships tells the story of the fall of Troy and Odysseus' journey home after through the lens of women in the story. These women span those who had quite prominent positions in the original text like Penelope, to those a little more obscure, like Hecabe and Clytemnestra.
There were some characters' perspectives in this that I really liked - I loved the Muse and the future/past seeing character. The book flicks back and forth in time and moves between characters quickly, covering key aspects of the war and its aftermath through the eyes of women. The writing is great: it's sad and funny and thoughtful. With so many characters and the timeline being organised as it is, it is such a testament to Haynes' writing that it was fairly easy to keep up with what was going on.
The one reason why I gave this four instead of five stars was just that I really didn't enjoy Penelope's sections much. I think she holds quite a prominent place in the Odyssey itself, and I felt she came across as a less strong character in this than she did in the original text.
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