Reviews tagging 'Abandonment'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

230 reviews

s_wandering's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful sad slow-paced

• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

Absolutely sobbing!

At first I felt indifferent at best while reading not caring at all about any one character, the pacing felt off etc.

Luckily I didn’t give up, past that 50% mark was nothing short of incredible. I should’ve known to trust Madeline after all, Circe is my favourite 

“Go” she says. “He waits for you”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Violence, and War

Moderate: Sexual violence

Minor: Slavery and Abandonment

mdavenport02's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Domestic abuse, Rape, Murder, and War

Moderate: Child abuse and Abandonment

zsabella's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Slavery, Violence, and War

Minor: Rape, Medical content, and Abandonment

chimera_moth's review against another edition

dark emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Self harm, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Classism

Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Religious bigotry, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

wildflower_magic's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced

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

5.0

What a beautiful retelling of the story of Achilles. I swooned over the portrayal of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and I think Patroclus was the perfect narrator for the story. Madeline Miller did a fantastic job of holding true to the original stories while also creating something unique and special within that story. The writing style was gorgeous: perfectly flowery and song-like just like the myths would have been told. The character development was so interesting. A month later and I still think about how this book ended! This book gives a lot of opportunities to reflect on the age-old debate: do we have control, or is it up to fate? 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

Moderate: Biphobia, Child abuse, Child death, Genocide, Homophobia, Infidelity, Transphobia, Dementia, Religious bigotry, Death of parent, Outing, and Alcohol

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Pregnancy

newtnewt's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, and War

elija_20's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional medium-paced

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

5.0

If you love writers who use a lot of similes and metaphors you will LOVE this book. The imagery is amazing and makes the characters and plot come to life on the page. I loved all the characters and their development throughout. All in all a really great book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Mental illness, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death, Child death, Kidnapping, and Abandonment

hjb_128's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Murder, Abandonment, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Medical content, Grief, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

cnannery19's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Religious bigotry, Medical trauma, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

(I just accidentally deleted my long review so this is a shorter version.) This book is extraordinary, so, so, SO good. For books this fabulous, there needs to be rating of 5+ stars. 

The author gives us a love story for the ages, as we watch Achilles grow from childhood to his late 20s, his life intertwined with that of Patroclus, his companion from the age of eleven. This book is beautiful and powerful and vivid, and I was entranced by both the characters and their stories. 

I have always loved Greek myths. My reading this just confirms my bewilderment that people ever stopped worshipping the Greek gods; they are all of us, our worst and our best selves, our love and jealousy and anger and wisdom.

Again, I must repeat that this book is extraordinary. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Medical trauma, Abandonment, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic