Review by kristyndcruz - The Song of Achilles

kristyndcruz 's review for:

The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller

4.75

adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced

Plot or Character Driven: A mix

Strong character development: Yes

Loveable characters: Yes

Diverse cast of characters: No

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

I don’t even know where to start. This book was an absolute roller coaster and I loved every single second of it. I have not seen any bad review for this book, and all reviews were “5 stars!” or “best book I’ve ever read!” So obviously my expectations were extremely high. This book revolves around Greek mythology, which I didn’t know if I was going to love, and was really scared I wouldn’t like this book. I was wrong. I started the book, and thought this book is good but can be better. Halfway through, I thought the book was good but could be better. I finished the book and realised that this is a masterpiece. I didn’t shed a tear until the very end - where I cried hard. This book is so easily at least a 4.5 star review, no hesitation. I really loved this. At first, I did not like Patroclus, and loved Achilles. But slowly, Patroclus grew into such a selfless, amazing man and I fell in love with him, while my respect and appreciation for Achilles declined the more the book developed. It was interesting to see the way Achilles was with Patroclus at the beginning of the book, but how much he changed in Troy during the way. He loved Patroclus, but loved his pride more. It was quite devastating to see his character disregard his oath to protect purely because someone bruised his ego. There were many innocent men that died because he refused to fight. During this time, I started to hate his character. Chiron is also my husband. There were characters that I didn’t like, but I loved that I didn’t like them because they gave such an interesting complexity to the book. I expected this book to be a romance, not knowing much about it, but I loved how Miller threw in aspects of power, greed, pride, and prophecies. I did like the ending, even though it was incredibly heartbreaking. It was foreshadowed throughout the book and it was expected that it would happen, but still hurt like hell. If the ending didn’t happen the way it did, with Thetis’ redemption, it would have hurt a lot more, but there is a bittersweet heartbreak that they will be together forever. While I have stopped crying, there is an emptiness in my heart and a feeling I can’t describe. I cannot recommend this book enough. I loved the Greek mythology aspect, but 50% of the book was me trying to pronounce all the different names. It did make it slightly more difficult to read, but no pain no gain. I recommend to everyone who wants romance, action, power struggles, hubris, adventure, mythology, and complete and utter heartbreak.
“Name one hero who was happy.”

“He is a weapon, a killer. Do not forget it. You can use a spear as a walking stick, but that will not change its nature.”
“Had she really thought I would not know him? I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths came and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, at the end of the world.”
“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”

Content Warnings