The Song of Achilles

Madeline Miller has such a way with language. She makes epic legends both true to their roots, and completely accessible for a modern audience. Part of that is due to the intensely personal connections she draws within these stories. Coming to care about a character, then watching him grow up and fall deeply in love, then seeing the horrible challenges the world sends against that love - it connects much more viscerally than Homer does.

Ultimately this didn't reach 5 stars from me because I wasn't always keen to see what happens next. I guess that's due to a prophecy that comes out about halfway through, and on a meta level because I know the story of the fall of Troy. When I read Circe, I knew the beats from the Odyssey, but there was still a lot of mystery about where the story would go from there. Here, we all know pretty much what's going to happen.

I will say though, that Miller uses a pitch-perfect technique to tie the story together at the end, and I can't deny getting a little weepy (in a good way) at the very end.