The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller is an award winning novel that retells the story of Achilles and Patroclus as they grow up, train as warriors, and fight through the Trojan War.
The Song of Achilles is told from the prospective of Patroclus. We learn about his upbringing and how he came to find himself living with and serving Achilles. From his point of view, we watch as curiosity of a stranger leads to friendship, companionship, and love.
We see Achilles told from the eyes of Patroclus, which holds similar to the popular “great warrior” identifier everyone in their lives sees but also, we get a much more intimate look into Achilles as a lonely kid, goofy teen, and loyal adult.
This book is beautiful and heartbreaking. As adaptation of The Iliad, we know how their story ends. We know that there is no happy ending at the end of their collective experience, yet I found myself hoping against all hope that Miller would deviate from the source material.
Ultimately, I thought the novel was a stunning story of love and loyalty. I would HIGHLY recommend that everyone read this ASAP and please reach out to me so we can discuss.
Favorite Parts:
- When Patroclus leaves and follows after Achilles despite not knowing what lay ahead of him, or even if he would ever see Achilles again. Loved how this showed not just how much he needed Achilles, but showed his own bravery and tenacity, as he knew he couldn’t just sit around on his same path waiting for Achilles to return for him.
- Seeing Achilles from Patroclus’s POV vs the reality of how he actually was showed how in love Patroclus was, that he was willing to love Achilles despite his flaws and somehow even found ways to turn those “flaws” into reasons to love Achilles even more.
- Mount Pelion being their safe haven <333
- Achilles protecting Patroclus during battle and doing everything to keep Patroclus out of harms way during the war.