From the Bookshelf of AMS Book Club at UBC…

The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

Start date: January 1, 2023

Finish date: January 31, 2023

Why we're reading this: January's Theme: Historical Fiction…more
[close] January's Theme: Historical Fiction

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Jan 22, 2023 Anna (ani) 🕷 rated it really liked it

4.25 stars - Wow, okay, just as devastating upon the reread as it was 6 years ago!

Madeline Miller definitely achieved what she was going for here - a young adult retelling of the Iliad, with romance, tragedy, and a lot of themes regarding pride, fate, destiny, losing innocence & becoming a killer, and more. Central to the story is, in my opinion, the question: Is the pursuit of legacy and notoriety worth giving up happiness for? It’s a question I think about a lot, and Miller does a great job a 4.25 stars - Wow, okay, just as devastating upon the reread as it was 6 years ago!

Madeline Miller definitely achieved what she was going for here - a young adult retelling of the Iliad, with romance, tragedy, and a lot of themes regarding pride, fate, destiny, losing innocence & becoming a killer, and more. Central to the story is, in my opinion, the question: Is the pursuit of legacy and notoriety worth giving up happiness for? It’s a question I think about a lot, and Miller does a great job at exploring it. The same goes for the question of fate and determinism, which is just as (if not more) crucial. I was very upset while reading this bc every time I had to read about the prophecy I could only just point my fingers and go “no! this is not going to happen the way you think it is and WHY CAN’T YOU SEE IT!” and it broke my sad little heart. But I digress. Also, I know a lot of people don’t like Patroclus for valid reasons but honestly I went into this expecting worse, I was way more annoyed with Achilles by the end (dude literally an ANT could see how his choices by the end were bad). But such is the point of this book and it only managed to wreck me more 😭

For what it’s worth, I actually know very little about Greek mythology (beyond what’s in Percy Jackson) and I honestly remembered about 3 things from the first time I read this. Rereading it, I can definitely see why. I’m reluctant to give this 5 stars simply because the plot progression and YA style sometimes gets me. I know it’s supposed to be a READABLE retelling of the Iliad, but I kid you not I actually kind of wish it was just a little bit more dense, complex, and intricate (not a lot, because if I wanted to read the Iliad I would go read it instead LMAO). There were some plot points I really wish had been developed more, because they would have added a lot more depth (and memorability) for me.

But, altogether, I still think this was really good and quite possibly one of the easiest books to binge read out there. Because once you get going, it’s so hard to stop especially when you KNOW what’s going to happen 😭 ...more

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May 17, 2023 ariel de guzman rated it it was amazing

Although I’m not the target audience with some of the content, after 2/5 of the book, I was able to binge the book because of how well written it is. Strong engaging middle of the story, and good unassuming end (personally) given that it is a book about Achilles. Ion care if it was inaccurate or however other people call it, it was entertaining as hell.

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