Reviews tagging 'Sexual harassment'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

182 reviews

book_catepillar's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional medium-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 favorite book ever!!! Definitely made me sob my eyes out.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Violence, War, and Sexual content

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual harassment, and Pregnancy

pigeongreen's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a beautiful story that expounds on the classic Greek mythology that most of us are somewhat familiar with. We experience the depth of joy, grief, loss, and anger with the characters, and fall in love with the lovers. Dialogue is purposefully sparse and formal, supporting the rich character development via the narrator, Patroclus. We see through his eyes and hear his thoughts and feelings, relating to other characters through him. A must read. Tragic and gorgeous. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Death, Gore, Grief, Animal death, and Child death

Moderate: Homophobia

Minor: Sexual harassment, Kidnapping, Violence, Sexual violence, and Sexual content

purechaos's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad tense medium-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Classism, Physical abuse, Slavery, War, Cursing, Deportation, Genocide, Gore, Sexual harassment, Torture, Trafficking, Violence, Kidnapping, Medical content, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Hate crime, Mental illness, Misogyny, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Blood, Child death, Abandonment, Domestic abuse, Grief, Xenophobia, Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical trauma, Sexism, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Colonisation, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual content

mama_marlene23's review against another edition

emotional sad tense fast-paced

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

5.0

The book destroyed me 
I literally cried the thru the last 100pages. But I loved it. The writing, the scenery everything. And even if Achill fucked me up sometimes I kind of love him just like patroklos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Murder, Blood, Death, Kidnapping, Slavery, War, Rape, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Violence, Sexism, and Sexual assault

kathrynleereads's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I’m not going to lie… this book was a chore for me. I couldn’t put my finger on exactly what it was that I didn’t like, but every time I put it down, I felt absolutely no desire to pick it back up again. 

Song of Achilles is one I had such high hopes for after hearing so many amazing things about it, but I just didn’t feel drawn into the story. 

With every multi-year time jump, I felt as if I had whiplash. If I’m adding correctly the book spanned a total of 18 years (ages 9 to 27 for Patroclus), which was just too wide a time frame. 

Because of the time jumps, Achilles’ character development felt spotty and incomplete. Patroclus, on the other hand, seemed to go through all of his character growth within the final few chapters, which was just as jarring. 

Speaking of the final few chapters…

I’ll admit, I did shed quite a few tears at the end of the book, but that’s only because of the characters’ reactions to everything that unfolded. 

Spoiler

I didn’t even fully follow what happened to Patroclus until Menelaus carried him back into camp, at which point I went back and reread the prior chapter. 

One second Patroclus was in the chariot, and the next he was at the wall of Troy, being surrounded by the Trojan army. 

I understand that Miller was demonstrating the draw of power in the scene, but it was so out of character for Patroclus that it took me right out of the story.

The only aspect of this book I have no complaints about is Briseis. Her character helped demonstrate the severity of war atrocities, while also helping mark time.

Briseis’ friendship with Patroclus was the only thing that kept me reading this book. 

She was so kind and understanding, even after the horrors that she had gone through (and was yet to go through) because of the war. 

All in all, I think this book was just not for me. Reading other reviews for The Song of Achilles, I recognize all the aspects that are being applauded, I just think Miller’s writing style was not for me. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Murder, Sexual violence, Blood, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Body horror, Physical abuse, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Violence, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, and War

Moderate: Torture, Child death, Kidnapping, Medical content, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Animal death and Bullying

sshpurple1's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-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? It's complicated

5.0

It was slow to start. But oh, was it worth it. I loved this story.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Sexual harassment, Slavery, Sexual content, Kidnapping, War, and Death

stellastallion's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War, Homophobia, Blood, Death, Violence, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Misogyny

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Sexual content, and Animal death

Minor: Child death and Sexual violence

sirenricobooks's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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: Misogyny, War, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Violence, Child death, Death, Murder, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Torture, Classism, Grief, and Homophobia

Minor: Animal death, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Pregnancy, Medical content, Pandemic/Epidemic, Outing, Rape, Sexual violence, and Slavery

crowcrow's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense

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

4.75

I am writing this literally after finishing the book. Zues, have mercy on me if i start crying again.

I don't believe there's anything more I can add to the endless amount of well deserved praise Madeline has gotten. I've only read one of her works so far and she's probably gonna jump to being my favorite author, which should tell you a lot, I think. 

I'll point out the obvious first: The writing is absolutely beautiful, even in the most peaceful and sweet and grotesque and tragic moments. Even translated, it hits ya just right ( which it hit me quite a lot ). 

Next to reading the Witcher, I've never emoted so much while reading. While I would laugh, gasp at Jaskier's and Geralts shenanigans, it absolutely does not compare to how I acted while reading this. I understand it's a weird thing to mention, but hear me out: the fact that it had such a huge impact on me that I involuntarily started wiggling n' croaking should tell you how invested I was. I went from squeeling and awing in the beginning, to yelping and groaning, to being ready to fucking murder the person sitting next to me ( I may be still carrying some of that rage, I haven't cried enough to get it out of my system yet ). It is truly masterful how Madeline gets you so unexpectedly invested in the characters, even when they seem unimportant or uninteresting at first. 

Reading this book has made me fall in love with Greek mythology again, I went back to playing Hades, and I'm planning on going to therapy. Seems cheesy to say, but I don't think I'll ever be the same after reading this book. I've gotten so much inspiration to start writing again myself, and felt like I learned so much about writing romance, even drama ( war drama? as if i know ). I'm still surprised as to how much impact this book left on me. Kinda feel dumb about it, really.

And you bet I'm buying Circe after this. Don't care what it's about, I just want more of Madeline's magic words upon my eyes. And Odysseus. Never enough of Odysseus. 

Also if Madeline aCTUALLY PUBLISHES THE PERSEPHONE BOOK I MIGHT DIE??

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Medical content, Death, Violence, War, and Slavery

Moderate: Homophobia, Pregnancy, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Murder, and Sexual harassment

_al's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

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

4.0

I wanted to give this book 3.5/75 out of 5 but it was nice distraction from hard stuff and I very enjoyed the writing, so I'm boosting it up to 4. 

Writing was main thing of this book for me. Madeline Miller's prose is so captivating and smooth, I'm amazed each time I opened the book. But I wanted more from  Patroclus. I understand what she's trying to do, but I don't think she was very successful with his character. For me he felt mostly lacking and I wanted to feel him even if we dont witness his legend. Patroclus has such interesting stuff going on but just a bit more of..basically everything would be so good. 

I enjoyed Achilles but as much I enjoyed reading about him and him giving into his pride – which was fascinating to read – it felt awkward in places and also kinda lacking. 

But overall, I enjoyed it – i had fun, characters were interesting to follow, and it resurrected my love for mythology and give me interest to ancient history. Maybe reread it when i need the distraction with feelings. And definitely will check out Circe in near future. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Blood, Emotional abuse, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Medical content, War, and Child death

Moderate: Homophobia, Misogyny, Slavery, Sexual content, Rape, and Sexual violence

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual harassment