The Song of Achilles

5/5 stars “We were like gods at the dawning of the world, and out joy was so bright we could see nothing else but the other.”

For the past three months or so, my heart has been longing for a book such as this. I wanted a fictional book that an action-packed history lesson, but also had LGTBQ themes. Books like this seem pretty hard to come by, and I can only read Rick Riordan's book so much before I had to force myself out of the YA category. I knew I had to get my hands on the Song of Achilles pretty soon. So the second I saw this for only $4 on my local bookstore's Bargain Book section, it was in my basket and ready to go home with me. It only took me a month to make time to read it, which is pretty quick compared to some of the books I have sitting on my bookshelf.

The writing had me sucked in at the first sentence. I instantly longed to know everything about Patroclus and impatiently awaited the appearance of Achilles. When they finally did meet, I then had to wait for the romance to bloom. And as I waited, I became overly attached to every character.

The first half was an easy five stars for me, and I thought the rest of this book would be pretty much around the same rating. Then the middle part happened, up until almost the end, when I felt like nothing new was happening. They fought. A year past. They fought some more. I was getting so bored, skipping over paragraphs in search of something exciting to happen. I was almost on the verge of putting this book down and finishing it a week or so from now, and if it wasn't for the characters I loved so much, I probably would have. The rating went down from 5 stars to 4. I wasn't sure if the book could redeem itself.

But, as you can tell by my rating, the book did. I'm at a lost for words to describe that ending, but it made my heart feel so many things. I don't think I have ever-or will ever-reading a conclusion quite like that. And I loved it. I loved every minute of that ending. It easily brought the rating back up to the 5 stars this book so humbly deserves, and made the middle of this book worth the agony.

My heart is still broken though. I don't know if I can ever find a way to heal it.