Reviews tagging 'Alcohol'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

96 reviews

littlepaw's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-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

4.5

The book is twined in love and human err. The beauty and divinity love can create that is beyond Gods’. Yet the fragility of man to fail at the storm’s of life and choices that dissolves into the sea of stories, among the swirls of men and mortal wishes and their immortal goodness tweaked and juggled by Fates. “The Song of Achilles”, is one such book that beyond it’s magnanimity, speaks about the niche of human emotions. Patroclus and Achilles became the “best of all the Greeks” and “best of all the men” because they had each other at their best, worst and in their nothingness.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Bullying, Confinement, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Torture, Blood, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, and War

uselesspirateraven's review against another edition

emotional lighthearted sad medium-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Child abuse, Genocide, Homophobia, Rape, Sexual assault, and Slavery

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

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

goemonxiii's review against another edition

adventurous emotional lighthearted sad fast-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

3.5

I don't normally read books like Song of Achilles, but it was thoroughly enjoyable for what it was. I liked viewing Greek Mythology through the lens of Patroclus, Patroclus and Achilles' relationship was interesting to read about, and I like how this book is introducing a new generation to Greek Mythology. Is this book a must read? No. Is it good? For what it is, yes. The only thing I didn't like was the "passive voice" in later chapters when major things are happening (hopefully you'll understand what I mean if/when you read it). But, for young adult fiction, the plot wasn't stupid, there weren't any glaring problems in terms of themes or messaging, and it was well-written in terms of word choices and how the story was presented.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War

Moderate: Ableism, Homophobia, Alcohol, and Classism

lots of death, sad ending

, toxic parents, deals with the conflict of destiny versus identity, children being sent to war, deals with the consequences of war, passing mention of infanticide

nottheexplorer's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Body horror, Child death, Confinement, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Sexual content, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Homophobia, Suicidal thoughts, Xenophobia, and Abandonment

Minor: Homophobia, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Slavery, Cannibalism, Alcohol, Classism, and Pandemic/Epidemic

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

av0universe's review against another edition

2.0

 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. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Alcohol, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Animal death, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Pregnancy, and Sexual harassment

rubyd2012's review against another edition

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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Vomit, Grief, Murder, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, and Injury/Injury detail

spatterson7's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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

3.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Grief, and War

Moderate: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Blood, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, and Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Child abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

baearles's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful 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? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

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

Moderate: Gore

Minor: Animal death, Emotional abuse, Mental illness, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Kidnapping, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and Alcohol