The Song of Achilles

 

Author:  Madeline Miller

Begun: Sept 25th 2025

Finished: Sept 30th 2025

Type: e-book on Libby

Narrator: Frazer Douglas

Rating: 10/10

"Patroclus" he said. 

He was always better at words than I.

Oh my gosh. 

Oh my gosh.

This book was so popular I had my doubts.  So often when a book is popular it turns out to be really bad and I hate it (I'm looking at YOU, Crawdads and Evelyn's husbands).

So I reluctantly put this one on hold.  It was available a couple of times but I let the next reader have it first, as I wasn't excited, and was dreading listening to it, tbh. 

Finally, I was all, "FINE" and started listening. 

Within the first two minutes I was hooked.  The Frazer Douglas is an absolutely excellent narrator.  He brought the text to life beautifully.  

And the text...oh my gosh the text.  Pure poetry.  Absolutely beautiful, lyrical, descriptive, magical.  The prose is tight and refined.  From the very first moments I was in love, absolutely in love with the book.  

The narrator is Patroclus, Achilles' lover.  The book begins when 5 year old Patroclus sees Achilles for the first time.  And thus begins the love that Patroclus has for Achilles and his feet.  "His heels flashing pink as licking tongues".  Well that's not erotic at all.  Patroclus really really really liked Achilles' feet.  He mentions them in the first few minutes of the book, they are mentioned numerous times throughout the book, and even after his death, Patroclus is still in love with Achilles' feet.  And with Achilles himself, naturally. 

Their love is depicted so sweet, so tender, so gentle, it makes your heart ache.  There is sex, but it's not explicit.   It's intimate, sensual, achingly tender, but not pornographic. 

This is as explicit as it gets:

"Achilles was looking at me. 

“Your hair never quite lies flat, here.” He touched my head, just behind my ear. “I don’t think I’ve ever told you how I like it.” 

My scalp prickled where his fingers had been. “You haven’t,” I said. 

“I should have.” 

His hand drifted down to the vee at the base of my throat, drew softly across the pulse. “What about this? Have I told you what I think of this, just here?” 

“No,” I said. 

“This surely then.” His hand moved across the muscles of my chest; my skin warmed beneath it. “Have I told you of this?” 

“That you have told me.” My breath caught a little as I spoke. 

“And what of this?” His hand lingered over my hips, drew down the line of my thigh. “Have I spoken of it?” 

“You have.” 

“And this? Surely I would not have forgotten this.” His cat’s smile. “Tell me I did not.” 

“You did not.” 

“There is this too.” His hand was ceaseless now. “I know I have told you of this.” 

I closed my eyes. “Tell me again,” I said.”

The Song of Achilles takes in a 21 year span, from the time Patroclus was 5 to when he was 26.  It details his childhood with his father, and later with Achilles, their teenagehood together, and then them being pulled into the Trojan war, and all the tragedy and grief contained there.  

I got really choked up and teary eyed at the end of the book.  

An absolute masterpiece.  One of the very rare 10/10 books.