The audiobook was sooooo painful, seriously I wonder if I would have liked the book if it werent for his droning voice. Ick. But also the writing was clunky and the pace was weird. 

I truly don't understand what patroculus brings to the table, his only job in the whole plot was to talk about loving achilles he had almost no personality or actions otherwise

This book was a slow start but once it got Achilles introduced I was captivated. And it just kept getting better and playing out every scene in my head while reading brought them to life. This was very well written and the characters were so interesting. Even after Protroclus died, he still narrated and the ending with Thetis brought me to tears. 
I finished this in a short period of time because I am a fast reader that frequently reads. But I considered this a slow read because of how long it felt. Each page you had to pay attention and digest. The language was something you also had to adjust to. In all this was a medium read. 

“I thought, This is what Achilles will feel like when he is old. And then I remembered: he will never be old.”

I have never read a love story convey so much closeness. Even the physical gap between their bodies must have been too much distance for them to bear.

The prose reads like poetry. The story was incredibly satisfying and kept my interest. I got teary-eyed a few times. This is a story where two characters dare to love in a world where marrying for love is an outlier.

Odysseus was the only other person who was truly in love in this book?

I am at a loss for words for how beautiful this story was. It has renewed my interest in Greek Mythos, which is a tough task.

“Patroclus, I have given enough to them. I will not give them this.”

Okay. The ending of this book was incredibly touching, and i loved how the character dynamics changed throughout and you really felt like the characters were growing up, however, it took me AGES to get through all of this thing. It was iNCREDIBLY slow paced for the first like two thirds and then in the last portion of the book it suddenly went crazy fast and ten years passed in the space of a few chapters??? despite this, there is practically no plot during most of this book. I LOVED I THOUGH. the imagery throughout the book is incredible. I loved the relationship between Patroclus and Briseis and actually felt like (SPOILERS!!!) she just randomly died way too abruptly and she deserved way more. 

Though I started reading this book already knowing some of Achilles’s story, and therefore some of the events that would happen, I never once felt like that detracted from my experience reading it. If anything, it added to it. I was in stitches trying to figure out how certain events would happen. I absolutely loved this book, and finished it in a single sitting. 

How do I rate a book that I hated so much at the beginning, but loved so much at the end?

I feel like, after a decade past it's release, there are a lot of things that have already been said about The Song of Achilles, a majority of which boil down to naming this book a classic, heralding it as one of the best retellings, and giving it major props as a novel with queer representation - and to all that I say... I guess?

My biggest issues with this novel was the fact it's an adult fantasy that I've seen for years mismarketed as something for teens. Which, while the main characters are young - a majority of this book takes place during the preteens and teens of Patroclus and Achilles - it made me so vastly uncomfortable to have pages and pages (or hours, since I listened to the audiobook) devoted to the grown Patroclus reflecting on his sexual past with Achilles and mentioning his feet every chance he got. (His feet are an overarching mention and callback to the original myth of Achilles, but it's very heavy-handed.) Ultimately, this is an adult piece of fiction that contains a lot more than just a tragic love story between two fallen princes entangled with fate.

Yes, from a technical standpoint, this is a beautiful piece of work. It made me feel a lot of things, and though I didn't cry, the ending three chapters were truly some of the best literature I've listened to in a long time - but, I just feel like it fluttered to the floor for me, like a dropped sheet of paper - it's just kind of there. My favorite parts were few and far in between, the moments with Chiron shone as some of my favorites, but then were quickly dashed by how annoyed I got with Achilles' and his relationship with Thetis. Unfortunately, that annoyance only continued to grow as I really, deeply loved Miller's description of war once Troy was finally breached as a plot point - but was always annoyed when Achilles' unflinching love for his goddess mother reappeared.

I don't know how to rate this. I'm giving it a three because of that. The ending was beautiful, especially the ending line, and I particularly enjoyed the way the ending narration is set up. It was an unexpected surprise, but one that can't save this book for me. 

Content warnings: war, death, grief are present throughout. Rape and coercion are a huge plot point, beginning around chapter twelve/thirteen (with an uncomfortable scene, implications, then on page that I skipped) and then carry throughout the entirety of the Troy chapters which feature mistreatment of women heavily. I would urge readers to tread lightly and remember this is an adult fantasy, featuring multiple adult scenes. Separately, I will add that there are sex scenes, some of them between underage Patroclus and Achilles, some of them not, varying in their degree of description.