Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Song of Achilles

I really wanted this book to be for me, to be one of those people that love it. It was not.

The pacing was so odd, the same chapter could be broken in scenes (which is fine btw) with a weird time-space between them, from mere minutes to years, months or season. In my mind it's fine if it's even, like in the same chapter scenes space out through months at a time, but don't change the pacing mid-chapter, it's weird, it takes you out of the story. Also, I think many scenes were unnecessary, they didn't dive into the characters or the "plot", I could've skip them and I would have understood the book just fine.

Oh, and don't get me started with mixing tenses (past and present) while describing something that was happening at the moment, meaning that Patroclus was living through it as he narrated instead of telling us afterwards when usually it would be used the past tense. English isn't my first language, but in my mother tongue works the same way, I think that's common sense. It really threw me off, it took me out of the story.

Another thing that I didn't like was the misogyny in the book. I understand that it's a retelling set in Ancient Greek, where women were seen as merely sexual objects and/or slaves. But then go with it, don't have Patroclus ASK Achilles to claim girls so they don't get brutalize by other kings or warriors, it doesn't make sense. If you want to show that Patroclus is against how the patricarchy treats women, make him have an opinion on the matter, after all the book is narrated through HIS point of view. In my opinion, the only woman that he truly respected was Briseis by the way he talked about her. He talked about the other women as if it was normal what happened to them and Patroclus and Achilles were their saviors, what a irritating god's complex, although Patroclus didn't strike me that way. Achilles sure did.

Sorry, the latter point pisses me off because this book was written by a woman. It could've been so much more if this was fixed, at least, it wouldn't have bothered me so much, which brings me to my next point.

I hate every character (aside from Briseis) in this book. Achilles, Patroclus, Thetis, Agamemnon, everyone. Fucking priviledge men. Who pisses me off the most is Achilles, so fucking stubborn and proud. MEN ARE DYING, PUT YOUR ARMOR ON AND FIGHT YOU FUCKER. Patroclus literally BEGGED him to do so, for him, not for anyone else, AND HE GOT KILLED FOR IT. Achilles' fault and no one else.

This brings me to my next point that is that I can't be bought into thinking Patroclus and Achilles loved each other. Maybe Patroclus did, after all he described Achilles in many beautiful ways throughout the book, however I truly don't think Achilles loved him back. Not in the right way anyway. All I saw between them was lust. Towards the end was the only time I truly saw that Achilles might love him, or perhaps he just missed Patroclus' companionship, they'd been together for over a decade, lovers since they were like fifteen, I don't even remember, the man was devastated.

Now, you may ask, why didn't you DNF it? Well, because I paid for it with my own money, I read the synopsis and said, "oh, I might like this" and bought it. This was the only reason why I pushed through it all, otherwise I would have DNF it 70-ish pages in, I literally didn't care for anyone, not then, not now that I have finshed it.

So, next time I read a Greek retelling I need to search one star reviews here, just to see if it's worth my money. I really don't want to bump into the most misogynist shit I've read about decorated with clever words put together.

Content Warnings

rubyd2012's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense 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

2.5

I HATE THIS, GODDD IT MAD ME SO MADDDD I LOVE THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE TWO CHARACTERS BUT DEAR GODDD, I WAS NOT PREPARED FOR THATTTTT AT THE ENDDD PLEASEEE STOPPP MAKING ME CRYYYYY

Content Warnings

gh2mi's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

5.0

A genuinely fantastic romance that hooked me from the first chapter and refused to leave my thoughts until I could listen to more. Great for pretty much everyone, especially older Greek mythology nerds of the Rick Riordan era and of course romance lovers. "BookTok" seems to carry such a negative connotation, but if it surfaces a book of such high quality as this and allows it to continue to thrive as The Song of Achilles has, then I have no qualms with it.

Do note that this book contains fairly graphic descriptions of sexual content and violence, so if that isn't your thing or you're looking for a book for younger audiences, you may want to hold off on this one.

Content Warnings

coldsoup13's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

Content Warnings

moon_peach's review against another edition

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adventurous 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

4.5

So if you know Greek mythology, you know the ending but like with Hadestown I was hoping the ending would change. It did not.

I'm sure Archilles refusing to fight might seem ridiculous but it fits perfectly when thinking about Greek heroes and how hubris is often their downfall.

Patroclus was a very sympathetic character and again if you already knew the myth you can't help but root for him and his happiness.

Content Warnings

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