Review by ssyx - The Song of Achilles

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ssyx 's review for:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

5.0

dark emotional inspiring 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: Complicated

this book
this is the book of all time
this is my favorite stand alone book that i have ever read

to start i’ve always been a greek mythology kid and the stories have always fascinated me and the trojan war is my favorite story so i had super high hopes for the retelling and man was i blown away

everything about this book from the writing style (madeline miller could write about taking a shit and still make it sound beautiful), the characters, the romance, the tragedy it’s all spectacular

let’s first talk about the characters individually
patroclus is so so cool
an underdog through and through but an amazing main character
at first i was iffy about patroclus being the main character as opposed to achilles but god he’s such a good mc
he’s smart he’s kind and he knows his worth fr fr
he’s also like peak manly man fr

begging achilles on his knees w tears in his eyes to not go with his plan that would make him a monster with no shame was so cool and he gained so much respect from me

also the absolute pure love that he had for achilles was beautiful
i hear so much about achilles love for patroclus but patroclus’ love for achilles is just as beautiful

achilles. that’s it that’s the review.
jk achilles is so cool obviously his story and he himself is widely known across greek mythology. i love watching super innocent characters that start out full of love and kindness go insane and lose all sense of humanity idk there’s just something about watching the gradual trickle that i love.
but even going insane and losing all his remorse didn’t make him lose any of his love for patroclus and that’s beautiful that he stayed grounded for one person

okay now achilles and patroclus what do i even say
holy fuck the romance is good?
like that’s all i can think it’s just that good
it’s feels warm like thinking back on their youthful love just feels warm

shoutout to the funniest scene in the book “she can’t see us here” like that was so teenagers in love of them

god and seeing them start out as young lovers and then witnessing the tragedy was crazyyyyy

patroclus accepting that once achilles dies he wasn’t going to stay much longer and straight up turning briseis down bc of it said so much

alright now the main thing of the book that everyone thinks about when they think of the story of achilles
****the tragedy****
so fucking sad so just heart wrenching

the scene after patroclus’ death where achilles is arguing w briseis and they have the “i hope that hector kills you” “do you not think that i wish the same” LIKE HUHHHHHHHHHH

and the scene right after achilles finds out like what if that was my final straw
i recorded my reaction to the ending and the

i am made of memories part

and i was in fucking shambles like i couldn’t breathe which is crazy because i knew the myth and what happens before i even started reading but still the ending got me

just goddddddd so good so good and the ending omg 10/10

it takes a lot for me to give a stand alone a 5 stars but this book truly changed my life

Content Warnings