Joy101 reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
None
(not provided)
352 pages
English language
Published July 28, 2011 by Bloomsbury.
The Song of Achilles
4 stars
(208 reviews)
This is the story of the seige of Troy from the perspective of Achilles best-friend Patroclus. Although Patroclus is outcast from his home for disappointing his father he manages to be the only mortal who can keep up with the half-God Archilles. Even though many will know the facts behind the story the telling is fresh and engaging.
anka.trini reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Goodreads Review
4 stars
Makes me want to watch Troy and read the Illiad
Froglike reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Great greek tragedy.
4 stars
A beautiful retelling of a central part of The Illiad as a tragic (gay) love story. It retains the style rawness of antiquity. I was moved and loved the book.
Elias reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
My heart
5 stars
I am absolutely sobbing, which I expected. Heartfelt and tragic, as it should be.
Mogwai reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Moves With Ease
4 stars
It is so very easy to fright a mind from enjoying this work of flightful fiction. A scathing review, pointing out the many inaccuracies against its sources or some (and may you have better days ahead if you watch those, truly) video essay to hammer on the tenses or its style of telling. For the easily influenced, the difference between love and dislike is a whim of opinion. I have, by now, read many reviews telling me why I should abhor this, and I think some make fair points. Still, I liked it. I was moved by the great and bitter satisfaction of the ending, and I liked all passages in which there was simultaneously so very much and nothing at all going on. To all burgeoning classicists, I would recommend Emily Wilson's Iliad and to listen to some of her many talks and lectures. But! I digress. I liked …
It is so very easy to fright a mind from enjoying this work of flightful fiction. A scathing review, pointing out the many inaccuracies against its sources or some (and may you have better days ahead if you watch those, truly) video essay to hammer on the tenses or its style of telling. For the easily influenced, the difference between love and dislike is a whim of opinion. I have, by now, read many reviews telling me why I should abhor this, and I think some make fair points. Still, I liked it. I was moved by the great and bitter satisfaction of the ending, and I liked all passages in which there was simultaneously so very much and nothing at all going on. To all burgeoning classicists, I would recommend Emily Wilson's Iliad and to listen to some of her many talks and lectures. But! I digress. I liked it, with all its little, binary imperfections. We can have it, as a treat. Which it is.
KnitAFett reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Lived up to the hype.
5 stars
One of the rare cases that I absolutely loved a book that I have seen heavily recommended on social medias. This was a fantastic read. I never read The Iliad (and obviously really should, reading more book revolving around the gods would be a fun challenge for next year), so I cannot speak on how it holds up against that. But from my understanding, this is a retelling of the tale from Patroclus' perspective.
The wording was beautiful and there were no wasted moments that were plugged in to elongate the book. Truthfully there was a lot of time that was skipped over to be able to stick to the major moments. I also very much appreciated that the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus was not watered down or skirted around. It was the driving factor behind this book and the story would not have worked without it.
Overall very …
One of the rare cases that I absolutely loved a book that I have seen heavily recommended on social medias. This was a fantastic read. I never read The Iliad (and obviously really should, reading more book revolving around the gods would be a fun challenge for next year), so I cannot speak on how it holds up against that. But from my understanding, this is a retelling of the tale from Patroclus' perspective.
The wording was beautiful and there were no wasted moments that were plugged in to elongate the book. Truthfully there was a lot of time that was skipped over to be able to stick to the major moments. I also very much appreciated that the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus was not watered down or skirted around. It was the driving factor behind this book and the story would not have worked without it.
Overall very glad I read it, would recommend, plan to read the original, and really want to delve into other stories that involve Greek mythology.
Biotic reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A tale of emotions
5 stars
Confession: I did not know the tale of Achilles other than some superficial pieces of information before reading this book. I am happy to have taken note of the people gushing about this book. It's been a couple of years since I read it but I still remember what I felt as I came to the end of the book. It was a powerfully sad yet happy feeling. It was overall an enjoyable lovely book and the two main characters are lovable (and dislikable at times). I think Madeline Miller did a wonderful job with the queer theme that should be digestable by everyone (at least everyone who is not homophobic). Writing this review makes me want to read it again and appreciate the story without trying to reach the end.
Wild Woila reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
A tragedy of narcissistic proportions.
4 stars
A tragedy of narcissistic proportions. Nicely written & well paced. Feels real without losing its mythic aura.
Reading time 3 days, 123 pages/day
Utena reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Review of 'The Song of Achilles' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Everyone knows the story of Achilles through the poem, The Illiad, but do you really?
