BooksadventureThe Song of Achilles

The Song of Achilles,

Name: The Song of Achilles
Rating: 4.2498718605843155 (1951 reviews)
ISBN: 9780062060617

by Madeline Miller

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Rating4.2/ 5

Ratings1,951

Pages384

Reading Hours8h

Published2011

LanguageEnglish

§Synopsis

"An action-packed adventure, an epic love story, a marvelously conceived and executed page-turner, Miller’s monumental debut novel has already earned resounding acclaim from some of contemporary fiction’s brightest lights—and fans of Mary Renault, Bernard Cornwell, Steven Pressfield, and Colleen McCullough’s Masters of Rome series will delight in this unforgettable journey back to ancient Greece in the Age of Heroes."-- Provided by Amazon

§Our take

Miller hands the Iliad to Patroclus, a minor figure, and the shift lets Achilles's pride and fear of death show through mortal eyes without excusing his selfishness. Publishers Weekly praised the research and singled out Briseis, Iphigenia and Thetis as the novel's strongest characters. The 2012 Orange Prize win was treated as an upset, and the prize's chair Joanna Trollope highlighted its originality and passion. A decade later a viral TikTok clip sent sales soaring again, making the book a flagship example of BookTok reviving backlist titles. Common Sense Media rates it 15+, noting a tender emotional core amid graphic war scenes. The slow, idyllic chapters on Pelion either bore readers or make the final devastation land harder, and the discarded first draft shows how much the voice mattered.

§Themes

Love and war intertwined: This is a love story and a war story at once, and the two keep bleeding into each other as the boys grow up and the war closes in.
Fate and the weight of prophecy: Everyone knows Achilles will die young; the tension comes from how each character meets an unchangeable destiny.
The cost of glory: Achilles's hunger for lasting fame shapes his choices and every relationship around him.
Women's agency in a male world: Thetis, Briseis and Deidamia move the plot despite being treated as prizes.
Narrative voice reshapes myth: Choosing Patroclus as narrator reframes the epic, turning a side note into the emotional center.

§How it was received

Orange Prize chair Joanna Trollope called it original and passionate, and the win was treated as an upset. A 2021 BookTok surge sent sales up again and made the novel a key example of social-media-driven backlist revivals, while Common Sense Media flagged its graphic violence and rated it 15+.

§Read it if

You want a lyrical retelling that centers a queer love story within the Trojan War.
You enjoy a slow, intimate first half that pays off in a devastating final act.
You like seeing a minor mythic figure given a full, human voice.

§Skip it if

You prefer fast-paced battle scenes over long, character-driven buildup.
You dislike a romance that overtakes the political and military scope of the original epic.

§Before you start

Reading experience: The first half unfolds slowly on Mount Pelion before the war accelerates, and the prose is accessible but richly poetic.
Reading order: Standalone; Circe (2018) is a separate standalone by the same author and can be read in any order.
Content notes: Frequent, sometimes graphic war violence, including the sacrifice of a young girl and the killing of an infant in front of his mother; Captive women are enslaved, abused and raped; women are treated as war prizes; A sexual relationship between the two male leads, written with emotional, lush language rather than explicit detail; also heterosexual sex arising from circumstance; Heavy drinking and drunken assaults; occasional strong language; A child's accidental killing, with nightmares afterward; grief and death of central characters.

§Common questions

Is The Song of Achilles a sequel to Circe?: No. Circe is a separate standalone retelling set in the same Homeric world.
Do I need to know the Iliad to read it?: No. The book includes a glossary of gods and mortals for readers new to the myths.
How graphic is the violence and sexual content?: It contains frequent war violence, scenes of sexual assault, a same-sex relationship written emotionally rather than explicitly, and strong language; Common Sense Media rates it 15+.

§If you liked this

Circe by Madeline Miller — Miller's follow-up gives another sidelined figure, the witch Circe, her own first-person epic.
The Silence of the Girls by Pat Barker — Pat Barker retells the same Iliad events from Briseis's perspective, answering the criticism that Song sidelines her.
Wrath Goddess Sing by Maya Deane — Maya Deane offers another queer reimagining of Achilles and the Trojan War, listed alongside Song as a related work.
Fire from Heaven by Mary Renault — Mary Renault's Greek novels center male love and heroic myth, a comparison reviewers repeatedly made.

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Reimagining ancient mythology through modern literary fiction has brought classical Greek narratives to contemporary audiences in accessible, character-driven forms. Madeline Miller achieved widespread recognition with her debut novel The Song of Achilles, which retells Homer's Iliad through the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus and won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction. Her second novel, Circe, reimagines the life of the mythic sorceress from Homer's Odyssey and became a number one New York Times bestseller upon its publication in April 2018.

Career & Background

Born in Boston, Massachusetts, on July 24, 1978, Miller was raised in New York City and Philadelphia. She earned a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts in Classics from Brown University, specializing in Latin and Ancient Greek. Her education also includes studying dramaturgy at the Yale School of Drama, where she focused on adapting classical stories for modern performance, and studying at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. While writing her first novel over a ten-year period, Miller worked as a high school teacher and tutor of Latin, Greek, and Shakespeare, a teaching career spanning over fifteen years. She currently lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Writing Style & Themes

Miller's literary technique combines classical scholarship with dramatic adaptations that center marginalized or mythologically peripheral figures. Her novels and short fiction explore themes of power dynamics, agency, isolation, love, and womanhood by giving voice to figures such as Achilles, Patroclus, Circe, and Galatea. By grounding legendary events in emotional realism and intimate character perspectives, her prose bridges ancient epic tradition and contemporary storytelling.

Major Works

The Song of Achilles — Published as her debut novel following ten years of composition, this novel retells the Trojan War through the romantic bond between Achilles and Patroclus. It won the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction, was shortlisted for the Stonewall Writer of the Year, and received a 2019 Alex Award.
Circe — Published in April 2018, this second novel centers on the exiled sorceress and daughter of Helios featured in Homer's Odyssey. The work reached number one on the New York Times bestseller list and has been translated into forty languages.
Galatea — This short story provides a modern reimagining of the Pygmalion myth, examining independence and objectification from the perspective of the animated marble woman.