I’ve been a part of the online book community for years now, and The Song of Achilles is one of the most widely loved books I’ve seen across the internet. There’s a ton of fan art. The heartbreaking ending is practically legendary. I was excited to finally, finally read it, and curious too; only one book has ever made me cry, and I wondered if this would be the second.

Turns out, this was one of the most disappointing books I’ve ever read. I don’t know if I trust y’all’s recommendations anymore. The pacing was slow, yet the time passed in a really weird way. At the beginning or even in the middle of a chapter, Patroclus would just casually say that two months passed, or four years had gone by. If I wasn’t careful, I’d literally be years behind, looking around all confused, trying to figure out what was going on. And on that note, there were multiple events that seemed highly improbable, if not completely impossible, that I had trouble accepting actually happened.

As for the characters, well, they’re basically all awful. The only ones I liked were Patroclus, Achilles and Briseis, but I found I never really got attached to any of them. And in the final third of the book, I hardly recognized Achilles. I get that wars change people, especially when they last as long as this one did, but he seemed like a completely different, much less likable person. The ending was entirely his fault. I said what I said.

Speaking of the ending—while I’ll admit that it was sad, overall, it was nowhere near as emotional as I’d heard and come to expect. I didn’t cry, or come close to crying, or even feel the urge to cry. For the most part, I just felt detached and was waiting for the book to be over.

If not for the incredible amount of hype surrounding this book and my own insatiable curiosity, I probably would’ve DNFed around halfway through. I pushed through in hopes that the end would redeem the rest, but it did not. Usually in negative reviews I try to bring up at least a couple of positives, one or two things I liked despite not liking the rest, but here… I can’t think of anything worth mentioning. 🤷🏼

I guess, read this if you want? But I can’t say I recommend it, to be quite honest.

Representation