Hai Beautiful!

A novel that is worth all the hype!

For the second month of The Bookish Travellers book club, we chose to read The Song Of Achilles by Madeline Miller!

~ The Bookish Travellers ~
a monthly book club run by Lily @readingchateau, Emily @emreviewsbooksfilms, Mackenzie@lupinslibrary_, Charlotte @charlottereadsx and myself @thebookishbree!

This book, along with Madeline Miller’s other novel Circe, has been constantly recommended to me by my friends for ages now and I am literally in love with this story!

Goodreads Summary

Greece in the age of heroes. Patroclus, an awkward young prince, has been exiled to the court of King Peleus and his perfect son Achilles. By all rights their paths should never cross, but Achilles takes the shamed prince as his friend, and as they grow into young men skilled in the arts of war and medicine their bond blossoms into something deeper - despite the displeasure of Achilles' mother Thetis, a cruel sea goddess. But then word comes that Helen of Sparta has been kidnapped. Torn between love and fear for his friend, Patroclus journeys with Achilles to Troy, little knowing that the years that follow will test everything they hold dear.

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

I 100% understand how and why everyone loves this novel. Why they say it brings them to tears and why they literally recommend this book to everyone that can read!

★ Rating ★

I rated this book ★★★★★ (5/5 stars). If you haven’t read this book, do not think of it as a retelling of an Ancient Greek legend, rather a love story between a known hero and his lover told in a time when Gods are real and men are warriors or nobodies.

REVIEW!

This book was everything people told me it would be… and more!

If there is one thing that I have to mention about this novel, it is Madeline Miller’s writing style. It is just divine! One will fail to notice the slow pacing of this story as they’re so lost in the magnificence of her writing.
I occationally found myself pulling away from the novel, closing it to return back to the real world, only to realise that I’m only at the start of Achillies and Patroclus’ story but a quarter way into the novel, with a full book of knowledge in my mind.

Like literally everyone, I will say that if you haven’t read this book, DO IT! Like stop reading this post, go to your nearest bookstore or open your damn computer and get yourself a copy of this amazing book! Then read it and you can thank me later.

This novel was all about the experience for me. The journey of reading Miller’s writing is a separate experience to the actual story and that’s what really caught me about this novel. Yes, I loved the romance between Achillies and Patroclus and of course I hated Achillies at certain points of the story where he was being a stuck-up shit, but the one think that kept me from being overly mad was the wonderful way in which it was told.

In the absence of my ability to articulate my overwhelming feelings for the amazing experience I had with this novel, let’s discuss the storyline (spoiler-free of course).

This novel is told from Patroclus’ point of view. I only realised this once I started reading, but once again, that was my ignorance since I don’t read blurbs. Unexpectantly, this story doesn’t so much focus on the battle that Archillies and Patroclus are involved in, nor does it focus so much on their romance.
Instead, Miller gives us an in-depth back story and drawn out training montage of the two boys. The trials and tibulations that the two boys will go through to stay together. The lies they’d tell, the rules they’d make and the mountains they’d climb in order to not leave the other behind, literally broke my heart.

Not going to lie, I do not know how to articulate my thoughts about this amazing novel. It’s something you need to read to experience.

The Song of Achillies is a novel that literally has love leakinging from the pages and writing that will suck you in so hard that you have to pull yourself out, gasping for air.

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See you back here on Monday’s (book reviews), Wednesday’s (storytime/ writing updates) and Saturday’s (other bookish content).