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The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller (Goodreads Author)

4.27 · Rating Details · 55,527 Ratings · 8,016 Reviews

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their difference, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a c ...more

Hardcover, 352 pages

Published September 20th 2011 by Bloomsbury Publishing

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Nov 08, 2013 Rick Riordan rated it it was amazing

A new take on the Iliad, written by a high school classics teacher -- how could I not read this? The Song of Achilles retells the story of Greece's greatest hero from the point of view of his best friend Patroclus. The big twist: Madeline Miller casts the story as a romance between Achilles and Patroclus. While staying true to Greek legends and the works of Homer, Miller creatively and convincingly fills in the blanks, giving Patroclus a back story that makes perfect sense, and tracing the frie A new take on the Iliad, written by a high school classics teacher -- how could I not read this? The Song of Achilles retells the story of Greece's greatest hero from the point of view of his best friend Patroclus. The big twist: Madeline Miller casts the story as a romance between Achilles and Patroclus. While staying true to Greek legends and the works of Homer, Miller creatively and convincingly fills in the blanks, giving Patroclus a back story that makes perfect sense, and tracing the friendship, and eventual romance, between the two young men in a way that casts a new light on the human side of the Trojan War.

I always found Achilles to be an unsympathetic character -- a brat, a bully, a big-headed jerk who knows he's the star player on the team and throws a tantrum if he gets put on the bench. Miller shows his unattractive qualities, but she also shows that Achilles is human. He's capable of love. He's deeply conflicted. He has a sense of humor and a gentle side. We see him through Patroclus's eyes, growing from a privileged child to a sensitive teen to a young man struggling to balance his personal feelings with the expectations of an entire country. If you've read the Iliad, you know that the story will have a tragic end, but it's also strangely uplifting and hopeful. I'll never be able to read about these characters the same way again, and that's a good thing. Reading The Song of Achilles put a new light on this ancient story. It was like watching a really good interpretation of a Shakespeare play. You think you know the story, but you're surprised to find how many layers of new meaning can be brought out by a smart production.

The book is certainly appropriate for YA and up. The prose is elegant in its simplicity. Miller gives Patroclus a Hemmingway-like directness. I read a New York Times review of this book which I thought patently unfair, complaining that the style made the book seem like a fast-food version of the Iliad. I think this misses the whole point of the story. Patroclus's mission in The Song of Achilles is to cut through the legend of the hero and show us the mortal side of demigod. He doesn't want the pompous metaphors and flowery hyperbole of a war epic to bury Achilles's other qualities -- his tenderness, his insecurity, his honesty and lack of guile. The Song of Achilles can serve as an excellent introduction or counterpoint to the study of the Iliad. It certainly made the story new and vibrant for me, despite how many times I've read Homer. ...more

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Aug 18, 2016 Lola Reviewer rated it really liked it

Shelves: young-adult, mythology, war-setting, 1st-person-pov, lgbt, love-story, prophecy

I feel so much. And perhaps my emotions are not my own this time? Madeline Miller for sure implanted them deep inside of me, without my consent, and now I'm urging her to withdraw them, or I will not be able to sleep through the night.

It took me a month to read this book, as I needed to take multiple breaks during the experience that is ‘‘The Song of Achilles.’’ I was about to curse the lyricism for welling too many emotions inside my body, too often, and therefore thwarting my reaching the endi ...more

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May 31, 2015 Clau R. rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites, book-boyfriends, made-me-cry, to-re-read, exceeded-expectations, 2015, absolute-faves, i-ship-them, unique-writing-style, top-2015

Pa-tro-clus.

This and this and this.

HOW CAN MY HEART BE MENDED AFTER THIS!????

Sólo edito esto para decirles que TIENEN QUE LEER ESTE LIBRO OMG. Favorito del año hasta ahora. Lo amo lo amo lo amo y no hago más que pensar en él. Definitivamente lo voy a releer.

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Aug 24, 2014 Navessa rated it it was amazing

Shelves: historical-fiction, myths, divisive-characters, insufferable-mc, strong-themes, all-the-feels, broke-me, believe-the-hype, retelling, lgbtqia, 2016, 2016-favorites

"Achilles. Who was he if not miraculous, and radiant? Who was he if not destined for fame?"

Reading this is like reading Romeo and Juliet. We all know the story. We all know the outcome. We all know that our desperate prayers for someone, anyone to step in and save these characters from themselves will fall on deaf ears.

Gods. What a bloody trainwreck. Even though I knew how it was going to end, I was not prepared for how much I cared.

This is the story of the fall of Troy. Or rather, a part of it. More specifically, this is the tale of Achilles and Patroclus. Of their undying love for each other. Of the lives they sacrifice on the altar of that love. Of desperate men and petty gods. Of a proud, greedy people engaged in a prolonged, bloody war.

So often in historical fiction from this time period I see the sharp edges of the Ancient Greek and Roman cultures smoothed away. I see slaves treated well and women given a voice. I'm happy to say there was none of that bullshittery here. Miller paints the pages of this book in blood and suffering. It is awash with pain and brutality. As it should be. Because historical accuracy.

