Have you ever wanted to read a book so beautiful that it hurts? Well the book The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is the right book for you. Let me start off by saying that I absolutely love reading and I have read since elementary school, I would read every single book that I would find and I have not read a book similar to The Song of Achilles.
The book starts off with the main character, Patroculus, and his story. The book is taking place in Greece around the time where the trojan horse was built. On that note, the book does mention sexual abuse but it does not go into detail and it also talks about other things that may be triggering for some people so do keep that in mind.
Patroculus gets sent away from his home as a punishment for a crime he did, he gets sent to the castle of Achilles’s dad. This is where he meets Achilles who is the second main character. Achilles is the son of a goddess and is expected to do great things with his life; he is offered a spot with the gods above when he dies. As time passes by, Achilles and Patroculus start getting very close, a little too close.
Achilles’s mother starts worrying about their “friendship” because she believes that it will distract Achilles from his duty, he is destined to die as a glorious warrior after the Trojan War, so she sends him away. She does this two times and Patroculus follows him out there those two times. The story continues on where Patroculus and Achilles become lovers and have to fight in the Trojan war. The rest of the story will have to be read.
Now I understand that it may not sound that interesting, however, the moment the first page is read, you will not be able to stop reading. Madeline Miller did an amazing job with her writing. The way she described the love between Patroculus and Achilles was so beautiful and heartwarming that it made me sob on the floor at three in the morning. The way she structured the book and told the story was so incredible and so entertaining to read.
I read the book in less than three days because it was just that good, I could not put it down. Even though the book had a “happy ending,” I still cried for a week straight and kept on randomly bursting into tears. If you love forbidden romance, sad romance stories, and romance in general this book is definitely for you. If you find comfort in having your hopes, dreams, and your heart crushed, then this is most definitely the book for you.
If the rest of the article was not enough to get you interested, here are some quotes that will hopefully convince you to read the book, “Envious death would drink his blood, and grow young again,” “I could recognize him by touch alone, by smell; I would know him blind, by the way his breaths come and his feet struck the earth. I would know him in death, and at the end of the world,” “He is half my soul, as the poets say,” and “When he dies, all things soft and beautiful and bright would be buried with him.”
