Review by vel16 - The Song of Achilles

vel16 's review for:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

2.0

adventurous emotional sad fast-paced

Strong character development: No

Loveable characters: Complicated

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

It's a shame, I really wanted to like this book, and I was excited to start reading it, but there's something about the style that just didn't gel with me. The book leaps forward in time which meant the pacing was strange, just as there was some momentum it'd jump forward a few years which meant it never really got going - I would keep putting it down and not going back to it for a bit. Also the voice it's written with was, to me, clunky and irritating and I kept being taken out of the story because of the language and grammar of it.

Also, the ending was a... brave choice, but the final three chapters didn't really work for me. I know, it being loosely based on existing material, that there were some limitations, but it felt like the author took a risk and I just didn't really like it.

Overall, I didn't dislike it, but I don't understand why so many people with similar literary tastes to me love it so much.

Content Warnings