Reviews tagging 'Sexual assault'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

836 reviews

atreegrowsinbooks'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? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

Edited Review:

I had to come back to change my star rating from 4.75 to 5. It's been several days since I finished this book, and I find myself still thinking about the story and also wanting to do a reread. Since this book has been on my mind a lot, I think it's worth being 5 stars.

Original Review:

I went into this book not knowing much about Greek myths so I didn't know how I'd feel about this book. But, I got a rave book recommendation so figured I'd go for it. I am SO GLAD I DID.

I kept thinking about the story after I put the book down. The pacing was great and I enjoyed how the passage of time was portrayed. Definitely cried hard. 

The characters were lovable and hatable. The relationship with Achilles and Patroclus was so complicated.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and War

Moderate: Rape, Sexual content, and Slavery

Minor: Animal death, Homophobia, and Sexual assault

abygaylemarie's review

dark emotional funny sad 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Murder, and War

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Sexual harassment

mikeg24's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad fast-paced

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

5.0

I loved this book! I’m a big fan of mythology and romantacy so this was right up my alley. The love story was so precious between Patroclus and Achilles. Of course I bawled my eyes out, how embarrassing. 

In true Greek mythology fashion, it’s dark, gritty, morally gray at times. I think it’s a wonderful retelling of a classic.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, and Murder

el_doodareno'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? No

4.25

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Content Warnings

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

Minor: Sexual assault

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

kaygee_reads's review

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, Murder, and War

Moderate: Rape and Sexual assault

Minor: Homophobia and Sexual content

newtnewt's review against another edition

adventurous dark 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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Self harm, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Torture, Kidnapping, Murder, Abandonment, and War

unoriginalusername's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

2.75

I was influenced by BookTok (and partially strong armed by a friend) to read this book. 
It’s a gorgeously written story about Achilles from Patroclus’ point of view. I admire the author for putting so much love and respect into this story, giving a stellar retelling to a famous story and looking at the relationships from a different perspective. Anyone who’s read anything about Achilles or the Trojan War should know what they’re getting into with this book. The topics are heavy, potentially triggering, and altogether realistic for the setting. That being said, I’m not a fan of Greek tragedy and only enjoyed the book when I was done with it. It’s very emotionally provocative, and it does it well. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Sexual violence, Blood, and War

Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, Medical content, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Homophobia, Rape, Vomit, Kidnapping, Murder, Pregnancy, and Injury/Injury detail

It’s a Greek tragedy. Idk what else to say, other than it’s going to happen.

euyrdice's review against another edition

emotional 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

2.0

Perhaps there is such things for virtue among the gods. But how is there glory in taking a life? We die so easily.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death and War

Moderate: Slavery

Minor: Sexual assault

mwashburn221's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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: Sexual assault