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ambdocksey22's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Animal death, Biphobia, Blood, Child death, Death, Genocide, Grief, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, and War
booksthatburn'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
3.5
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.
Graphic: Blood, Child death, Death, and Gore
Moderate: Animal death, Confinement, Domestic abuse, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Terminal illness, and Vomit
Minor: Biphobia and Cannibalism
CW for possible biphobia, major character death (graphic).lovely_lisa's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Biphobia, Blood, Death, Grief, Homophobia, Medical content, Murder, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, and Violence
Moderate: Sexual content
angelsfw's review against another edition
- 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
Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Death, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gore, Medical content, Kidnapping, Medical trauma, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Murder, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death, Biphobia, Child death, Domestic abuse, and Homophobia
Minor: Death of parent and Dementia
valereads's review against another edition
- 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
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
Graphic: Biphobia, Child abuse, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Homophobia, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Violence
Moderate: Animal death