Reviews with content warning for Violence - The Song of Achilles

Reviews tagging 'Violence'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

1758 reviews

sreddous's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

This is a well-crafted, well-paced, emotional historical fiction.

The descriptions of war are disgusting and immersive in the best ways, I could feel each spear butting me in the stomach. It's really cool to have two characters that approach war/glory/etc. differently and we get a good portion of both perspectives to really get a good picture of what war could be like.

The romantic timeline and pacing I also thought was fantastic. The innuendos and tension early in the story set up good tension, and the ending was truly heartbreaking with enough time spent on each of the feelings the characters were working through. The pacing was really just perfect here -- I never felt bored or stagnant but also never felt like very important feelings and character motivations or lessons learned were rushed.

The only thing I found myself wishing was really different was: I do really wish there was "more" to Patroclus in the first 1/3 of the book to make it clear why Achilles started to like him over the other boys. I like very much that later in the book Patroclus found his talents in medicine and that's interesting - I find myself wishing he was showing signs of being good at stuff like that early so Achilles had a reason early in the book to find him 'special/different' and be therefore interested in him. It felt kind of strange when Achilles was defending their friendship to his dad by saying "I find him interesting" and I kind of thought "lol why" at that time in the story. Still, this point does resolve itself and their chemistry and connection later is really believable, so it's mostly-minor for me as a whole.

Good stuff!

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racheltrow_'s review against another edition

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emotional tense 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? No

5.0

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q_bert13's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.0

After being recommended it so long, I’ve finally read the Song of Achilles. Though I enjoyed Miller’s writing style and twist on the Greek mythos, it seemed to drag towards the middle of the book, which made this decent sized read feel as long as the Odyssey (might just be a personal bias, as I’ve had to read that story far too many times for school)
Overall though, a very interesting and heartbreaking read, with an ‘open’, but satisfying end.

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p3tt1tt's review against another edition

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adventurous inspiring fast-paced

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

3.75

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lovelikethiswillendintragedy's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

My tears :,)

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minnow's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

3.5

As a huge fan of Greek mythology, and after hearing all of the praise for Circe, I expected this to be a 5-star read for me. I was pretty disappointed in this novel. It's just too heavy-handed with the descriptions. Every single thing is described in minute detail. I don't need to know every time the character has the tiniest feeling. I don't need a paragraph-long description of an item that has no importance to the story whatsoever. I don't need to know the hundred tiny gestures or expressions a character is making when those emotions are then repeated in the dialogue. It creates redundancy and weighs down the story. There are scenes stretching over chapters that could have been reduced to a few paragraphs, improving the pacing of the story. There's a time and place for heavy descriptions and I did not feel that discernment was exercised here.

I did, however, feel that this story did a fantastic job of portraying love in a way that was intense but not cringey.

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divorcemaster's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
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

Ohhhhhhhhh. You know exactly how it'll end, of course, it's a story several millennia old. You see the train's tracks, and you see the train, and you are still struck dead, and no mercy is shown to you because you saw it from miles away. The train hits you. Such is this book.

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