The Song of Achilles
A New York Times Bestseller
"At once a scholar's homage to The Iliad and startlingly original work of art....A book I could not put down." --Ann Patchett, author of The Dutch House
A thrilling, profoundly moving, and utterly unique retelling of the legend of Achilles and the Trojan War from the bestselling author of Circe
A tale of gods, kings, immortal fame, and the human heart, The Song of Achilles is a dazzling literary feat that brilliantly reimagines Homer's enduring masterwork, The Iliad. An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller's monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction's brightest lights--and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough's Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes.
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Community Reviews
The hype of this book has got to be the mix between queer-mythology and a pretty book-cover, because most of the book was a snooze. A snooze and a mess of syrupy words. If you take away all the mythology, this is all a slice-of-life with a ton of obsessive romance. Besides, how horribly written it is... Most of the scenes didn't make sense, I had to re-read them to try and picture whatever the author was describing. Here's one example:
As I stand there, frozen and staring, I see a sudden hand, reaching above the melee to grip the sharp nose of a ship. And then the arm beneath it, sure and strong and dark, and the head, and the wide-shouldered torso breaks to air like dolphin-back from the boiling men beneath.
Um what? It's all so muddy hidden behind all these flowery words and prose to describe everything. It's so overdone the message gets lost. I contemplated that paragraph a couple of times, and tried to understand, and concluded it's terrible writing.
Aside from the muddy prose, and flowery overdone words, this book describes everything. Everything is a description, you could pass through 4 paragraphs full of descriptions. It's almost poetic, and not in a good way, like trying too hard. Also, if I have to hear about Thetis' scary pale skin, thin red lips and shinny glossy black hair, with a clingy dress... This description was done over and over again, each time she showed up in a scene. We get it Patroclus, she a scary lady. Talking on Thetis, why is every female character on this book so 2-dimensional, subservient and just a hole for men? MM didn't even try on this one.
I only cared about 2 things within this book; Chiron and how beautiful the romance between Achilles and Patroclus was. Otherwise, wow is it boring, full of nothing really happening, and a minefield of trigger warnings and abuse. I had to push through this, it was a drag to finish, no I didn't cry. I stayed because everyone kept saying about the end. The ending was cliche and expected. It was not worth it. There's just way better things to read out there, and this doesn't deserve the hype.
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