A review by ed_moore
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

emotional reflective sad fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Miller’s ‘The Song of Achilles’ was a work of poetry every other line. It was such a beautifully written story of the love between Achilles and Patroclus and their legacies in the Trojan war, for the history books cannot claim they were only close friends. It is also interesting how accepted among the greek camp their love is, only Thetis, Achilles’ goddess mother showing any form of rejection to it. 

I will jump to the heart of this review though, in the concluding 50 pages the book was 4.25, then only climbed to 4.5 and 4.75, and then I cried. This happens extremely rarely when I read so for such I can’t refuse it 5 stars. The ending was heart-wrenching but so beautiful. There is a backdrop of so much violence and outrageous acts, the travesties of the fall of Troy so quickly brushed over but not failing to be mentioned, but that’s because Miller’s focus remained true on a love story among the violence. 

I was strictly told going into ‘The Song of Achilles’ to ignore the ‘classical inaccuracies’ which I place in quotation because each translation of the Illiad will tell its own story, and this ‘retelling’ was hardly such as it stayed overwhelmingly true to Homer’s epic, only making alterations for the benefit of the narration in Patroclus’ perspective and therefore implementing him into events for the love story to make sense and also making a lot of character choices so Achilles is a more sympathetic mass murderer. Other supposedly more drastic alterations are just presumptions and don’t fall in the source text of the Illiad. Therefore I did embrace the story and not question it, and honestly whilst this mindset wasn’t crucial as ‘The Song of Achilles’ stands as a marvellous telling of the Trojan War in its own right, such did negate any qualms. 

The point stands that the story was so beautifully written and highly praised and loved for every reason. Pyrrhus is a little dickhead (had to let that one out). It was perfection.