If you’re a fan of Greek mythology books you’ve likely come across Madeline Miller and her novels, The Song of Achilles, and Circe. The Song of Achilles is Miller’s debut novel and delves into the story of Achilles and Patroclus, tracing their journey from childhood to adulthood and the divergent paths they take despite their love for each other.
Miller holds an MA and BA in Ancient Greek, and it shows in the texture of the book rather than in any showy display of research. The armour, the sacrifices, the etiquette of kings, all of it is handled with the ease of someone who has lived and breathed ancient greece for years. What she adds to the myth is a deceptively simple question: what if the bond between Achilles and Patroclus was never just friendship?
The Song of Achilles: Plot - 5/5
[caption id="" align="alignnone" width="600"][](https://amzn.to/42XGRSK) Rated 4.6 Stars. Buy on Amazon. [/caption]
The Song of Achilles unfolds through the first-person perspective of Patroclus, a prince born to a tyrannical king who is later banished from his kingdom after a fateful encounter. Exiled to the same kingdom where Achilles resides, Patroclus discovers that there is much more to Achilles than his god-like abilities and attributes. Beneath the surface, Achilles is kind, compassionate, and morally upright. However, as they mature, Achilles must embrace his destined path as a hero. And Patroclus, insignificant in the eyes of many, must conceal their relationship while also navigating his own journey.
What makes the plot work is the patience of it. Miller doesn’t rush the two boys toward each other, she lets years pass in the space of a chapter, lets small gestures do the work that big declarations usually do in this genre. Achilles doesn’t just tolerate Patroclus; he deliberately, publicly claims him as his companion, using his own status to make sure Patroclus is seen and treated as an equal in a court built to overlook him. It’s a quiet kind of devotion. But, anyone familiar with the Iliad already knows where this story is going. And Miller deliberrately walks the reader toward that tragic ending with a steady inevitable pacing.
That’s the real achievement here: a book whose outcome is a matter of public record for three thousand years, and it still manages to devastate you.
The Song of Achilles: Characters - 4.5/5
Patroclus makes for an unusual narrator in a story about heroes, because he isn’t one. He’s clumsy with a spear, uncertain of his own worth, and mostly defined by what he notices in other people rather than by what he does himself, which is exactly what makes him such a good lens for Achilles. Achilles, for his part, is written as genuinely good-natured in a way that could easily have been dull on the page, except Miller keeps pulling that goodness up against his mother’s ambitions for him. Thetis wants a legend; Patroclus just wants Achilles. Watching Achilles get quietly torn between those two demands, long before he’s even aware he’s choosing, is where the character work really lands.
Agamemnon, by contrast, is written with no interest in redeeming him. He’s petty, status-obsessed, and cruel in the mundane. And he’s all the more convincing for it. Briseis gets less page time but does a lot with it, giving the story a second vantage point on Achilles that complicates the golden-boy image Patroclus can’t help but see him through.
Summary of The Song of Achilles - 4.5/5
The Song of Achilles earns its reputation. The prose is unshowy but precise, the central relationship is built patiently enough that you feel every year of it, and Miller folds the mythology in so naturally that you never feel like you’re being given a history lesson. I wholeheartedly recommend it. The only reason it stops short of five stars for me is that her second book, Circe, is even better.
Whether you lean toward romance, historical fiction, or fantasy, this one is worth your time.
You Might Also Like
Love books? You'll love Litloop.
Track your reading, send personal recs, and have real conversations about the books you love.
Create free accountFree forever · Beta now live · iOS & Android apps coming soon
