Reviews tagging 'Vomit'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

91 reviews

margaritium's review

adventurous emotional hopeful relaxing 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? It's complicated

5.0

My heart has not healed and never will. <SPOILER :Patroculus deserves better, I just want to give him a warm and soft comforting hug. He did not deserve it >

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Emotional abuse, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Vomit, Pregnancy, Abandonment, Sexual harassment, and War

lana72905's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Trafficking, Sexual harassment, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Vomit

maggiefujinuma's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad 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

I read this book because I was jealous that mlm´s had a book like this that was so loved and I wanted to see what the hype was about. Naturally, my hate-reading led to not being able to put it down, and when the emotional parts came, they hit me full in the face. Beautiful writing. I deeply enjoyed the descriptions of feelings, especially romantic and distraught ones. The love was undeniable.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: War

Moderate: Death and Vomit

Minor: Sexual assault and Sexual content

arlaubscher's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Misogyny, Rape, and Slavery

mim_flowers's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad 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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Self harm, Sexual assault, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape, Vomit, and Pregnancy

iamlexy's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-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? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual content

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Child abuse, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Suicide attempt, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, and War

Well, it’s Greek mythology, what did you expected? The sex content it’s on a low key, it’s not that graphic but it’s still there

erebus53's review

adventurous emotional informative medium-paced

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

3.75

I picked up this book because it's been talked about around the place and seems popular. I'm sure that my interpretation of the work is coloured by many years of reading Rick Riordan's youth fiction about Greek myths. My takeaway is that although it's historic fiction it .. feels more fictiony than historic. Yes we do have actual gods playing a roll so we could call it mythic realism, but as some folk have pointed out, it's more just a homoerotic love story. I'm ok with that  : )

I think the book is fun but not super deep. Knowing roughly how the story goes before I delved into the book, leaves me wondering if I can even mention some parts of it without it being spoilers - what is the common knowledge here? Is it ok to mention which characters die when? I mean, this is ancient history ... so all the characters are dead by now (except maybe the gods).

This telling is in the first person, from the point of view of Patroclus who is the dearest love of Achilles.

--pedant mode--
I feel like it's spelled incorrectly, surely that's a "k"? Wiki says conventionally it's Patroclus but from Pátroklos ... wow there's argument about how that ought to be pronounced so that is a rabbit hole - but now I feel mollified.. it isn't just me being finicky. OK, fine,  I'm being finicky. While I'm finicking, I kept raising an eyebrow when the author refers to heroes being painted onto vases. My high school classics led me to believe that black figure vases came way after the Trojan War, and red  figure vases even later than that, so references to those forms seems anachronistic.

.. also, I get that Achilles is supposed to be trusting and oblivious, but he should have known there was something suss about a guy trying to marry him to a priestess of Artemis. I mean Artemis's whole deal is virgin purity. That whole bit seemed like something fishy was afoot.

*climbs out of rabbit hole*
--end pedant mode--

The reason the two men like each other seems completely arbitrary because the author doesn't build that much. Patroclus is a devoted lover and sees his god-boyfriend through rosy tinted glasses. I find it really amusing that some people find this sweet, and others are nauseated by his witless swooning.

As far as this narration of the audiobook is concerned, I find it really strange that the narrator doesn't alter his affect for voicing young people. I was about 5 minutes into a conversation before I was reminded that this was a conversation between young children rather than adults. I got the same sort of feeling when the character of Pyrrhus is introduced as a pubescent youth. I honestly think there should be some sort of primer for Audiobook narrators where they learn how words like wretched are said.

OK, I'm going there. This is the first book I have ever read in the first person where the narrator dies and keeps telling the story. At first I wondered what the heck was happening because he was clearly deceased and yet, still talking. After a while it became clearer that according to the Greek practices around the passing of the dead to the underworld, he had moved on out of his body, but was still kicking around watching the proceedings. OK fine.. I'll let you have it. It still felt more clumsy than it ought to have.

It was an easy read and coming to the end of it, the themes of social change, and how things are perceived by future generations, are aired more explicitly. The story is true to the Greek trope of sage council that is ignored. This account is subverting the idea that glory is something that one earns by war and murder, and is focused on the idea that a person can be remembered for more than their body-count. All in all, I  don't think the book is elegant, but it is interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Vomit and Pregnancy

ceils's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad tense fast-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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence

Moderate: Blood and War

Minor: Homophobia, Rape, Sexual violence, and Vomit

cloudypages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

daniellaikonn's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

This book is amazing and lives up to the hype. The atmosphere and the story are both beautiful. The characters are so well developed, all characters included the prevalent side characters which you don't see often in books. The writing is amazing. Her use of adjectives and description is amazing. Everyone should take notes. I don't know much about the original story but this is amazing. I will say though some parts of the ending I was like do we really need this? and some parts of the story kinda got me drifting off but that is so over looked in how amazing this book is and the LGBTQ Representation, amazing. Everything is amazing. Read this book. Anyone should read this book. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Violence, Kidnapping, and War

Minor: Suicidal thoughts and Vomit