The Song of Achilles Review: What can I say other than that this book is one of the most soul-touching books I have ever read in my life?
The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is a Greek mythological retelling book inspired by Homer’s The Iliad. It retells the story of the Trojan War but focuses more on the romance between Achilles and Patroclus, beginning with their childhoods and ending with their famed deaths.
Song of Achilles Review
“He is half of my soul, as the poets say.”
This book is half of my soul, as the poets say.
I don’t even know what to say right now. I’m still stuck in my feelings. I sobbed a lot.
This book was beautifully written and is one of my new all-time favorites. It’s rare to find a romance book that so perfectly captures the essence of what it means to love another human being with all your heart and soul. The longing and yearning. The feelings that erupt like butterflies out from your chest. Madeline Miller captures it all so eloquently.
“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.”
The author’s poetic style of writing really fit the genre, but above all else, the way she depicted the soul-shattering, eternal love between Patroclus and Achilles is what really made this book shine.
“We were like gods at the dawning of the world, & our joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”
For the first half of the book, I was giddy with grins and butterflies. Their romance was just so buttery sweet, and it provided a much needed contrast to the heartache and sorrow that was sure to follow it.
“And perhaps it is the greater grief, after all, to be left on earth when another is gone.”
But this is so much more than a love story. It’s also a commentary on what it means to be human, the meaning of life, and whether it matters, in the end, whether we’ve fulfilled some sort of purpose and achieved greatness, or whether it’s enough to just grow old living a quiet existence.
I don’t really now what else to say about it other than that. Please, just read it for yourself. This is one of the best books I’ve ever read in my life.
Here are a few more of my favorite quotes. Because they can say so much more than I could ever possibly even attempt to articulate:
“In the darkness, two shadows, reaching through the hopeless, heavy dusk. Their hands meet, and light spills in a flood like a hundred golden urns pouring out of the sun.”
“I am made of memories.”
Song of Achilles Book Review Originally Written April 17, 2023
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