The Song of Achilles - Book Review

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[@lozanosa89]

I enjoyed the book a lot but i didn’t cry like everyone said they did lol

[@umangsingh234]

It's a HUGE relief to know that I wasn't the only one who didn't enjoy this book as much as booktok expected me to .. btw your my favourite book reviewer♥️

[@marce5b]

I am about to finish it and still wonder what's great and what's the buzz about this book????

[@marce5b]

And also the Coleen Hoover's book "It's End with Us" I found it even to be the worst book I have read lately

[@touringinwonderland811]

I loved this book so much. It took me in every time I read it and I couldn’t stop. I just finished this and it is definitely the best book I have read all year.

[@jenhackett1625]

Yes! What is she even saying

[@nandotang6089]

I read and also listened to the audibook and I love this book so much. It is one of my favorite books ever. I just think that the story is beautiful and touching. One of the only books that made me sob more than once while reading it. If my house was on fire, I would save this book.

[@nikkisbooknook]

I’m so glad you loved it! 💗

[@marce5b]

What parts made you cry?

[@jenhackett1625]

The beautiful ending!!

[@ExpatLifeKorea]

I just literally finished reading this book. And like you, i didnt like it. I buddy read it (thank god) and we both felt the same way. We both struggled with how undveloped some scenes and characters were. I wanted to DNF it but i stuck with my friend’s principle of finishing a book no matter what. I couldnt care less of this book and be happy to pass this along to someone who’d find it interesting. Thanks for your video.

[@anaritamontes2652]

The same here, I felt all the time that the characters didn't have depth, and dialogues were just bland and so repetitive. Despite the fact that there was so much space for exploring other issues, the entire focus was on this Achilles and Patroclus relationship, which to be fair was also described in a super light way. I didn't feel their love in the words, I felt I was told they had the love. I didn't like this book at all.

[@hithere5136]

I didn’t really like TSOA either, I love Greek Mythology books and I actually like the whole “strategizing in military tents” thing but for some reason it didn’t hit for me :(

[@kaleviv]

as you said in the video, i really think this book was just not for you. the iliad is inherently a story about war; the story of achilles and patroclus was born out of the iliad, and is therefore also inherently a story about war. you could perhaps leave the trojan war out of a shorter adaptation, but i think that would remove a lot of its impact as a tragedy. tsoa is very much styled after the writings of greek tragedians (homer is often referred to as “the first tragedian”), and miller derived many of her stylizations from her experiences translating ancient greek. this is, i think, part of the reason miller's stylistic choices can be alienating; greek tragedians had a way of approaching storytelling and language that differs greatly from modern (and in particular, western) modes of storytelling. it can be a bit of an acquired taste! all this to say, it’s an excellent book that doesn’t necessarily have as broad an appeal as its popularity would imply, and i think the aspects you find unappealing were largely intentional on miller’s part. from my perspective, a lot of tsoa’s wide reach is due to its queer audience, especially young queer people who resonate with the portrayal of mlm romance.

[@angelaholmes8888]

The song of Achilles is a good read but I love circe way more some people who have read both books either loved the song of Achilles or circe never both

[@nikkisbooknook]

Ooo interesting! Maybe I’ll give Circe a try.

[@angelaholmes8888]

@@nikkisbooknook I hope you do 😊😃

[@hudfamfour]

I loved Circe too, so now I’m nervous to read Song of Achilles. 😂 The audio version of Circe was excellent.

[@angelaholmes8888]

@@hudfamfour hopefully you will enjoy the song of Achilles good luck 😃👍

[@grc3rb]

You didn’t like the wiring style. That’s fair. I’m a guy that was obsessed with Troy. But I didn’t realized that their love was so central to the story.

[@user-wm9cv4jp7m]

I am Greek and we have a whole book with this story to learn at the second year of junior high school...I haven't read the song of Achilles yet but I know some things from our lessons at school and I like it very much

[@lakeshas1421]

THANK YOU NIKKI!!! I am reading this book for a book club and I decided to listen to the audiobook on KZbin. I am not sure if it is the particular narrator who is reading it, but I was a bit bored and had to stop. I think I will try to listen to another audiobook read by someone else because I hate starting and stopping a book. Wish me luck…lol! Thank you for you honesty! I love and appreciate it and I am so there with you.

[@nikkisbooknook]

Happy to be of service 🫡

[@DAEGUU]

Now I seriously don't know if I wanna try reading this 💀

[@grc3rb]

Read it. Everyone has different tastes. My husband and I loved it because we love Patroclus. Only you can make up your mind after the fact. It’s a story we knew, but embraced the love between two men.

[@Elderscrolls45]

I enjoyed reading this book but yes it was bit slow and I hoped the author would have dived a little bit more in the battle and Achilles’s accomplishments

[@aesp9148]

Im in Grade 9 and my school picked this as a book for us to read and some loved it while others didn’t. personally i felt it was a bit dry maybe until the end but i didn’t like it a bunch, which was surprising for me.

[@LauraMartinez-nl5nu]

I didn't want to say it but I also tried the audio because I couldn't get into the physical book😅 I guess it's okay to not love everything that you read.

[@tessrohleder1296]

I felt prettyyyyy much the same reading this. It’s like, Patroclus is a minor character in the Iliad, there was SO MUCH an author could have done with that character, and they did….this 😂 ?!? I also didn’t think Achilles and Patroclus had a particularly healthy relationship, and I don’t think that’s called out in the book except for one character towards the very end.

[@sarahl.7277]

The Achlles heel thing is a later myth. Mller took the older and original one. I felt different about the book, but everyone is different. The expectations or even mood you have when aproaching a book can influence your experience too. Might be a factor.