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Clara reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Review of 'The Song of Achilles' on 'Goodreads'
3 stars
I prefer the original
Chris he/they reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
LGBTQ Greek Myths
5 stars
Excellent retelling of the story of Achilles for the modern day.
Verglas reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Wonderful romantic interpretation of the Iliad
4 stars
This is a really lovely (re-)interpretation of the Iliad through the lens of romance writing. I really enjoy how the author has made the characters come to life in an unexpected way. Really easy and stress-free read. Absolutely recommend this book.
Dee reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Review of 'The Song of Achilles' on 'Goodreads'
5 stars
Enjoyed this much much more than I had expected too. I initially intended on rating this book a 4/5 but I think that is merely because I am late in reading this and it is something I would have adored a few years back—not to say that this wasn't spectacular though.
5/5
anna_ealasaid reviewed The song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Review of 'The song of Achilles' on 'Goodreads'
2 stars
I know it's not important in the scheme of things, but this book changes from past tense to present tense and then back again a couple of time MID PARAGRAPH and I am angry with all the editors and readers and judges to allow such an abomination against the gods to go unnoticed.
I liked some some of the writing and the evocation of the world - esp with Chiron - and thought the Thetis characterisation was interesting. Patroclus was someone to care a bit about in the last quarter, when in the first half I would have abandoned the book as Do Not Care At All About These Boring Horrible People if I hadn't known the story gets good... the idealised Briseis relationship pissed me off so now I'm reading Pat Barker's Silence of the Girls to cleanse from that... But Odysseuss is great - perfect, actually, just like …
I know it's not important in the scheme of things, but this book changes from past tense to present tense and then back again a couple of time MID PARAGRAPH and I am angry with all the editors and readers and judges to allow such an abomination against the gods to go unnoticed.
I liked some some of the writing and the evocation of the world - esp with Chiron - and thought the Thetis characterisation was interesting. Patroclus was someone to care a bit about in the last quarter, when in the first half I would have abandoned the book as Do Not Care At All About These Boring Horrible People if I hadn't known the story gets good... the idealised Briseis relationship pissed me off so now I'm reading Pat Barker's Silence of the Girls to cleanse from that... But Odysseuss is great - perfect, actually, just like the version of him in my head I've had for twenty years. The Iphigenia episode was really well done - I ended up wanting to read Miller's versions of all the characters except Achilles, who was just this flat absence. It's hard to rate this book, as it has reawakened my late-teens obsession with Greek mythology, which feels like a vast, complex, fucked up but beautiful home to return to. And reasons enough to look forward to reading Circe - but I wouldn't be recommending this one.
Jessica reviewed The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
Review of 'The Song of Achilles' on 'Goodreads'
4 stars
This probably isn't a book I would've read on my own but my queer/fantasy book club was reading it so I gave it a whirl and found it enjoyable. It was a quick read and, having not been assigned The Illiad for required reading in school (we read The Odyssey), I realized I wasn't actually that familiar with the source material beyond flashback to the atrocious film Troy.
The love story is the root of everything and it's handled very well. I'm particularly fond of the subtleties in how the characters change over time from their youth into young adulthood and how the main character has to reckon with his love for Achilles even as watches him become someone he probably wouldn't be in love with if he wasn't already.
The sticky wicket for me is, as with any historical story that hews to the brutality of the times, especially …
This probably isn't a book I would've read on my own but my queer/fantasy book club was reading it so I gave it a whirl and found it enjoyable. It was a quick read and, having not been assigned The Illiad for required reading in school (we read The Odyssey), I realized I wasn't actually that familiar with the source material beyond flashback to the atrocious film Troy.
The love story is the root of everything and it's handled very well. I'm particularly fond of the subtleties in how the characters change over time from their youth into young adulthood and how the main character has to reckon with his love for Achilles even as watches him become someone he probably wouldn't be in love with if he wasn't already.
The sticky wicket for me is, as with any historical story that hews to the brutality of the times, especially one that forefronts cis-masc characters, is having to power through all the violence done to women. It certainly helps that the narrator shows a lot of sympathy and empathy to the women that become pawns in the both the war games of men and the manipulations of gods, but no amount of kind thoughts can make it easy to digest every human female character being raped, enslaved, murdered or, at best, used horribly by the men in the story (when the woman that get impregnated, abandoned and then has her child taken from her has the best fate of any lady in the story, you know things are really bleak). I think the character of Thetis is meant to offset this a bit, but the fact that she is so very inhuman and serves largely as an antagonist, doesn't really balance the scales.
Subjects
- Trojan War
- Achilles (Greek mythology)
- Male friendship
- Fiction