The Song of Achilles By Madeline Miller

I'm mostly saying this as a joke, but if you've never heard any part of the Odyssey or the Iliad, there may be some spoilers ahead. But I think those two books are a big enough part of our collective consciousness that you probably know more than you think.

Madeline Miller does some truly spectacular work with this novel. In "The Song of Achilles" she takes a well known story and reminds us of something that should have been clear from the beginning: the story of Achilles and Patroclus is a love story. And she does this by telling us this story that we all know is fated to end in tragedy but we read it anyway hoping that, maybe this time, they'll get the happy ending they deserve.

From that I bet you can guess that this novel is the story of Patroclus and Achilles. It is told through the beautiful narration of Patroclus, where we are told the story of these two figures of mythology meeting and falling in love and eventually dying on the battle field of the Trojan War. At every turn we know what is coming, every prophecy Miller reveals reminds the audience of what is to come as the characters struggle to interpret the vague language of prophecy. As soon as the story begins we know how it ends, but Miller manages to draw her readers in in such a way that it's almost impossible to put the book down. We know what is coming, but we still want to know how Patroclus will tell us the story. We know what is coming but we hope that, somehow, we're wrong.

As I finish off this review, I just want to spend a moment talking about the beautiful queerness of this novel. I love how the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles was portrayed. It was never overly graphic or understated to the point of near invisibility. It was just perfect and wonderful and it was a joy to read.

This novel is stunning and now I understand why so many of my coworkers from Barnes & Noble kept telling me to read it. I'm only sorry that it took me so long to get around to it.

XO, Ellen