[@gretaluns1702]

This is the definition of “it’s a cow farm, there’s gonna be cows outside” … it’s a book derived from the Iliad which is abt the Trojan war so ofc it’s gonna be abt war😭i loved this book and found it easy to read but i also do love war books so i do think it’s just a preference of taste. If u don’t enjoy war stories, then u prob won’t enjoy this book

[@jackie9497]

2 min early. lysm your vidoes are amazing and i am so excited for your book

[@nikkisbooknook]

Thank you! 🥹

[@nancyhannam1336]

Completely agree, I was so excited to read it but sadly only gave it 2 stars. I was just so bored 😐

[@gracebeltran91]

Hey there! I just finished reading the book and I have to say I agree with you in most points, hope you find my observations intentionally thoughtful, and respectful, I just love to discuss books with people that think different because it adds a lot of learning. So in my first reply to this comment you'll find points that we agree on but I'd add side notes worth clarifying.

[@gracebeltran91]

First of all, I too was expecting the explanation about heel, when you mentioned the pride being the Achilles' heel it totally clicked so thank you for pointing that out! Just a side note: the author does mention her approach on that matter in the character pages and says she was basing her work on the Iliad, the heel story came later. I was also expecting a heavy crying, which was really only a sob... I think the author could have been deep into their deaths, and it lacked... that's my only disappointment. Although I have to admit that expectation was caused by the hype and can not put that blame to Madeline. Maybe that is what happened to you?

[@gracebeltran91]

I believe what troubled you the most was a very superficial dialogue. I agree on that fact, but hey, I didn't expect deep conversations anyway because... have you talked to men? They are not exactly conversational, so to me it was a very realistic exchange of words between them... I don't think it is fair to expect that when you don't have it irl, what do you think about this point? Thank you for your time if you read the whole thing and let me know what you think ☺️

[@noordaraiseh3416]

The quotes and the heartbreak was amazing! But the book in general wasn't my favourite because it wasn't the book that just talked about the couple it talked about everything around it.

[@sarahdylan2183]

The girls who get it get it, and the girls who don’t don’t! And that’s okay. I think it is important to remember that this isn’t just a story of the mythological character of Achilles it’s a retelling of Homer’s Iliad told from the character Patroclus’ perspective. I really, really liked it.

[@cress9328]

the book was so boring i have to skipped so many lines😭

[@emilychapman5913]

Thank you! Finally someone said it. This book is so overhyped and just is so boring

[@nikkisbooknook]

😅😅😅

[@LoosingmyWilltolive]

If anyone is interested in listening to this book, jenny juniper does an amazing job reading it. The channel is on KZbin 🙂

[@karenbackbaby]

I totally get why this book wasn’t for you. Yes the dialogues are super dry and it’s difficult to find attachement with the characters, specially with Achilles. But I got to say that the ending got me so upset for some reason. I actually cried at the end of the book even if I wasn’t that hooked. I didn’t expect that the war part was my favourite part, all the action and juice it’s in there, I felt everything Patroclus felt in this part, that was beautiful and heartbreaking but yeah I get your points because I kind of share them 😂

[@woody5551]

Kudos for finishing it. My tastes did not align with most people's. The book did not win me over. I also finished reading it but ready to move on to something else.

[@angeliquehogan8749]

I just read the last 2 chapters and I see why people was sad but it wasn’t for me

[@crowowlraven9971]

Thank you. I dropped this book. It was boring and the writing was horrible.

[@haidyelhelw828]

Thankkkk youuuuuuuu

[@HarperArrow]

Thank you for saying this! I actually thought I was the one who found this book mediocre at best. I enjoyed the ending, I think it was very well written, however this book did not deliver to me. Shouldn't be a Song of Achilles be told from Achilles perspective? I mean, I did not receive any of the inner turmoil the character of Achilles and he did have some. He refused to go and see Briseis because he felt guilty of killing her family and felt bad - were? Don't tell me, show me! What was it like for him to kill? How does he feel truly inside? How does he truly feel having a child? Does he truly not care or he left him because he knew he would die? Nothing was given. Patroclus was not a good narrator. Also the treatment of women in this book I couldn't. Sure is Greek mythology, but no. This was insane. All women were either abandoned or left for abuse. Also thank you saying Achilles mother was raped, you are the ONLY reviewers that say she was actually raped. What I also hated was that other people hate or blame Achilles son for being homophobic or whatever. Did no one think about his trauma? He is literally abandoned by his father even before being born. His father, threats his mother like trash, leaves him unborn, never asks about him and such. Why is his trauma just looked over?

[@rottenangelx3]

girl…ur delusional

[@lilyyu3301]

Lol 😂 I feel the same way.

[@LeonAvalos]

I'm not used to reading books like this one, and I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would (was expecting it to be A LOT sexier than people said, found it to be really tame, there's like 3 or 4 "spicy" scenes). Still tho, the book managed to break my heart by the end and because of the many emotions it brought up on me I think it's well worth a read! Would highly recommend it to people, as someone who doesn't usually read these popular modern young adult stories. 🥰

[@sanderella1642]

❤️❤️❤️

[@shravya7077]

Yeahhh

[@clairewalker4188]

I have a feeling you just didn’t understand the book and all that it was. Obviously no one’s taste is going to be the same and everyone likes what they like, but the way you described this book was criminally wrong.

[@nikkisbooknook]

Lol okay

[@jenhackett1625]

Do not listen to her! Terrible review. This book is evvverrything

[@jenhackett1625]

I’ve cried three times reading a book and this was one! Horrible review

[@nikkisbooknook]

Glad you enjoyed it. A review is literally just an opinion. Hope this helps! 💗

[@jamyamoline5510]

I don’t like reading about Greek mythology or war so I’m not surprised that I wasn’t a fan of this book 🥲