Reviews tagging 'Ableism'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

28 reviews

fuzzywilson's review

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Abandonment, Cursing, Confinement, Blood, Classism, Death, Gore, Slavery, Pregnancy, Alcohol, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship and Animal death

singalana's review against another edition

hopeful reflective relaxing slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was hyped all over BookTube, and compared to the last hyped book I read (The Priory of the Orange Tree), this actually holds up to the hype. This is a historical novel telling the story of Achilles and Patroclus. Achilles is a son of the goddess, prophesied to be a legendary warrior. Patroclus is a son of a king, but his father exiles him. This story follows their journey as they meet as young boys and develop a relationship.

The story is told from the perspective of Patroclus, as he gets to know Achilles and eventually falls in love with him. The author does a good job creating likeable but eventually flawed characters with distinct personalities and voices. The story moves slowly, taking the time it needs to build the relationships and the characters. The writing flows beautifully, painting a vivid picture.

The story is bittersweet. If you know the myth of Achilles, you have a sense of impending doom from the start, but even if you don’t the prophecies relating to Achilles are revealed rather early on. Still, the ending moved me and surprised me. 

I can’t think of much to criticize about this book except for the brutalities of War (especially regarding women), but I can’t fault the author for painting an accurate picture of the story of Achilles and the realities of war. The book isn’t unnecessarily gory, and it’s a beautiful story, and I would recommend it to everyone. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Death, Sexism, and War

Minor: Abandonment, Ableism, Animal death, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexual violence, Child death, Cursing, Emotional abuse, Blood, Infidelity, Grief, and Sexual assault

ghostlyprince's review against another edition

emotional reflective tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pedophilia, Self harm, Child death, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Misogyny, Murder, Rape, Death, Sexism, Slavery, Grief, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Abandonment, Sexual violence, Blood, Sexual content, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Suicidal thoughts, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Infidelity, Medical content, Fire/Fire injury, Child abuse, Kidnapping, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Minor: Bullying, Suicide attempt, Cannibalism, Pregnancy, Domestic abuse, and Vomit

tomasalbanez's review against another edition

adventurous emotional medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.75

I love the way the relationship with gods is represented, with them being clearly real but still mysterious, distant and covered by myths. The love story is tragic (a Greek Tragedy™) but really good.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Murder, Violence, Child death, Homophobia, Sexual content, Grief, and Blood

Moderate: Bullying and War

Minor: Slavery, Ableism, Pregnancy, and Sexism

morgcailie's review

adventurous emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Well obviously they're in love, and it's beautiful, and it's messy, and it's groundbreaking. And It really wouldn't be so toxic if it weren't for war. Don't forget that pinch of destiny. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, War, Rape, Murder, and Death

Moderate: Torture and Ableism

maeverose's review

Not for me. Plus it had a specific kind of gore that I personally can’t handle so no thnx (my fault for not checking content warnings first…)

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Rape, Child death, and Death

Moderate: Blood

Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Vomit, Ableism, and Animal cruelty

Brain gore (graphic) I’m sure I missed content warnings bc I only read 3 chapters..

fanboyriot's review against another edition

sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

1.0

Finally finished reading this after having it on my physical TBR for at least five years.  

The hype of this was high.  Seeing great reviews and positive comments about how amazing the writing was and how sad but good it was.

I’m not gonna lie I only bought it because it was queer and it had Greek mythology in it.  I thought despite the angst and it being a historical fiction that I’d like it.  

The short review is that I did not like it.  I wanted to DNF it so many times but thought maybe I just wasn’t giving it a chance.

I don’t know if it was because of the slower paced chapters or because it was a historical fiction but this book was so boring.  I could not wait to be done with it.

There were so many moments that it was cringey or just uncomfortable to read.  All the spicy moments were awful to get through.  And  while I understand it was back when people were a lot younger when they were married off or forced to have children but it was just so uncomfortable to read lines like: “Her body, he said, was soft and small as a child’s.” (Chapter 13, page 147)… why is that necessary??  How did that make it into the final edits?? 

I will say the positive about this was that through everything Achilles and Patroclus had a healthy, honest, and trusting relationship for the most part.  

And while the ending was sad it wasn’t as bad as I expected.  I think that what Thetis ended up doing in the end helped with that.  It was the sweetest thing she had done in that whole book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Homophobia, Classism, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Gaslighting, Death, Violence, War, Blood, Murder, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Suicide, and Adult/minor relationship

Moderate: Gore, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Animal death, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, Slavery, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, and Torture

Minor: Toxic friendship, Alcohol, Ableism, Vomit, Child death, and Trafficking

imaginefishes's review

adventurous emotional sad slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

i hated the beginning (

Spoiler

childhood trauma

)
i hated the end (

Spoiler

pyrrhus was a dick and i’m glad he was killed

)
this is the (almost) embodiment of a greek tragedy, and would have been so if not for

Spoiler

the completely idiotic way patroclus dies due to his own hubris against the gods

also thetis is annoying

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, War, Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, Murder, Classism, Bullying, Grief, and Violence

Moderate: Sexism, Slavery, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Animal death, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Ableism, and Blood

Minor: Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

emilieboeger's review

adventurous emotional slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Found the pacing too slow at times and then too fast at others. The story is set in an incredibly sexist society and the casual tone in which women are mentioned as property is disturbing. 
The writing is very beautiful and poetic but in a very digestable way. However it prevented me from really disappearing into the story. Found the characters quite hard to relate to which in the beginning was interesting but towards the end just made it hard to be invested in the story.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Rape, Sexism, Murder, and War

Moderate: Slavery, Sexual assault, Homophobia, and Misogyny

Minor: Ableism

camoo3032's review against another edition

emotional informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

It really immerses you into Greek mythology and the story of Troy and Achilles. I still really enjoyed reading it even though I knew the story of Achilles. I'm not used to reading books written in a first-person perspective so it felt disjointed to me and as if the narrator was distant, but it was still very well done!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence

Moderate: Sexual content, Animal death, Classism, Misogyny, and War

Minor: Domestic abuse, Vomit, Ableism, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Child abuse, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Panic attacks/disorders, and Pregnancy