But, it means that this book is not for everyone. There is a lot of sexism, misogyny, violence, bloodshed, and rape, mentioned almost offhand, because, to these characters, this behavior is commonplace. Expected. I didn't like a single one of them. And not just because of their worldviews. There was Achilles and his hubris. Patroclus and his uselessness. Thetis and her coldness. I didn't even like Odysseus and his famous wit, for there was an edge to it in this book that made him seem less charming and more manipulative than I remember.

That said, as much as I disliked these characters, I loved their stories. Miller took gods and legends and brought them to life within the pages of this book. She humanized these mythical beings in a way that made them seem real, fallible.

I just...I cannot say enough about this book. To me, this is literature at its finest. A beautifully written, masterfully crafted story capable of transporting readers within its pages, so enchanting them with what they find within that they forget that the real world lurks without, waiting for their return.

This review can also be found at The Alliterates. ...more

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Jun 10, 2012 Whitaker rated it really liked it

Shelves: contemporary-fiction, e-book, 2012-read, greece

*This review is dedicated to Kelly without whose question I would not have thought so hard about why I loved this book.

Miller has called this book “The Song of Achilles”. The title could refer to a song sung by Achilles. It could also refer to a song sung about Achilles. This double meaning is significant as the book retells the story of the Illiad but with a very different focus. The title is significant too because it deliberately recalls the start of the Illiad: “Sing, goddess, of the wrath *This review is dedicated to Kelly without whose question I would not have thought so hard about why I loved this book.

Miller has called this book “The Song of Achilles”. The title could refer to a song sung by Achilles. It could also refer to a song sung about Achilles. This double meaning is significant as the book retells the story of the Illiad but with a very different focus. The title is significant too because it deliberately recalls the start of the Illiad: “Sing, goddess, of the wrath of Achilles Peleus’ son”. However, instead of telling us of the wrath of Achilles, it tells us of his softer side: his love or rather his loves—Patroclus and music.

To call the story “The Song of Achilles” is, to some extent, misleading, because it is also the song of Patroclus with the same double meaning: a song sung by Patroclus and a song about Patroclus. For the very heart of the book is the love between Patroclus and Achilles. Told by Patroclus from the first person perspective, the question that haunts us right from the start is, “How is Miller going to be able to keep this up once Patroclus dies?” She does, and impressively, presents not simply a perfectly good way to explain that but to make that explanation a crucial part of her story.

The other question that is asked, not just by us but by the characters as well, is, “Why Patroclus?” Why of all the young men that Achilles has around him does he choose the awkward, weak exile? The most moving thing about this book is that it proceeds to show us why.

Achilles’ answer, almost too glib, is, “Because he’s surprising.” But the real answer, or at least the answer that Miller gives us, is that Patroclus cares, and cares deeply, about other people. It is this that makes him surprising: a man who cares about others in a world of greed and realpolitik where men are, first and foremost, killing machines, and Achilles the best of them all. And it is this care for other people that ultimately triggers the story’s denouement: Achilles' selecting of Breisis, the theft of Breisis by Agamemnon, Achilles’ sulking, Patroclus’ going to war in Achilles’ armour are all explained within that context, arising from and connected to this deep sense of love and responsibility that Patroclus feels for other people’s suffering and his desire to ease it.

It is significant that the only other show of love by a man in this book is that of Odysseus for Penelope. His love for her is presented to us several times throughout the book and at a crucial scene at the end. Odysseus, of course, leaves the tale of the Illiad and becomes the hero of his own story, The Odyssey. That tale is, in its own way, a story of love as Odysseus struggles to return home to Ithaca and to Penelope. And through Miller’s tale, so too does the Illiad become—finally—a story of love: the love of Achilles and Patroclus and how they each struggled to keep that love alive. For that, her story deserves to be read and loved too in its turn.
...more

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Jan 17, 2014 Bookdragon Sean rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical, love-and-romance, 4-star-reads, ancient-greece

Madeline Miller did what the movie producers of the film Troy (2004) were too cowardly to do; she stayed true to the homosexuality of Homer’s Iliad rather than writing a censored version of the story which stank of homophobia. Achilles and Patroclus were passionately in love, which resulted in their respective destructions. They were not cousins or man at arms, but soul mates. The watering down of this in the film Troy was an insult to the LGBT community. Nothing more. Nothing less.

The attract ...more

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Dec 20, 2015 Ana rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mythology, romance-contemporary-and-ya, fantasy

{BR with Anne and McKenna}

Those seconds, half seconds, that the line of our gaze connected, were the only moments in my day that I felt anything at all.

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Oh cruel, cruel fate! I had found myself thinking why there was so much heartache. Then I remembered this is Greek mythology. Few things interest me more than the monsters, heroes, gods, semi-gods and creatures of the greek myths.

I easily get caught up in reading the fates of the legendary heroes. Achilles, Heracles, Odysseus, Hector, Per ...more

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Jan 11, 2013 Victoria Schwab rated it it was amazing

Epic.

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May 20, 2015 Lucía rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

Mi reacción al terminar el libro:

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Feb 10, 2012 Richard Derus rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Rating: 6* of five, 2012's best read by a mile.

