The Song of Achilles

by Madeline Miller

[nannah]

DNF @ 10%.

Content warnings (that I encountered in the few pages I read):
- rape and taking the side & pov of the rapist
- misogyny
- fatphobia

Warning:
Discussions of rape in this review.

I was so excited for this book. It seems to be everywhere, and everyone loves it. My disappointment is … massive.

My first impression was that the writing was, in fact, very good. I have seen quotes from The Song of Achilles around my socials, so I know Madeline Miller can write, but her prose really is gorgeous. Unfortunately it all became flowery and empty when her lovely writing was reserved for describing Achilles, and that only. It left a sweetly sick taste in my mouth.

But I could live with that, of course.
What made me stop reading was the overwhelming presence of misogyny and the rape. I understand this takes place in ancient Greece, and that women didn’t have the best lives, I do, but this is also supposed to be a YA book, and I think the author maybe forgot who she was writing for when trying to make her book … I don’t know, historically accurate or something. I’m well aware Zeus, for example, “ravished” many mortal women, and the book does mention his “conquests”, too, but at one point early on in the backstory, a human man rapes a goddess, and we see the man’s side. [Spoiler used for disturbing content:] We hear about the men advising him how to do it … how to catch her and hold her down. We hear about how for a year she had to stay with him and be raped over and over again. And after all that, the narration has the audacity to say, “An ordinary wife would have counted herself lucky to find a husband with Peleus’ mildness …”

I’m a survivor, and I just can’t handle this. I don’t really care how great the love story of Patroclus and Achilles is. I’m going to read something else.