A review by kade_spade
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

adventurous emotional sad tense slow-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

2.0

I DNFed this book two times over many years before I was finally able to slowly claw my way to the end of this book. I’m so utterly disappointed because I wanted this to be a life changing 5 star read like most say it is, but it just wasn’t. I know very little about Greek mythology, maybe that doesn’t help, but I feel as though previous Greek mythology knowledge shouldn’t have to be known to enjoy this book. The two main characters were just so flat and dull. The book was so slow, but lacked enough time to truly mold characters. The relationship between Patroclus and Achilles felt half-baked and one sided a majority of the time.  The only reason this isn’t a one star book is because I enjoyed Chiron and Odysseus so incredibly much, but they were in so little of the book. I could read about those two characters all day. There were also very tiny sections of the book towards the end that were SO good. It was like getting a glimpse of how glorious this book could’ve been then watching that glimpse fade away with each page turn. A very disappointing read.