It's National Book Lovers Day! A day to bask in the amazing power of books to inform, amuse, educate, and alter our views and viewpoints.

This review can now be seen at Expendable Mudge Muses Aloud!

And how wonderful it is.

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Mar 07, 2017 ✨ jamieson ✨ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: young-adult, favorites, historical-fiction, tragedy, romance, lgbt, retelling, fave-couple, owned-books, mythology, 2017-reads

“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

way back I said there was a review of this beautiful book to come and I never did it. So now it's June and finally, finally I am ready to review this book.

deidamia: marry me ach-
achilles: in case you haven’t noticed, i’m gay. i’m gay as fuck. i don’t like girls and i don’t want to... like girls. have you ever seen me without patroclus standing right beside me? that’s gay

In a ...more

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Apr 15, 2012 Judith Starkston rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ancient-history, greek-history, homer, historical-fiction

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Madeline Miller says the idea for her novel The Song of Achilles arose from wondering about the extremity of grief Achilles suffers when his closest friend Patroclus dies in the ancient Homeric poem the Iliad. What kind of relationship did they have that Achilles loved Patroclus that much? She answers that question with depth and sensitivity. The novel focuses primarily on the theme of the human capacity to love. In Miller’s interpretation, the gods, and most especially Thetis, Achilles’s mother Madeline Miller says the idea for her novel The Song of Achilles arose from wondering about the extremity of grief Achilles suffers when his closest friend Patroclus dies in the ancient Homeric poem the Iliad. What kind of relationship did they have that Achilles loved Patroclus that much? She answers that question with depth and sensitivity. The novel focuses primarily on the theme of the human capacity to love. In Miller’s interpretation, the gods, and most especially Thetis, Achilles’s mother, don’t understand love, and thus being half-god as Achilles is, sets him up for some complicated trouble in matters of the heart. Told from the point of view of Patroclus, The Song of Achilles is a graceful new exploration of the ancient tale, taking you inside these two heroes in a compelling way.

As in the Iliad, from which Miller has drawn the beginnings of her characters, Achilles loves his friend Patroclus with profound intensity, but in Miller’s take, this love blocks out everyone else in Achilles’s view. The half-divine hero seems to have no capacity to love anyone else, not even other friends. Gone are the loyalties and bonds with his fellow warriors that Homer portrays. He doesn’t understand how Patroclus knows and holds in affection many of the men and women they live with and fight for each day, including, interestingly enough, Briseis, the woman over whom Achilles will quarrel with Agamemnon. Achilles notes he doesn’t even recognize most of these people. Even as a boy in his father’s court in Phthia, Achilles does not connect with the other boys with whom he eats and plays each day. “But in all those years, Achilles showed no interest in any of the boys, though he was polite to them all, as befitted his upbringing. And now he had bestowed the long-awaited honor upon the most unlikely of us, small and ungrateful and probably cursed.” And why does he bestow his singular affection on Patroclus? Because, Achilles says, “He is surprising.”

No one else finds Patroclus the least bit lovable, at least not until several years into the Trojan War, by which time Patroclus has won many friends through his work in the tent where the wounded are brought and through his kindness to Achilles’s women captives. Since he doesn’t want sex from the women, nor does Achilles, being kind to them is greatly simplified. One of Miller’s conscious choices has been to make the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus entirely exclusive. No captive women appear in the beds of Achilles and Patroclus as they do in the Iliad.

The novel starts with Patroclus’s early childhood. His father is disappointed in him almost from the beginning, and his mother is a simpleton, as far an opposite of Achilles’s mother as Miller can portray. When Patroclus accidently kills another boy, his father’s biggest disappointment is that he doesn’t have the sense to lie about it, and his father doesn’t seem overly upset by the need to permanently exile his son. This early emotional deprivation forms Patroclus into a man who will accept Achilles’s odd friendship that grows eventually into love—anything to be accepted, especially by someone so extraordinary.

Although Peleus, Achilles’s father, shows warm affection and tolerance for his son, Achilles’s mother, the goddess Thetis, is clearly the source of the “deficient at love” trait in her son. Miller’s Thetis is hard and cold and frightening. Later she will understand that discounting love deprives life, even immortal life, of meaning, but that’s much later when it can do no human good. We learn early on that she hates her mortal husband Peleus. Her single ability to love is directed at her son and even that is never intimate or sweetly maternal.

