Reviews tagging 'Body horror'

La canzone di Achille by Madeline Miller

115 reviews

emmajam's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• 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: Body horror, Death, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Rape, Slavery, and Violence

Minor: Suicidal thoughts

emfass's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring reflective 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

5.0

I know so many of the ins and outs of the Trojan War, having been a Greek mythology fan since I was a kid. Given that, I didn't really expect this book to show me much that would be new to me about this story. I have never been so happy to be so wrong. I also adored Miller's Circe and didn't think I could love anything as much as that book, but Song of Achilles may have just surpassed it. 

The story is told entirely from Patroclus's point of view. It is gorgeous and lyrical and heartbreaking. The weaving of his relationship with Achilles was so quiet and nuanced, and bound them together so deftly. The way Miller used foreshadowing, especially for those who know the end of the story, was so well done and made it all the more poignant as we went through. 

I finished this book before I went to bed and walked around the house in a daze the next day, barely able to function. It's been a while since a book had that effect on me. 

The audiobook, narrated by Frazer Douglas, was very well done. I will definitely be revisiting this one, it's going firmly on my favorites shelf.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Child death, Gore, Homophobia, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Genocide, Infidelity, Rape, Self harm, Sexual content, Medical content, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, Outing, and Abandonment

Minor: Transphobia, Cannibalism, and Death of parent

boy_topics's review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful sad fast-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? Yes

4.0

Miller does such an amazing job of twisting the original story to make it super gay and incredibly engaging without straying from the most important plot points from the epic. I think this book should be YA, but it is well written, with a lot of really beautiful and striking moments.  It is heartbreaking but hopeful. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Trafficking, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, and Pregnancy

ilana_pop's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

5.0

This is a book that will tear you apart and after reading you’ve got absolutely no idea how you’re ever going to read another book ever again (in the best possible way). This was just incredible. Just wow. A book that, when you’ve read the last sentence, you just want to start over again. There are many retellings of Greek mythology, but this was truly hypnotising. An awfully gorgeous retelling of Homer’s Iliad. Madeline Miller tells the story of Achilles and Patroclus, the Trojan war and everything around it with so much emotion. She makes the legend more alive than ever.

I cried like I haven’t with a book in a while. I adore Achilles, I adore Patroclus. They meet at a very young age. The story follows their friendship and eventually their love throughout the years. Their struggles with life, wars, gods… in ancient Greece. They’re incredibly gorgeous together, their love for each other is real and pure. An amazing love story.

And honestly just thinking about the ending makes me tear up again. I love this book so so so much.

EDIT: reading this a second time it's still gutpunchingly amazing. Jezus christ.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Violence, and War

nxclx's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional tense 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

5.0

Ah.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Murder, Pregnancy, Abandonment, and Alcohol

Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, and Outing

It's a book about Greeks and war and battle. It's violent and bloody and a little disturbing at times. The writing can be vague sometimes, but it's still clear what is happening.

skudiklier's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad fast-paced

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

5.0

Sometimes when I hear too many good things about a book, I'm hesitant to read it, because how could it live up to the hype? But wow was this amazing.

It's hard to write a review just after reading it, when there are still tears on my face. No one warned me how much this book would make me cry. But honestly by the end I found myself comparing it to Romeo and Juliet--only a much much better version.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Child death, Death, Gore, Homophobia, Infidelity, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Medical trauma, and Murder

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Pedophilia, and Slavery

spooderalec's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

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

3.75

This is a slow easy read and written beautifully, it’s just not my favourite type of read. I’m also sad that it made me hate Achilles sosososo much. It’s a book that your mind keeps going back to even if it wasn’t that impactful when you read it. There is a lot of mentions of relationships between adults and minors (which was common in Ancient Greece) throughout the book, which is something I did not expect, and took me by surprise. It couldn’t have hurt to age up some of the background characters that get married off.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cursing, Death, Emotional abuse, Gore, Homophobia, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Blood, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Adult/minor relationship and Pedophilia

emmadub's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional sad tense slow-paced

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

2.5

It was much better than Circe, but it just was not for me. It was way more interesting because it was not told from Achilles's POV. Overall, I thought it was just fine. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Blood, Grief, and Murder

Minor: Rape, Sexism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, and Suicidal thoughts

lisacanteven's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative tense slow-paced

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

3.0

Wow, I was a little disappointed by this book. It was not bad, but they hype surrounding it was extreme. It did not live up to that hype. If you are really into Greek mythology, I can see how you would like it more than the average person. The writing is very dry. I felt like I was reading an assigned reading for college, and that is not how I want my fun time reading to feel. There were some parts where I thought the plot would really take off and things would get exciting, but that never seemed to happen. The exciting parts were short and surrounded by many pages of dry description of things that did not matter. I was prepared to be emotionally destroyed, and I actually felt like I needed that. Well I did not even almost shed a tear. Thank u, next. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal death, Body horror, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexual content, Slavery, Violence, and Blood

alexxm13'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? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

one of the most beautiful written books i’ve ever read and the steady pace is amazing with such loveable characters and definitely a book i recommend for anyone who likes romance with a twist of greek mythology 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexual assault, Sexual content, Slavery, Toxic relationship, and Murder

Moderate: Body horror, Rape, Blood, and Grief