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The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

Start date: January 13, 2019

Finish date: January 31, 2019

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Jan 22, 2019 Ilsen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: backlist-challenge-2019

5 stars

TW: murder, death, slavery, abduction, abandonment, torture, mention of rape, blood depictions, human sacrificing, physical violence, human trafficking, graphic mention of a plague, self-harm, child abuse, and war themes.

I do not know how I did not originally rate this beautiful masterpiece of a book as 5 stars. Maybe because I did not feel it was 5 stars at the time but I am in love with this retelling of Achilles and Patroclus.

The writing really drew me in. I love how it was full of d 5 stars

TW: murder, death, slavery, abduction, abandonment, torture, mention of rape, blood depictions, human sacrificing, physical violence, human trafficking, graphic mention of a plague, self-harm, child abuse, and war themes.

I do not know how I did not originally rate this beautiful masterpiece of a book as 5 stars. Maybe because I did not feel it was 5 stars at the time but I am in love with this retelling of Achilles and Patroclus.

The writing really drew me in. I love how it was full of detail but it was also not flowery as well. I loved getting to see the characters from the very beginning and seeing the blossoming relationship of Achilles and Patroclus. What did throw me off was that I thought we were going to have Achilles and Patroclus' POV in the story but we only had Patroclus. The author really put so much thought into this story because I understood everything she did and all the trinkets in the story.

Now I have not read up on the original material but I really want to. From what I heard, it stays pretty true to the mythology and only changing a couple of details to fit the story. It shows because as I was reading another retelling of Greek mythology at the time (they are both completely different and I enjoy both), this one is more true to the brutality and hardships of Greek mythology.

The characters that are in the limelight are Achilles and Patroclus. Now if you don't know the original story, skip this paragraph but just know that both of these characters are well developed characters. I mentioned how much I loved the beginning of their relationship but throughout the story, Achilles deals with pride, glory, greed, and power while Patroclus is the healer and the humble one. They go through so many hardships during the war and you can see Patroclus' view on Achilles change but his unconditional love for him never goes away even through all the pride they go through.

I know this story does have bury your gays trope so be warned but I personally thought that m/m relationship was so beautiful. The ending is heartbreaking but it is also so poetic and omg I was crying and I want to cry just thinking about it. This book goes through so many themes such as the effects of men on war. The cruelty one must face during war. The effects of power and greed and how important having humanity in a person does. It really makes you think and I just want to read this book over again.

Overall, this book does so many things right and I will definitely read more Greek mythology because of Madeline Miller. It is a beautiful book with many themes and messages and I will highly recommend! ...more

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