strawberrykiwisnapple 's review for:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

3.5

adventurous dark reflective tense fast-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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There was a bit of a lull in the middle of the book that made me think that maybe it wasn't as good as I thought it would be or had hoped. However, the plot of the last hundred or do pages was extremely interesting. Every time I thought I knew where the book was going, I was pulled in a different direction, it helps that I'm somewhat unfamiliar with Greek mythology.
I also loved how the book explored themes of honor, personal confidence, immortality, and war. I really felt like I was in Patroclus' head, I felt the emotions that he felt. The final twenty pages or so were just a masterclass at this. Patroclus' desire to reunite with Achilles even in depth was harrowing.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Gore, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual violence, Slavery, Blood, Murder, War

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Homophobia, Infidelity, Sexual content, Torture, Toxic relationship, Vomit, Medical content, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Pandemic/Epidemic

Minor: Transphobia, Cannibalism

A lot of these content warnings are pretty minor in my opinion and are only mentioned in passing. The main ones pertaining to murder, gore, violence, sexism, etc. are largely due to the historical context of the book. It's the Trojan War and women were largely seen as property by almost everyone. This book has a few characters who have different opinions on this, but this is very few, and even the better ones have their faults at times. At some points in the book, it will be hard to find any character with redeeming qualities. I'd say the characters are written extremely well in this book. They are sometimes immoral, tormented, and tragic. Other warnings pertaining to LGBTQ topics are also pretty minor, due to the fact that most characters are not fully aware of the extent of the primary relationship in the book, and some aspects of these relationships were normalized at the time.