Minor spoilers ahead (It's a 3000 year old story so I am not sure if it's really a spoiler haha)  
  
I was never into Greek mythology but I loved Nolan's The Odyssey so much that I picked this book up at Higginbothams right after I finished watching the movie because I was craving more Greek mythology stories. (I was looking for Percy Jackson's the lightning thief but since they didn't have that I decided to grab this instead)

Let me start off by saying, Madelline Miller's prose is beautiful. She has a very 'calm' style of writing that reads almost like poetry which perfectly fits the story she is trying to tell. I would honestly recommend this book just for the prose alone. It's just lovely.

My problem with this book is that the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles never really stuck with me. Patroclus especially I found quite boring and it's hard to see what Achilles likes about him. It's also disappointing to see Patroclus potrayed in such a passive manner when he is supposed to be a great warrior in his own right. He does get much more active toward the end of the book but it's not enough in my opinion. 

I honestly felt the scenes with other characters (Odysseus, Briseis, Agamennon) outshone any interactions between Patroclus and Achilles. I loved Miller's potrayal of Odysseus in particular and it honestly feels like Bresis and Patroclus had more chemistry than Achilles/Patroclus lol. Those scenes were the highlight of the book. In general I feel like the last 100 pages of the book are where it really shines and it's no coincidence that it is during these pages where the focus drifts slightly away from the Patroclus/Achilles' relationship and Patroclus comes into his own.

I also wasn't a fan of how Miller wrote the female characters in this book (with the exception of Briseis). They were all written to be extremely unlikeable and I am not sure if this was intentional to make Patroclus/Achilles look better by comparison. The last scene between Thetis and Patroclus was lovely though.

Overall a good read. i don't think it's a masterpiece but it did get me out of a mini reading slump and I appreciate it for that and also for satisfying my craving for more greek mythology. I will check out Circe as well someday.

3.5/5.

Song of Achilles - Review. A good read but could be better.