As soon as the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus develops into one of physical love, Thetis appears and makes it clear she despises Patroclus and her son’s love for him. At one point Thetis will trap her son into lying with a woman “because of you,” Achilles says to Patroclus. Thetis’s hatred for Patroclus carries Miller’s plot forward in some essential ways and contrasts effectively with the redeeming nature of their relationship, and that may be why she has developed this divine distaste for the love between two men. But it strikes me as an anachronism, and it’s an ugly one I’d prefer didn’t leak backwards into time where it didn’t exist. Since the main point seems to be, I think, that Thetis doesn’t understand love, why play up so strongly her distaste for male love in particular? Greek mythology is full of male unions (Zeus and Ganymede, Heracles and Jason, Poseidon and Pelops, Dionysus and Adonis to name a few) and Thetis’s virulent hatred arising directly from the physical relationship seems unnecessary and historically unwarranted. It’s true that in the Iliad Thetis reminds her son after Patroclus’s death that “It is a good thing to lie with a woman in love.” But she also reminds him it’s a good thing to eat and drink. She means, it’s a good thing to enjoy life while you can and besides, in the Iliad, Achilles often sleeps with women, so her suggestion is not tinged with criticism as the same statement would be in Miller’s novel. (If anyone’s interested in a scholarly discussion of this issue in the Mycenaean context, read the first chapter of Eva Cantarella’s Bisexuality in the Ancient World).

The early indication of Patroclus’s innate honesty (when he fails to lie about the death he’s caused), while a disappointment to his father, is essential to the novel. Patroclus’s virtues don’t coincide with his father’s or Thetis’s ideas of heroic attributes—or even his own at first—but he turns out to be the best of the Greeks in Miller’s rendering because of his moral sensibilities and his capacity to love. Being best at slaughtering Trojans does not define Miller’s Aristos Achaion, “Best of the Greeks,” although that is how the phrase is understood among Achilles’s fellow warriors. Achilles, for all the intensity of his love for Patroclus, is deficient in these gentler virtues because he cannot connect to anyone but Patroclus. The direness of Achilles’s sorrow when Patroclus dies appears to spring from this failing. There can be nothing or no one to replace the hole left by this loss.

Miller has a unique solution, arising from this crippled nature of Achilles in the area of love, to two questions the Iliad asks: why Achilles allows Agamemnon to take Briseis away without a fight and why he chooses to stay out of the fight even while so many of his fellow Greeks die as a result. Her answers provide a surprising moment. I won’t spoil the shock by revealing it, but it will grab you whether the Iliad’s an old friend or you’ve never read it. Suffice to say, Patroclus does not share this crippling, narrowed focus of love, and this lifts him into Miller’s new definition of the best hero.

Miller has made a superb offering in the tradition of redefining the Homeric hero. It’s an old project dating back to the Iliad itself. Achilles says in Book Nine (in Lombardo’s translation), “It doesn’t matter if you stay in camp or fight—In the end, everybody comes out the same. Coward and hero get the same reward: You die whether you slack off or work. And what do I have for all my suffering?” His comrades on the field beg to differ. They are quite sure fighting for loot and glory is well worth the suffering—the Mycenaean definition of a hero. I am fascinated by Miller’s reinterpretation of Achilles and Patroclus and the Homeric tradition. She tells an engaging, emotionally gripping tale.

Miller, who is clearly knowledgeable about Greek history and archaeology, has chosen to float the tale in a mythological world much as the Homeric tradition did, with heroic details of armor and ship, but not much detail of daily life as it occurred in that place and time as we have recently reconstructed it. The Song of Achilles has vivid descriptions. Chiron’s cave, for instance: “In front of us was a cave. But to call it that is to demean it, for it was not made of dark stone, but pale rose quartz.” This is a magical place, and we enter it, as the two young men do, with wonder and awe. And of course Miller builds Troy for her readers. “Back in the main camp, we stood on the hill that marked the boundary between sand and grass, and regarded the thing we had come for. Troy. It was separated from us by a flat expanse of grass and framed by two wide, lazy rivers. Even so far away, its stone walls caught the sharp sun and gleamed. We fancied we could see the metallic glint of the famous Scaean gate, its brazen hinges said to be tall as a man. Later, I would see those walls up close, their sharp squared stones perfectly cut and fitted against each other, the work of the god Apollo, it was said. And I would wonder at them—at how, ever, the city could be taken.” These descriptions paint brilliant images—Miller’s especially good at her descriptions of nature—but they are more mythological than archaeological. The Song of Achilles takes the reader on a thoroughly enjoyable voyage into the legendary world of these heroes.

For an interview with Madeline Miller about The Song of Achilles click here. ...more

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Jun 08, 2017 Whitney Atkinson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtq

I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.

so wow. I've heard for years that this book is sad but so, so powerful, which I understand. I think it was a leeeeeettle overhyped for me, but it was still a magnificent read.

This story had such a great aesthetic. Set in ancient Greece but told through the lens of a quiet, conflicted main character. I thought it was beautiful. The writing, the way that Achilles is described, the first half of this book developing the characters was just absolu I imagine death so much it feels more like a memory.

so wow. I've heard for years that this book is sad but so, so powerful, which I understand. I think it was a leeeeeettle overhyped for me, but it was still a magnificent read.

This story had such a great aesthetic. Set in ancient Greece but told through the lens of a quiet, conflicted main character. I thought it was beautiful. The writing, the way that Achilles is described, the first half of this book developing the characters was just absolutely gorgeous.

Then I began to have a lot of issues with it. Mainly, the whole middle section about the developing Trojan war was boring. Nothing was happening, there were too many characters with unpronouncable names, and Achilles turned into sort of a pompous ass. One of the main downfalls of this story is that it focuses so much on Achilles' honor, and that was so annoying to me. This book really emphasizes the flaws in characters, which I assume is why this was discussed so much, but it just irritated me that I was expecting a love story and there was actually a lot of underlying conflict between Patroclus and Achilles.

