Silent Girl by Tricia Dower is an unforgettable and meaningful collection of eight short stories, set in diverse locations, concerning various oppressive issues facing modern women and girls. The topics range from forced prostitution of young girls to racism to abuse in its many forms, and are presented using refreshingly original ideas.

As a woman, I became very affected by the characters, hoping for their safety and well-being, while reading this book. I felt anguish and anger for the injustices that they had to struggle through. The poignant female perspective in this book incites cognition and awareness of these tragic issues.

Dower's writing is succinct, fluid, and eloquent. She manages to convey a lot of emotion without being redundant or excessive. Silent Girl is one of the best books I have read! I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for stories of significance and meaning that provoke deeper thought and consideration of many issues facing females today.

Silent Girl by Tricia Dower is a powerful collection of short stories that takes on us a roller coaster ride into the lives of fictional women inspired by the women in eight Shakespearean plays. Dower explores issues that include: gender politics, inter-racial relationships, forced marriages, incest, domestic violence, and sexual slavery. Each can be found in Othello, The Tempest, Hamlet, Pericles, The Taming of the Shrew, The Winter's Tale, Coriolanus, and Twelfth Night. Dower took Shakespearean characters and imagined what that character's modern day story would be like.

Through research, Dower found real-time examples of these issues in the cultures of twentieth and twenty-first centuries Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Thailand, and the United States. Dower's characters range between prepubescent and grandmotherly. Each of the characters deals with patriarchal value systems, subtle and not so subtle abuse, and social isolation on some level in just about every story.

Each story in this robust collection is haunting in its own right. Dower has successfully woven a web of thought-provoking stories that cry out for someone…anyone…to help abolish oppression of all classifications. After reading this collection, one can't help but wonder if women's lives have really changed at all.

When you think about the inspiration of this book and the collection of stories encompassing Silent Girl, you can't help but wonder how far society has really come. Dower did a great job touching on the inner conflicts, as well as the cultural conflicts, of both genders that lead to oppression, abuse, and social isolation. Silent Girl is an interesting study on both sides of the issues touched upon. While there is not much blatant psychological exploration, there is a great deal of opportunity for reflection on the "why" of these social problems. Silent Girl is a good starting point for deftly exploring what it will really take, as a society, to impact the oppression in this world.