Review by james1star - The Song of Achilles

james1star 's review for:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

5.0

adventurous emotional reflective sad tense 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: Complicated

Wow, who’d have thought I’d cry - no bawl actually - at a mythology book? Not me. But this isn’t only a mythological retelling of the Trojan war and life of Achilles told from his ‘philtatos’ Patroclus’ perspective, it’s a love story, talks of the relationships between friends and lovers, a mother and her son, fellow citizens, it highlights the queer experience and so much more. The Song of Achilles is truly a piece of literary heft with beautiful, at points lyrical, writing and a captivating plot. The characters are mostly well developed which I loved, the descriptions are great too. The pacing was a little disjointed but flowed well. I didn’t know anything of the myth of Achilles (other then his vulnerable heel, which was a post-Homeric tale btw) but found it very accessible. Reading other reviews and the notes at the back of this book, Miller really kept close to the original tale in Homer’s The Iliad but with clever additions really fleshing out Patroclus’ character and story. The plot follows him after his exile under King Peleus where he becomes friends with the ‘golden boy’ Achilles, a relationship that changes his whole life as they become lovers, are educated and later go to war. Despite challenges, most notably from Achilles sea-nymph mother Thetis, their love continues as they simply don’t care.

Whilst there are points in this story I didn’t particularly like, these are mainly those Miller took from The Iliad so yhhh… what can I say? I did find it a bit repetitive at points too and dragged in the middle as well. BUT, the last quarter really payed off massively taking this from a 4 ⭐️ read to my top tier 5 ⭐️s. I was absolutely hooked and just had to read on and on. And then the tears came… like a waterfall. I felt so many emotions throughout this book as there are some really relatable queer things that just ughh spoke to me, but the ending was a rollercoaster to say the least. ‘I am made of memories.’ Nope, I was gone. Such a perfect way to tie up the loose ends as it were, really beautiful - it’s heartbreaking but warming as well. By far my favourite part of this book, I’m so impacted and when I get this attached and cry this much, you know it’s a great book.

I read this digitally but plan to get a copy and give it a reread once my tear ducts recover but these were two of my favourite quotes (to be expanded on):
‘He is half of my soul, as the poets say.’
‘And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth, when another is gone.’

So so recommend this book, it’s so beautiful and just ughh everything. Shot right up there with my ultimate favourites.

Content Warnings