This is more of a war story and the development of individual characters than it is about a love story. That being said, I felt like the romance was a little bit on the dry side. I adored the two together, but at some points, the story just felt so drained of any emotion and it was like Miller was just slugging through a textbook saying "this happened then this happened then this happened." There were so many moments that I felt we could have taken a step back and added some more impactful imagery and dialogue to make a short scene more meaningful to the reader, but it ended up feeling so stretched thin because this book takes place over 12+ years.

Regardless, I cried throughout the last 50 pages of this book. It delivered the punchy ending I was anticipating, and it SLIGHTLY appeased the hatred I have for Achilles' mother. slightly. she's still a raging bitch but like...... a chill raging bitch.

(also just kill me so i never have to read that last paragraph ever again my chest hurts) ...more

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May 28, 2016 Arah-Lynda rated it it was amazing

Shelves: top, i-said, paperwhite

This feeling was different. I found myself grinning until my cheeks hurt, my scalp prickling till I thought it might lift off my head. My tongue ran away from me, giddy with freedom. This and this and this, I said to him. I did not have to fear that I spoke too much. I did not have to worry that I was too slender or too slow. This and this and this! I taught him how to skip stones, and he taught me how to carve wood. I could feel every nerve in my body, every brush of air against my skin.

Do you This feeling was different. I found myself grinning until my cheeks hurt, my scalp prickling till I thought it might lift off my head. My tongue ran away from me, giddy with freedom. This and this and this, I said to him. I did not have to fear that I spoke too much. I did not have to worry that I was too slender or too slow. This and this and this! I taught him how to skip stones, and he taught me how to carve wood. I could feel every nerve in my body, every brush of air against my skin.

Do you remember that feeling of being in love? How you can be in a room full of others and just know, without even turning to see, that he has entered. You can feel his gaze at it lands upon you across that crowded space. Or the warmth that spreads slowly from within, and builds gradually but surely in intensity, until your entire being is aflame, lit it would seem by the merest whisper of his skin upon your arm. His hand perhaps as it grazes your elbow or his scent as he leans in to speak to those around you. How your body reacts independent of intention, turning toward him, unfurling as a flower does for the sun.

In short The Song of Achilles is a modern retelling of The Iliad. Miller tells this tale from the perspective of Patroclus, son of Menoetius. Patroclus at the tender age of ten is exiled from his father’s kingdom for accidently killing the son of a nobleman and is fostered out to King Pelius of Phthia. It is there that he meets Pelius’s golden haired son, the prince Achilles. Soon thereafter Achilles chooses Patroclus as his companion and they become fast friends spending their childhood growing and basking in each others company. Achilles mother, the sea-nymph Thetus, however, does not like Patroclus, feeling he is unworthy of being the friend of a future god. To separate the two after having seen them in an intimate embrace, Thetis sends her son away to be taught further by Chiron, the centaur on Mount Pelion. But unable to cope with the loss of his best friend, Patroclus soon follows, joining Achilles on Mount Pelion where they spend many idyllic seasons together, as their friendship blossoms into something more, being taught about war, medicine and survival by Chiron. But this too will pass as all good things must. Achilles is summoned back to Phthia where he learns that war is imminent against Troy.

Oh my goodness this book is so beautiful, so tender, yet strong and passionate. It has me all a tingle, quivering in recollection of the words read, anxious to start all over and experience those feelings anew, read those glorious words once again. Yes it is about war and death, gore and blood, lust and gods and betrayal. There is rape and plunder, hubris and humility, but at its heart, this is a love story and Miller tells it to us in words that leave me breathless, my knees shaking, thirsting for more.

Just listen………

“I will go,” he said. “I will go to Troy.”
The rosy gleam of his lip, the fevered green of his eyes. There was not a line anywhere on his face, nothing creased or graying; all crisp. He was spring, golden and bright. Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again.
He was watching me, his eyes as deep as earth.
“Will you come with me?” he asked.
The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. “Yes,” I whipsered. “Yes.”
Relief broke in his face, and he reached for me. I let him hold me, let him press us length to length so close that nothing might fit between us.
Tears came, and fell. Above us, the constellations spun and the moon paced her weary course. We lay stricken and sleepless as the hours passed.”

Please read it.

Five furiously quivering, phenomenal stars!!!!!
...more

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Mar 17, 2015 Raeleen Lemay rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: lgbtqia, adult-fiction

*2.5*

DON'T HATE ME. I know I'm in the minority here, but this book really wasn't my jam. I think when it comes to ancient history and mythology like this, I prefer to see it rather than read it. I found the plot to be way too dry and dull, at least for the last 2/3 of the book. I really enjoyed the beginning! I loved reading about the childhood years of the boys, and their friendship and romance that blossomed. Oddly enough, I was hoping there would be MORE romance, and I feel like it was lost a ...more

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Dec 19, 2015 Alienor ✘ French Frowner ✘ (of badger and SNAKE) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: knots-in-my-stomach, male-pov, retelling, i-love-2015, historical, 2015-read, glbt

► Ô, Patroclus, what did you do to me? After having hesitated for a long time, I decided to give 4 stars to The Song of Achilles, no matter how flawed I thought it was. The reason for this is that I know that this book will linger, and that I treasure this kind of feelings above everything. This being said, it does not mean that I'm able to overlook what annoyed me, and I will try to give it the fairest review possible - if such thing really exists, which I doubt.

