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Reviews tagging 'Murder'

Le Chant d'Achille by Madeline Miller

934 reviews

viaanne's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective tense fast-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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wildflower_magic's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

What a beautiful retelling of the story of Achilles. I swooned over the portrayal of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and I think Patroclus was the perfect narrator for the story. Madeline Miller did a fantastic job of holding true to the original stories while also creating something unique and special within that story. The writing style was gorgeous: perfectly flowery and song-like just like the myths would have been told. The character development was so interesting. A month later and I still think about how this book ended! This book gives a lot of opportunities to reflect on the age-old debate: do we have control, or is it up to fate? 
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kaygee_reads's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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newtnewt's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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unoriginalusername's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.75

I was influenced by BookTok (and partially strong armed by a friend) to read this book. 
It’s a gorgeously written story about Achilles from Patroclus’ point of view. I admire the author for putting so much love and respect into this story, giving a stellar retelling to a famous story and looking at the relationships from a different perspective. Anyone who’s read anything about Achilles or the Trojan War should know what they’re getting into with this book. The topics are heavy, potentially triggering, and altogether realistic for the setting. That being said, I’m not a fan of Greek tragedy and only enjoyed the book when I was done with it. It’s very emotionally provocative, and it does it well. 
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jamesfitz3's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

I love the way this author writes, and what more can you want than gay mythology


It is however a hard read when you know how it ends. I also had to put it down for a few days because it made me so deeply lonely

The following line is so real as someone engaged to a terminally ill person. This is how it was. 

“In such a way I did learn to live beside the rushing torrent of his doom. The days passed, and he lived. The months passed, and I could go a whole day without looking over the precipice of his death. The miracle of a year, then two”
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chaterbox87's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

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r_coop's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

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jenny_englishsnob's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

The Song of Achilles is based on Greek mythology, but it doesn't just retell those myths; it is truly different and original. This is a tale of soul mates and selfless love that follows Achilles' epic journey through war, honor, and fate, blending moments of deep personal connection with grand mythological events. It is narrated by Patroclus, a young prince exiled by his father and taken in by Achilles' father (the king), and follows his life-changing bond with the hero. Miller's writing vividly captures this young love story, complete with longing, jealousy, ego, and questioning, in a very honest and beautiful way. There is a lot of death, sorrow, and violence, particularly toward the end—after all, we are talking about the battle for Troy, which lasted many years. This is my only criticism: how long and drawn out the war story became. The first 2/3 of the story was stronger. The fighting and revenge were exciting at first but got a little tedious toward the end.
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caljpg's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

3.0

When I read this, I really enjoyed it. Then I went and read some other opinions and they had some good points about how poorly the female characters are written. It was also brought to my attention  that the author changed something from the original mythology that she really shouldn’t have. She had the princess do something to Achilles that in the original, Achilles did to her. Hearing all of these things, I have complicated feelings toward this book 😭
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