Reviews tagging 'Transphobia'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

55 reviews

mangofraiche's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Transphobia, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

mmcz26's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Rape, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Death and Grief

Minor: Homophobia, Pedophilia, Self harm, and Transphobia

cosmaheart's review against another edition

adventurous emotional tense 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

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape and Transphobia

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

saintmare's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-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

4.0

Listened to the audiobook.

I think this book is nearly perfect. It's clear a lot of research went into this book and the tone matches the fact it's a Greek retelling. At some points I thought some descriptions were a bit too repetitive, though it matched with the tone of the book. I think the scope was well chosen and executed. The prose was lovely, at points drawing from the descriptions in epics.

In some way, this book is limited by the fact it's a retelling. You cannot divorce Achilles and Patroclus from their roots, from the violence of their origins and by portraying them as more sympathetic than they sometimes are in their original stories to focus on their bond, a choice is made. It's perfect for this book, but it's a limitation, one I can't describe it better without talking in circles.

I recommend this book nonetheless. It did make me cry.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, and War

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

Minor: Ableism, Fatphobia, and Transphobia

By transphobia, I mean specifically transmisogyny.

At one point Achilles hides dressed as a girl himself. TL;DR, the other heroes mention that one of the greatest blemishes on a man's honour is be to be a man pursuing femininity, which is also leveraged against him later. This, of course, reflects the misogyny in the society but the way it was worded did make my skin crawl personally. Achilles and Patroclus himself aren't weird about this, though.

lavenderzinnia's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional sad tense 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? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Sexism, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Abandonment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Moderate: Body shaming, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Transphobia, Kidnapping, Outing, Alcohol, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Animal cruelty, Child death, Self harm, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Outing, and Classism

hammie_32's review against another edition

dark 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

Tried to cheat the system to give this more than 5 stars. I have unfortunately high standards for books to enjoy, and so often my experience is ruined by an ending falling flat. I set the book down about 3 months ago, 10% away from the end, because I couldn't bear to read the rest of it knowing what was coming. My reaction was diluted coming back to it, and i still cried through the last 3 chapters. A devastatingly beautiful queer fiction that I immediately want to restart.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Violence, Blood, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Slavery

Minor: Transphobia

baking_muffins's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring 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

Wow. Just wow.everything about this book is beautiful. The writing, the setting, the characters, their flaws, the consequences of those flaws. I want everyone to read this masterpiece

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape

Minor: Homophobia and Transphobia

vanilla_yogurt739's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad 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? It's complicated

5.0

I love this book; never heard the full story of Achilles before this telling of it and this was a great way to be introduced to the story. The story of these lovers who are trapped by the fate they know is approaching left me hooked on every chapter. The last chapters were incredibly moving to me with Patroclus’s point of view.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore

Moderate: Rape and Transphobia

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I will remember Achilles and Patroclus and their love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Sexual violence, Slavery, Transphobia, Medical trauma, Suicide attempt, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Animal death