Look, I'm not going to argue ov ...more

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Dec 14, 2015 Juliana Zapata rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2015

Hermoso y desgarrador! Amo la mitología y todas sus historia, y el mito de Aquiles es uno de mis favoritos, por lo que sufrí mucho leyendo este libro, ya que al conocer la historia supones como va a terminar.

Me encantó

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Jan 28, 2013 Thomas rated it it was amazing

Shelves: five-stars, lgbtq, romance, adult-fiction, historical-fiction

We despise spoilers. We avoid them at all costs, cover them with spoiler tags, and castigate those who share them. But a great book is one that we can appreciate even when we already know the ending. That's how it was with The Song of Achilles: I knew the fates of the characters beforehand, but no matter how much I tried to brace myself, the last few chapters still broke my heart in the best possible way.

What had Deidameia thought would happen, I wondered, when she had her women dance for me? Ha We despise spoilers. We avoid them at all costs, cover them with spoiler tags, and castigate those who share them. But a great book is one that we can appreciate even when we already know the ending. That's how it was with The Song of Achilles: I knew the fates of the characters beforehand, but no matter how much I tried to brace myself, the last few chapters still broke my heart in the best possible way.

What had Deidameia thought would happen, I wondered, when she had her women dance for me? 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.

Madeline Miller retells the Trojan War through Patroclus's point of view. The book begins with his childhood, and it captures almost all of his life. Miller takes us from his exile from his own land to when he meets Achilles, to their gradual and growing friendship, to when they embark on the war together. She incorporates various historical qualities and characters such as the battle strategies of the time period and Thetis's difficult relationship with her own son. The Song of Achilles will please those searching for a retelling of the Iliad as well as those who want a fresh take on Patroclus and Achille's relationship.

Can we all take a collective moment to appreciate the beautiful bond between Patroclus and Achilles? Their relationship developed in the most sincere, realistic, and wonderful way. Miller did not bypass the societal standards of the Trojan War period, rather, she used them to strengthen an already solid friendship. The best and worst part was that I knew how it was going to end - heck, anyone who has learned about the Trojan War or Achilles knows - but my prior knowledge could not stop the waterfall of tears that flooded my face upon the book's conclusion. Patroclus's kind heart, Achille's gumption and glory, and the prophecy that hung over them captured me and held my heart captive. Instead of releasing my emotions at the end, Miller tore them apart, and I enjoyed every second of it.

The never-ending ache of love and sorrow. Perhaps in some other life I could have refused, could have torn my hair and screamed, and made him face his choice alone. But not in this one. He would sail to Troy and I would follow, even into death. "Yes," I whispered. "Yes."

Miller's writing transported me. It took her ten years to write this and the effort she put into her research shows; the development of Patroclus and Achilles and all of the different events in the story exemplifies her passion for classics. Achilles, Patroclus, and even side characters like Thetis and Briseis received human qualities that allowed them to remain true to their portrayals in history while making them easier to relate to at the same time. Achilles and Patroclus's relationship won me over and made me cry, but this book succeeds in several other areas as well, like its description of settings and battles.

Highly recommended for history/classic buffs or anyone searching for a story with a romance that will leave you breathless. It left me sobbing and gasping for breath at 8 AM in the main lobby of my college dorm, and I am confident it will evoke a similar reaction in other readers who come across it.

*review cross-posted on my blog, the quiet voice ...more

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Dec 18, 2015 Brian Yahn rated it liked it

It's pretty hard to mess up The Iliad, and Madeline Miller's magical narration and unique perspective definitely don't. She manages to tell the tale from angles never before seen and put a fresh spin on one of the best known stories of all time. On top of being mostly accurate, what Madeline Miller does especially well is make this story accessible to anyone. A lot of the sybolisms that make The Iliad great are easy to miss, but in this version, that's not the case. And the way she structures se It's pretty hard to mess up The Iliad, and Madeline Miller's magical narration and unique perspective definitely don't. She manages to tell the tale from angles never before seen and put a fresh spin on one of the best known stories of all time. On top of being mostly accurate, what Madeline Miller does especially well is make this story accessible to anyone. A lot of the sybolisms that make The Iliad great are easy to miss, but in this version, that's not the case. And the way she structures sentences, and the words she chooses, the way she has her characters speak--everything about it has this transportive property to it, that takes you back 3000 years to classical Greece.

But it's not without the flaws of a 3000 year-old story. Like the voyage from Mycenae to Anatolia, the start is rough but well worth it for the epic ending. The way Madeline Miller closes this tale is ESPECIALLY brilliant. It makes it clear why The Iliad might be best told from the eyes of Achilles and Patroclus. There's a relationship between these two characters, particularly Achilles' pride and how Patroclus handles it, that is so ingrained in this epic, it seems strange that the story hasn't been told from this perspective before.

