The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller

Book cover for The Song of Achilles
⚠️ This review contains spoilers!

I'll give it a 4.5 stars. An interesting retelling of Achilles' story, focusing on his relationship with Patroclus. The Iliad itself doesn't outright mention any sort of romance between the two of them but interestingly, other ancient Greeks did interpret it as a romance. It's only more recently that people were keen to interpret their relationship as a friendship instead.

I enjoyed how flawed Achilles' character became as his pride got the better of him.

The ending didn't really make me as sad as I thought it would, since in the end the two were reunited in the afterlife. Another fun fact I learnt was that Achilles and Patroclus were really buried in the same tomb, and that Alexander the Great and his male "companion" (friendship or romantic, who knows) paid it a visit.