Reviews with content warning for Racism - Song of Achilles

Reviews tagging 'Racism'

Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

14 reviews

savshanae's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

5.0

I hate it. I’m also giving it a 5 ⭐️ review.
Everyone was right, it will break you. But not even for the reasons I expected! I don’t want to spoil the whole thing, but I literally threw the book after reading the final paragraph. I hate it and it was also one of the best books I’ve ever read. Proceed with extreme caution.

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uranaishi's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

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blymanor's review against another edition

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adventurous dark 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

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lia_argo's review against another edition

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emotional sad slow-paced

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

2.5

I tried so hard to like this book. I tried, really. Because I didn't want to be that person who feigns to be "different" by criticizing the book everybody praises.

But honestly, WTF.

This is the book I've seen everywhere as "hearbreaking" and "best love story"?
If this is what people undestand by love now, I'm worried.

The book is narrated by Patroclus in first person.
I liked him. The original one. I'm fond of that kind of simple and nice secondary characters. But this Patroclus is the most unreliable narrator I've ever read. He's treated poorly by his father and has a childhood of believing himself worthless. Then he moves, meets Achilles and looks like there will character development.
Wrong. He's presented as useless and his only trait is how much he admires and loves Achilles. Talking about him all the time to a creepy-fan level, to be honest. Doesn't look creepier because the hero corresponds his affections.
Physically.
Because I've never met two lovers with less chemistry in my life.

For a modern book, I'm suprised about how little direct dialogue we have between characters, specially the two main ones. And barely any real romantic action between them, just Patroclus' monologue.

I still don't undestand that scene between him and Deyanira. Had that involved any other character, I could justify it by the narrator (and thus, the reader) not having access to the character's thoughts. But this is between Deyanira and Patroclus and he IS the NARRATOR.

Another thing that makes no sense to me is the villanification of Thetis. She is written as the most stereotypical evil step-mother from a Disney/fairytale.
And what for? I imagine that, because ⅔ of the story is just them being kids and teens, the book needed some kind of "obstacle". It actually suprised me, to find such a maintream "she's a witch" attitude with Thetis just so the boys have something "against them" before the actual war. Specially with the great work she did with Circe.

If, like me, your favourite part of the book was the events of the Trojan war; read TROY, by Stephen Fry.

Oh, and the Spanish translation is horrible. Outdated and old terms chosen, I believe, to imitate the language used in old scholar works to talk about Ancient Greece mixed with incredibly informal and modern slang terms when writing direct dialogue.
But at least for once, our edition is prettier.

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drama_duhh_'s review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-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

The saddest most beautiful book you will not regret reading!!!

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laceylove's review against another edition

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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

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inkdrinkers's review against another edition

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.0

How do I rate a book that I hated so much at the beginning, but loved so much at the end?

I feel like, after a decade past it's release, there are a lot of things that have already been said about The Song of Achilles, a majority of which boil down to naming this book a classic, heralding it as one of the best retellings, and giving it major props as a novel with queer representation - and to all that I say... I guess?

My biggest issues with this novel was the fact it's an adult fantasy that I've seen for years mismarketed as something for teens. Which, while the main characters are young - a majority of this book takes place during the preteens and teens of Patroclus and Achilles - it made me so vastly uncomfortable to have pages and pages (or hours, since I listened to the audiobook) devoted to the grown Patroclus reflecting on his sexual past with Achilles and mentioning his feet every chance he got. (His feet are an overarching mention and callback to the original myth of Achilles, but it's very heavy-handed.) Ultimately, this is an adult piece of fiction that contains a lot more than just a tragic love story between two fallen princes entangled with fate.

Yes, from a technical standpoint, this is a beautiful piece of work. It made me feel a lot of things, and though I didn't cry, the ending three chapters were truly some of the best literature I've listened to in a long time - but, I just feel like it fluttered to the floor for me, like a dropped sheet of paper - it's just kind of there. My favorite parts were few and far in between, the moments with Chiron shone as some of my favorites, but then were quickly dashed by how annoyed I got with Achilles' and his relationship with Thetis. Unfortunately, that annoyance only continued to grow as I really, deeply loved Miller's description of war once Troy was finally breached as a plot point - but was always annoyed when Achilles' unflinching love for his goddess mother reappeared.

I don't know how to rate this. I'm giving it a three because of that. The ending was beautiful, especially the ending line, and I particularly enjoyed the way the ending narration is set up. It was an unexpected surprise, but one that can't save this book for me.

Content warnings: war, death, grief are present throughout. Rape and coercion are a huge plot point, beginning around chapter twelve/thirteen (with an uncomfortable scene, implications, then on page that I skipped) and then carry throughout the entirety of the Troy chapters which feature mistreatment of women heavily. I would urge readers to tread lightly and remember this is an adult fantasy, featuring multiple adult scenes. Separately, I will add that there are sex scenes, some of them between underage Patroclus and Achilles, some of them not, varying in their degree of description.

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