The problem, though, with this version is that, from the way Patroclus is portrayed, it's hard to see what draws Achilles to him until the end. He's seemingly just an uncoordinated hot messy accidental murderer, until out of left field he becomes the forgotten hero of the Trojan War, the true Aristos Achaion. There's not much growth for Patroclus: where one second he is a buffoon, the next he simply is not. Until that switch, for about 95% of the story, the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles that holds this tale together seems wildly unrealistic--the worst kind of InstaLove, the kind without reason.

On top of that, the MOST important part of the story--the battle between Achilles and Hector--falls short. Since the perspective comes from Achilles/Patroclus, it leaves out some majorly important characters: Helen and Hector and Priam and Paris. To me, that side of the story is necessary for The Iliad to have all its deserved glory.

All that said, experiencing the story from this angle was truly unique and awesome, and I'm so glad that I did. ...more

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Jul 17, 2015 Simona Bartolotta rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, in-english

EDIT 05/04/2016: As predicted, I changed my mind. I read this book months ago and not a day goes by when I, for a reason or another, don't think of it, its characters, its beauty. It's a full five.
---
Given the storm of feelings that right now doesn't let me think straight, I dare say that those four stars are likely to evolve into five in the future, so my actual rating for the moment is 4.5 stars out of 5.

"He was spring, golden and bright. Envious Death would drink his blood, and grow young aga ...more

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Jan 26, 2012 Will Byrnes rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: ya-and-children

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Updated 5/30/12 - see link at bottom

I feel a bit silly doing this, but I have put a spoiler alert on this review, just in case there are folks out there who might not be versed in the classics.

In a nutshell, Boy meet demi-god. Boy gets demi-god. Boy loses demi-god. Wait, demi-god loses boy, goes a bit funny in the head and behaves badly. Greece loses demi-god, the happy couple wind up sharing an afterlife.

You might want to dust off your Iliad, as this is a retelling of the story of Achilles, yo ...more

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Sep 01, 2015 Laura Marcela ✎・:*:・ |spoilers af| rated it it was amazing

Shelves: romance, fantasy, until-the-end-of-the-world, crying-for-the-rest-of-my-life, ebooks-i-own, so-happy-i-read-this, historical-fiction

4.5 stars

This and this. The way his hair looked in summer sun. His face when he ran. His eyes, solemn as an owl at lessons. This and this and this. So many moments of happiness, crowding forward.

Blurb: Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. Despite their difference, Achilles befriends the shamed prince, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine, their bond blossoms ...more

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May 17, 2012 Tatiana marked it as abandoned · review of another edition

Shelves: historical

Up to page 55, The Song of Achilles is nothing but a romance between Achilles and Patroclus. There is nothing wrong with that, except this romance is a mopy and gushy wide-eyed affair. I have a hard time believing that a 10-year old boy would wax so poetically about his beloved's appearance, down to his feet:

"In the huge hall, his beauty shone like a flame, vital and bright, drawing my eye against my will. His mouth was a plump bow, his nose an aristocratic arrow." (p. 26)

"His dusty feet scuffed ...more

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Feb 11, 2012 Ken rated it liked it

Shelves: contemporary, finished-in-2012

I'm conflicted here, and 3-stars is my go-to rating when faced with conflict. How ironic, then, that this would be a book about one of the greatest conflicts of all time: Greece v. Troy. Too bad it only sort of is, though. About Troy, I mean. What this book really is about is a relationship: Achilles and Patroclus'. Playing that card means that the characterization had better be all aces.

Jacks, it turns out.

I could have easily 4-starred the book for its writing. Miller has a way with the word a I'm conflicted here, and 3-stars is my go-to rating when faced with conflict. How ironic, then, that this would be a book about one of the greatest conflicts of all time: Greece v. Troy. Too bad it only sort of is, though. About Troy, I mean. What this book really is about is a relationship: Achilles and Patroclus'. Playing that card means that the characterization had better be all aces.

Jacks, it turns out.

I could have easily 4-starred the book for its writing. Miller has a way with the word and uses imagery and figurative language in a classic (yet modern) style. I should mention that word "modern" more often in this review. This is not some stodgy read favored by readers steeped in the ancient classics. In fact, its narrative reads like a modern novel, even if the trappings are all ancient. In that sense, believe the hype: Miller breathes new life into old classic! News at 11.

As for the face that launched a thousand ships, we never see it. And the bloody battles around Troy? Well, it takes a long time to get there. In that sense, the book is very UNmodern -- and unwise -- in its approach. Miller's strategy is to focus more on Achilles through Patroclus' adoring-ain't-the-word-for-it eyes. This can get old. Older than this myth, even, until you CRAVE the myth and cry out, "In the name of Zeus, get us to Troy by p. 100 and let her rip for a couple of hundred pages! Bring Ajax and Odysseus and Agamemnon and Paris and Priam and Bob and Carol and Ted and Alice more to life!"

