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cerilouisereads's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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
3.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Blood, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Sexual harassment
Minor: Biphobia and Homophobia
ambdocksey22's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
tense
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
4.5
A good read, but there are a few out of place words. Miller seems to forget who’s perspective the book is written from. Patroclus describes people as ‘olive skinned’ but Patroclus is olive skinned too so he would not describe other people as that if he had never seen anyone of a different skin colour of himself before. There are a few others, but over all I enjoyed the retelling of the war.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Child death, Death, Genocide, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Pregnancy, and War
booksthatburn's review against another edition
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-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
3.5
THE SONG OF ACHILLES is the story of Achilles’s boyhood and (most of) the Trojan War, as told by his lover, Patroclus. Patroclus’ focus is ever on Achilles, for Achilles is Patroclus’ love and it’s so moving to tell this story through the warm glow of that adoration and desire.
I like how it handles the very high number of sexual assaults and consent violations which are, in many ways, the backbone of Greek mythology (or at least the family trees). Just giving proper context to this story and to events in Patroclus' and Achilles' lives requires some discussion of these themes, and I think it did as well as it could without feeling very anachronistic. This is a beautiful retelling of a tragic story, it makes me wish that Achilles, Patroclus, and Breisis could have been happy together, but it wasn't meant to be.
This retelling takes the stance that Achilles was definitely gay, with zero interest in women, and it seems to heavily imply that maybe Patroclus could have been happy with a woman but he has eyes only for Achilles. That does however lead to some interesting story decisions which have to be resolved, given the source material. It keeps one very notable instance of Achilles sleeping with a woman, and artfully dodges another that would be assumed to have happened but technically could be worked around. It did give it a kind of biphobic air to this retelling, like it's working so hard to show the love and devotion between Achilles and Patroclus that it shoves away any hint of intimacy or connection with women on Achilles' part. I'm not a Classics scholar and I don't know if the rejection is part of the myth, it just felt kind of bad in a few places because of it. It ends up working as part of Achilles' slow transformation from a kid who didn't want to hurt anyone into a stubborn asshole who let a lot of people die for his pride, but it did make me dislike him by the end. Patroclus' has a consistently rosy view of Achilles and mourns this change rather than rejecting him for it, which definitely helped me keep caring about the story even as I liked Achilles himself less and less.
I liked it overall and I'm glad I read it, anything that manages to make Achilles feel like slightly less of an asshole than most portrayals of him is doing a great job, and this manages that without stripping away the abrasive parts of his character.
I like how it handles the very high number of sexual assaults and consent violations which are, in many ways, the backbone of Greek mythology (or at least the family trees). Just giving proper context to this story and to events in Patroclus' and Achilles' lives requires some discussion of these themes, and I think it did as well as it could without feeling very anachronistic. This is a beautiful retelling of a tragic story, it makes me wish that Achilles, Patroclus, and Breisis could have been happy together, but it wasn't meant to be.
This retelling takes the stance that Achilles was definitely gay, with zero interest in women, and it seems to heavily imply that maybe Patroclus could have been happy with a woman but he has eyes only for Achilles. That does however lead to some interesting story decisions which have to be resolved, given the source material. It keeps one very notable instance of Achilles sleeping with a woman, and artfully dodges another that would be assumed to have happened but technically could be worked around. It did give it a kind of biphobic air to this retelling, like it's working so hard to show the love and devotion between Achilles and Patroclus that it shoves away any hint of intimacy or connection with women on Achilles' part. I'm not a Classics scholar and I don't know if the rejection is part of the myth, it just felt kind of bad in a few places because of it. It ends up working as part of Achilles' slow transformation from a kid who didn't want to hurt anyone into a stubborn asshole who let a lot of people die for his pride, but it did make me dislike him by the end. Patroclus' has a consistently rosy view of Achilles and mourns this change rather than rejecting him for it, which definitely helped me keep caring about the story even as I liked Achilles himself less and less.
I liked it overall and I'm glad I read it, anything that manages to make Achilles feel like slightly less of an asshole than most portrayals of him is doing a great job, and this manages that without stripping away the abrasive parts of his character.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Death, Gore, and Blood
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, Vomit, Medical content, Kidnapping, and Murder
Minor: Biphobia and Cannibalism
CW for possible biphobia, major character death (graphic).lovely_lisa's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
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? It's complicated
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Death, Homophobia, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, and Murder
Moderate: Sexual content
angelsfw's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
“I am made of memories.” - The Song of Achilles
I have been wanting to read this book for a while now and immediately started when I got it. I was scared because I didn’t know if it was going to live up to all the praise I’ve seen people giving it. After finishing it, I feel like this book deserves all the praise that it continuously gets. I love the way Madeline Miller writes and this book truly is beautifully written.
I do feel that there are some scenes that Madeline Miller really didn’t need to include in the book. Please do heed any content and trigger warnings because I was surprised by some of the scenes.
I did rate this book five stars, even though I feel like some of the novel kind of dragged out. However, the ending is the best part of the whole novel. The ending is beautiful and so much of the way Miller wrote the book finally made sense once I read the ending. I could sit and talk about it for hours on end.
PLEASE NOTE: This book contains several adult themes. Only read if you are 18+!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder
Moderate: Animal death, Biphobia, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: Dementia and Death of parent
valereads's review against another edition
dark
emotional
hopeful
sad
slow-paced
- 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
First things first I absolutely love the way this is written. This is some of the most beautiful prose I've ever had the pleasure of reading and I do not say that lightly, I came into this book straight after reading Les Miserables so my standards are pretty high and this book greatly exceeded expectations.
The characters were all really well written and developed. They all felt like real people and Patroclus and Achilles' relationship felt natural and well earned - I could almost feel myself falling in love with Achilles alongside Patroclus as I read it.
On another note this book made me cry a lot. Probably due to the other two points I've mentioned it was absolutely heartbreaking at times. I don't know if my prior knowledge of the mythology this is based on made it better or worse for me (probably worse) but I was putting this down pretty often towards the end because I couldn't read through the tears.
That's about all I have to say about this book really. Nothing but praise because honestly this is now one of my favourite books of all time. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's even the slightest bit interest though I would emphasise being aware of the following content warnings before picking it up.
Content Warnings: Rape, discussed both casually on multiple occasions and in detail on one, a number of characters, both male and female, are raped in this book and it's best to be aware of this before you go in if this is something that may affect you; graphic violence (I mean it is a retelling of the Iliad), some homophobia
The characters were all really well written and developed. They all felt like real people and Patroclus and Achilles' relationship felt natural and well earned - I could almost feel myself falling in love with Achilles alongside Patroclus as I read it.
On another note this book made me cry a lot. Probably due to the other two points I've mentioned it was absolutely heartbreaking at times. I don't know if my prior knowledge of the mythology this is based on made it better or worse for me (probably worse) but I was putting this down pretty often towards the end because I couldn't read through the tears.
That's about all I have to say about this book really. Nothing but praise because honestly this is now one of my favourite books of all time. I would definitely recommend this to anyone who's even the slightest bit interest though I would emphasise being aware of the following content warnings before picking it up.
Content Warnings: Rape, discussed both casually on multiple occasions and in detail on one, a number of characters, both male and female, are raped in this book and it's best to be aware of this before you go in if this is something that may affect you; graphic violence (I mean it is a retelling of the Iliad), some homophobia
Content Warnings
Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death