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cturn's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, and War
Moderate: Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Medical content, and Pregnancy
mels_reading_log's review against another edition
- 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
4.5
Moderate: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Fire/Fire injury, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
art3m1sxx's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
Graphic: Gore, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, and War
thaliareads's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Death, Sexual content, Violence, and War
Moderate: Sexual violence and Slavery
I'm behind on reviews and it's been a few weeks since I read the book so I likely missed a couple of content warnings.pigeongreen's review against another edition
- 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
5.0
Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Death, Gore, Grief, and Abandonment
Moderate: Homophobia
Minor: Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Kidnapping, and Sexual harassment
eatyourphone's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
Graphic: Violence
Moderate: Sexual violence
ahakuutti's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
1.5
This book gave me nostalgia for old BL/mlm tropes where the main character has no personality so the female readers can self insert themselves to him more easily and the main love interest is still somehow really interested in the main character even though he has the personality of a dry rag and is overall really passive. I start to have problems with this set-up only when the writer also adds their internalized misogyny by making all the female characters obstacles and those who bring conflict against the main gay couple. This is what this book is.
I never understood what Patroclus saw in Achilles except blind adoration and what Achilles saw in Patroclus making their relationship seem extremely vapid and surface level. They're both flat cardboards who suddendly gain a personality when the original myths demand it to make the events happen and all the more nuanced and complicated characters are either women who get pushed to the sidelines, killed or made antagonistic or the other guys in the army against Troy who're also often untrustworthy or kill and rape (which our gay boys don't do because they're perfect gay boys).
I'm usually fine if retellings change some things but there has to be a certain purpose behind it; if the author decides to take out all the rape, grey morality and violence the main character's originally had but instead makes them perfect feminist gay boys and treats the few female characters like this I do think that theres some validity to criticize that.
The writing has some nice passages from time time and it's easily readable but overall I coasted through this book like in a haze and it got me out of reading slump so there's something good. My favorite moment was in the end
Last point and this might be more of a nitpick but I also found it weird that after the main characters grow up to be adults there's no more sex scenes between them whereas when they were teenagers the author before descriped them in quite explicit detail. Amongst all the bloodshed of the war them being intimate now as adults would have underlined more on their pure love compared to the rape and pillaging happening all around them.
Graphic: Gore and Violence
Minor: Rape and Sexual violence
booksemmahasread's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Death, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Moderate: Animal death
Minor: Child death, Pregnancy, and Abandonment
friendly_neighborhood_grandma's review against another edition
5.0
Graphic: Body horror, Child death, Death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Grief, Medical trauma, Murder, War, and Injury/Injury detail
Minor: Rape, Suicidal thoughts, Vomit, Death of parent, and Fire/Fire injury
matildaesandell's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
Graphic: Sexual violence, Violence, and War