Reviews tagging 'Medical content'

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

299 reviews

jodean's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful sad tense medium-paced

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

4.75

I will remember Achilles and Patroclus and their love. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Sexism, Injury/Injury detail, Death, Self harm, Violence, Murder, War, Trafficking, Sexual content, Homophobia, Medical content, Kidnapping, Blood, Grief, Gore, and Alcohol

Moderate: Pregnancy, Medical trauma, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Transphobia, Slavery, and Suicide attempt

Minor: Animal death

anmane's review against another edition

challenging dark sad tense fast-paced

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

2.0

The book was well written in terms of language and pacing, but the subject matter - by this I mean the war, not the romance - was hard for me to stomach. The focus is on the male characters, as it is in the source material, and how women, children or indeed all humans are treated is not sugarcoated. Also, because of the subject matter, there is a lot of violence, gore and cruelty. I also hated Achilles as a character, which made the motivation of Patroclus' actions hard to understand. Will not read again.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Murder, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexism, Sexual harassment, Violence, Child death, Death, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, Rape, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Torture, Trafficking, and War

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, and Pregnancy

chrisljm's review against another edition

adventurous emotional sad medium-paced

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

4.0

Yeah I cried. 

Madeline Miller is a beautiful writer and I did enjoy her retelling of this myth, but I didn't find it to be particularly remarkable. 

I think the thing I found most puzzling was Patroclus' inclination towards saving women from being war trophies when this was very much a sociopolitical norm during this period in time. Of course that's not to say I wanted to see more scenes of women being brutalized or that it's impossible for there to be any person during this period to disagree with such practices, but I think when making the decision to have that be one of the main characters in this myth for the purpose of having a more likable protagonist, it becomes a story that lacks the social and cultural context of the historical myths by changing certain themes to fit modern sensibilities. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Violence, Death, Gore, Rape, Sexism, Blood, Child death, Fire/Fire injury, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, War, Grief, Kidnapping, Medical content, Misogyny, and Slavery

Moderate: Bullying, Sexual content, Abandonment, Colonisation, Infidelity, Self harm, Pregnancy, and Suicidal thoughts

Minor: Alcohol and Child abuse

mconroy9137's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective 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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Content Warnings

Graphic: Slavery, Blood, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Murder, Violence, War, Sexual harassment, and Rape

Moderate: Gore, Pandemic/Epidemic, Pregnancy, Torture, Classism, Deportation, Grief, Kidnapping, Sexual content, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Child death, Confinement, Homophobia, Vomit, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Minor: Animal death, Bullying, Death of parent, Sexual content, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Emotional abuse, Self harm, and Cursing

_david_'s review against another edition

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? It's complicated

5.0

What a beautiful retelling of Achilles and Patroclus. It is very humane and easy to read. I empathized with Patroclus. Something I would like to highlight is how poetic the moments of sex were written. In general the style of writing is accessible without being simple. It is easy to imagine the ancient greek beliefs as an active religion when the legends and characters are told like this. 

The tale itself hurt to read. Especially the last part of the book made me want to read as slowly as possible to postpone the ending. Afterwards I grabbed my partner and hugged him as tight as I could. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Violence, Death, Gore, Grief, Murder, and War

Moderate: Self harm, Abandonment, Child death, Homophobia, Outing, Sexism, Sexual content, Slavery, and Xenophobia

Minor: Medical content, Pregnancy, Rape, and Suicidal thoughts

soap2's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense medium-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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Violence, Suicidal thoughts, Rape, Gore, Blood, Grief, Body horror, War, and Sexual harassment

Moderate: Medical content, Child abuse, and Pregnancy

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

a_novi's review against another edition

adventurous emotional 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? No

3.75

This book was an interesting take on some Greek mythology. I read it because of a blind recommendation and I will say it is not family friendly, it not only has quite a bit of in depth death and injury descriptions but also some sex scenes. Over all the battles and challenges along with the characters were interesting and the sex scenes were not too forced, detailed or cringey so overall I still found it pretty tasteful and enjoyable. But it is definitely not any story of Achilles one may be expecting. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual content, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Child death, Murder, Slavery, War, Grief, Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Animal death, Blood, Gore, and Sexual violence

ghost3_14159's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful sad fast-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

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Grief, Medical content, Pregnancy, War, Animal death, Blood, and Death

Minor: Sexual assault

frihedferrero's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Sexism, Death, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Murder, Slavery, and War

Moderate: Pandemic/Epidemic, Sexual assault, and Medical content

Minor: Animal death

z24's review against another edition

emotional hopeful sad medium-paced

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

2.0

This book has me very separated. I always liked the story of Achilles and perhaps that is the problem. The author changed the story in some key factors, and imo took away a lot from what makes this story great. The writing on the other hand is quite enchanting and beautiful.
Leaving out some parts (like rape

Patroclus saving Brisis instead of raping her, made a cute story-line

) is an understandable decision and makes the novel a lot easier to read. But to change the main character to a weak guy, when the fact that Patroclus and Achilles very equally talented, makes it.. quite homophobic. It even is mentioned in the book that the Greeks weren't accepting of homosexual relationships. Only in specific instances, but to have a couple that defies those rules, that is what made the whole story so iconic. Pushing them back into this heteronomative characteristics, takes that away.
There is the option of looking at Patroclus story-line and trying to interpret it in a way, that says "there's other ways to be great than physical strength" but to be honest it still feels like a slap in the face to one of the veeery few storys that portray a different, not-so-stereotypical gay relationship.
Additionally, looking at the way the book is talked about on social media, lets it seem a lot like a fetishisation fan fiction of a gay couple.
Edit: While some parts were left out, other rather unnecessary and misoginistic parts were added (example:

Deidameira raping both main characters

). Also I forgot to mention the Bi-erasure, considering both main characters were considered bisexual in the original text and are almost repulsed by woman in this version.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Self harm, Violence, Death, Homophobia, War, and Rape

Moderate: Biphobia, Suicidal thoughts, Slavery, Pandemic/Epidemic, and Medical content