Reviews tagging 'Physical abuse'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

164 reviews

erebus53's review against another edition

adventurous emotional informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• 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

I picked up this book because it's been talked about around the place and seems popular. I'm sure that my interpretation of the work is coloured by many years of reading Rick Riordan's youth fiction about Greek myths. My takeaway is that although it's historic fiction it .. feels more fictiony than historic. Yes we do have actual gods playing a roll so we could call it mythic realism, but as some folk have pointed out, it's more just a homoerotic love story. I'm ok with that  : )

I think the book is fun but not super deep. Knowing roughly how the story goes before I delved into the book, leaves me wondering if I can even mention some parts of it without it being spoilers - what is the common knowledge here? Is it ok to mention which characters die when? I mean, this is ancient history ... so all the characters are dead by now (except maybe the gods).

This telling is in the first person, from the point of view of Patroclus who is the dearest love of Achilles.

--pedant mode--
I feel like it's spelled incorrectly, surely that's a "k"? Wiki says conventionally it's Patroclus but from Pátroklos ... wow there's argument about how that ought to be pronounced so that is a rabbit hole - but now I feel mollified.. it isn't just me being finicky. OK, fine,  I'm being finicky. While I'm finicking, I kept raising an eyebrow when the author refers to heroes being painted onto vases. My high school classics led me to believe that black figure vases came way after the Trojan War, and red  figure vases even later than that, so references to those forms seems anachronistic.

.. also, I get that Achilles is supposed to be trusting and oblivious, but he should have known there was something suss about a guy trying to marry him to a priestess of Artemis. I mean Artemis's whole deal is virgin purity. That whole bit seemed like something fishy was afoot.

*climbs out of rabbit hole*
--end pedant mode--

The reason the two men like each other seems completely arbitrary because the author doesn't build that much. Patroclus is a devoted lover and sees his god-boyfriend through rosy tinted glasses. I find it really amusing that some people find this sweet, and others are nauseated by his witless swooning.

As far as this narration of the audiobook is concerned, I find it really strange that the narrator doesn't alter his affect for voicing young people. I was about 5 minutes into a conversation before I was reminded that this was a conversation between young children rather than adults. I got the same sort of feeling when the character of Pyrrhus is introduced as a pubescent youth. I honestly think there should be some sort of primer for Audiobook narrators where they learn how words like wretched are said.

OK, I'm going there. This is the first book I have ever read in the first person where the narrator dies and keeps telling the story. At first I wondered what the heck was happening because he was clearly deceased and yet, still talking. After a while it became clearer that according to the Greek practices around the passing of the dead to the underworld, he had moved on out of his body, but was still kicking around watching the proceedings. OK fine.. I'll let you have it. It still felt more clumsy than it ought to have.

It was an easy read and coming to the end of it, the themes of social change, and how things are perceived by future generations, are aired more explicitly. The story is true to the Greek trope of sage council that is ignored. This account is subverting the idea that glory is something that one earns by war and murder, and is focused on the idea that a person can be remembered for more than their body-count. All in all, I  don't think the book is elegant, but it is interesting.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Alcohol, Suicidal thoughts, Self harm, Misogyny, Medical content, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Grief, Gore, Sexual violence, Violence, Physical abuse, Blood, Animal death, Slavery, Murder, Animal cruelty, War, Sexism, Rape, Death, and Kidnapping

Moderate: Pregnancy and Vomit

cloudypages's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Emotional abuse, Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Blood, Infidelity, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Vomit, War, Suicidal thoughts, Cursing, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Child death, Death, and Gore

ichthusangel's review against another edition

challenging reflective tense slow-paced

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

2.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Slavery, and Sexual violence

ekcd_'s review against another edition

sad medium-paced

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

2.0

The audiobook was sooooo painful, seriously I wonder if I would have liked the book if it werent for his droning voice. Ick. But also the writing was clunky and the pace was weird. 

I truly don't understand what patroculus brings to the table, his only job in the whole plot was to talk about loving achilles he had almost no personality or actions otherwise

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Body horror, Blood, Death of parent, Homophobia, Sexism, Physical abuse, Medical content, Violence, Animal death, Child death, Sexual assault, Sexual content, War, Gore, and Slavery

alexwmoore's review against another edition

dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Homophobia, War, Genocide, Gore, Death, Violence, Physical abuse, Murder, and Classism

koinia's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death of parent, Suicidal thoughts, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, War, Violence, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Gun violence, Homophobia, Kidnapping, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, Blood, and Medical content

addienoah's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful lighthearted reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Loveable characters? It's complicated

5.0

This book was a slow start but once it got Achilles introduced I was captivated. And it just kept getting better and playing out every scene in my head while reading brought them to life. This was very well written and the characters were so interesting. Even after Protroclus died, he still narrated and the ending with Thetis brought me to tears. 
I finished this in a short period of time because I am a fast reader that frequently reads. But I considered this a slow read because of how long it felt. Each page you had to pay attention and digest. The language was something you also had to adjust to. In all this was a medium read. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Cultural appropriation, Forced institutionalization, Misogyny, Outing, Rape, Sexual violence, Toxic relationship, Gore, Pregnancy, Blood, Bullying, Child death, Classism, Emotional abuse, Genocide, Slavery, War, Confinement, Death, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Self harm, Torture, Hate crime, and Physical abuse

gabriella_'s review against another edition

adventurous dark hopeful sad tense medium-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

4.5

“I thought, This is what Achilles will feel like when he is old. And then I remembered: he will never be old.”

I have never read a love story convey so much closeness. Even the physical gap between their bodies must have been too much distance for them to bear.

The prose reads like poetry. The story was incredibly satisfying and kept my interest. I got teary-eyed a few times. This is a story where two characters dare to love in a world where marrying for love is an outlier.

Odysseus was the only other person who was truly in love in this book?

I am at a loss for words for how beautiful this story was. It has renewed my interest in Greek Mythos, which is a tough task.

“Patroclus, I have given enough to them. I will not give them this.”

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Alcohol, Animal death, Pregnancy, Murder, Child death, Medical content, Torture, Xenophobia, Sexual content, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Cursing, Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Misogyny, Self harm, Sexual assault, Homophobia, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Sexual harassment, Slavery, Death, Grief, Rape, Suicidal thoughts, War, Blood, Sexual violence, Physical abuse, Outing, and Violence

thyme_paradox's review against another edition

adventurous emotional inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, War, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Physical abuse, Medical content, Grief, Slavery, Violence, Blood, and Child death

Minor: Rape, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Self harm

caitlindoesntread's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful 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

5.0

Okay. The ending of this book was incredibly touching, and i loved how the character dynamics changed throughout and you really felt like the characters were growing up, however, it took me AGES to get through all of this thing. It was iNCREDIBLY slow paced for the first like two thirds and then in the last portion of the book it suddenly went crazy fast and ten years passed in the space of a few chapters??? despite this, there is practically no plot during most of this book. I LOVED I THOUGH. the imagery throughout the book is incredible. I loved the relationship between Patroclus and Briseis and actually felt like (SPOILERS!!!) she just randomly died way too abruptly and she deserved way more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Murder, Death, Violence, Grief, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Sexism, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Death of parent, Body horror, Adult/minor relationship, Murder, Rape, Sexual assault, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Homophobia, Incest, Medical content, Pregnancy, Self harm, Sexual harassment, and Sexual violence