But no. Miller's still in Achilles' tent, fascinated with Achilles' relationship. Which is not to say that this gambit couldn't have worked. It could have. But somehow the characterization does not save the day. Neither Achilles nor Patroclus is terribly compelling or sympathetic. With over-exposure, they even risk being annoying at times.

Students of the classics, of the Trojan War, and of convention, then, risk disappointment here. If, on the other hand, you're into alternate retellings of history and/or just want to luxuriate in Miller's writing, read the ample number of 5-star reviews here, pay no attention to that curmudgeon behind the curtain, and go for it. ...more

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Jan 08, 2016 Kiki rated it it was amazing

Shelves: waterworks, cool-mythology, sentimental-value, absolute-best, adult

Bury me in a tomb on the beach, because I am dead.

This book killed me. It was a rollercoaster of emotions. Joyful and strange and confusing and then fucking heartbreaking. Just terrible event after terrible event, but the book itself revolves around a conceptual spoiler; we know how it's going to end. But for some reason, we hope that it might be different this time. It won't.

There's nothing I can, in good conscience, criticise: I hated Achilles with his infuriating hubris, and I hated the loom ...more

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Jan 24, 2015 Viktoria (seelieknight) rated it it was amazing

Shelves: crying-tears-of-blood, historical, diverse

I knew the ending before it happened, but the tears were as real as if I hadn't.

Despite the title, the real protagonist of this story was without a doubt Patroclus. I fell in love with his awkward boyishness, and I hated myself for it because I knew there would be no escaping the fatal finale. I think Miller puts the word BROTP on the charts. Honestly, Achilles and Patroclus' relationship is something to be cherished. There were so many scenes, especially their nightly dalliances, that had my h ...more

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Jan 21, 2017 Silvia ⚓ rated it it was amazing

Shelves: mm-historical-romance, fantasy, lgbt, romance, historical-fiction, standalone, mythology, mm-romance, broke-my-heart, historical-romance, male-protagonist, 1st-person, lifechanger, tears-were-shed, favorite, hyped, pride-month-recs

Buddy-read with my co-shipper Pragya ♡
____

We are men only, a brief flare of the torch. Those to come may raise us or lower us as they please.

It's been almost a month and I figure if I don't try to write something now I never will. Which I would be perfectly fine with, since I'm currently having my soul ripped apart again while I'm rereading the passages I highlighted on my kindle (I wouldn't wish that on anyone), if it wasn't that this book deserves a review.

Basically this is your chance t ...more

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Mar 15, 2012 Lin rated it it was amazing

I read this book in two days, and kept pinning the remaining pages together to see how much I had left. It was the sort of book that I kept wanting to go through slower, wanting it to last longer. I'm not entirely sure what it was about this book that got me so involved, but I guess I'm just a sucker for this jazz. Maybe it was the Iliad story itself, maybe it was the slow-built romance and friendship between the two leads, maybe it was the lovely poetic prose and the striking description. As lo ...more

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Aug 23, 2012 K rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Recommended to K by: Orange Prize and high goodreads rating

Shelves: couldntfinish, historicalfiction, scifi-fantasy-magicrealism, ebooks, maybe-it-s-me

I am going to disagree with the Orange Prize committee. I am going to disagree with thousands of goodreads reviewers. This book is crap.

Okay, all you trolls. Go ahead and tell me what a philistine I am, how ignorant I am of Greek literature and mythology, and how my failure to appreciate this book reflects my limitations rather than those of the book. You don't really need to bother defending this book, because the masses seem to agree with you.

But if you ask me, this was a Harlequin. Boring Pa ...more

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Nov 26, 2015 Yonaily rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016

*Wipes away a tear* Patrochilles

I just finished the book and am devastated. If I try to put my feelings into words I know I'll fail miserably; this book deserves so much better.

rtc

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Read-along: DT Maio \| The Song of Achilles	17	19	Jun 02, 2017 06:27AM
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About Madeline Miller

Madeline Miller was born in Boston and grew up in New York City and Philadelphia. She attended Brown University, where she earned her BA and MA in Classics. For the last ten years she has been teaching and tutoring Latin, Greek and Shakespeare to high school students. She has also studied at the University of Chicago’s Committee on Social Thought, and in the Dramaturgy department at Yale School of ...more

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Quotes from The Song of Achilles

“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.” — 1315 likes

“Name one hero who was happy."
I considered. Heracles went mad and killed his family; Theseus lost his bride and father; Jason's children and new wife were murdered by his old; Bellerophon killed the Chimera but was crippled by the fall from Pegasus' back.
"You can't." He was sitting up now, leaning forward.
"I can't."
"I know. They never let you be famous AND happy." He lifted an eyebrow. "I'll tell you a secret."
"Tell me." I loved it when he was like this.
"I'm going to be the first." He took my palm and held it to his. "Swear it."
"Why me?"
"Because you're the reason. Swear it."
"I swear it," I said, lost in the high color of his cheeks, the flame in his eyes.
"I swear it," he echoed.
We sat like that a moment, hands touching. He grinned.
"I feel like I could eat the world raw.” — 1045 likes

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