Hello all! Welcome back!
Today’s post is about a book: The Song of Achilles. It’s about the Greek mythology hero Achilles, but the point of view is from his ‘companion’ Patroclus. Honestly this book is really amazing, and it's definitely one of my favourites.
The book basically is Patroclus telling his life story, so obvious it starts with him. However it does quickly, like within some chapters, introduces Achilles into Patroclus’ life. If any of you know Greek myth, then you might know what’s going on, but along with being Greek myth the book also has the friends to lovers trope. So Achilles and Patroclus do get together, but it's slow and sweet. Even the ending is absolutely amazing. Honestly the writing of the whole book is so well done, you can feel the emotions, the yearning, the love. And the story as well is so soft and deep, and the love feels pure and rich.
So the book shows Achilles’ and Patroclus’ life together. Achilles chooses Patroclus as his companion, what that means is that Patroclus is basically like Achilles’ brother, advisor, friend, all of that. They grow up together, they learn together, they value each other in their life, and eventually they fall in love. Of course, every love story has it’s obstacles and a big one for them is Achilles’ mother- a sea nymph- who really hates Patroclus. Another obstacle is also the Trojan War. We know the Greeks win that, but there are always great losses suffered in any war, and so is true for Patroclus and Achilles. I do want to give one spoiler that they do end up together, but just not in the way that is generally shown. The ending is a little bittersweet, yet beautiful.
Something I love about this book is the internal struggle that we see Patroclus go through with his feelings for Achilles. He knows that he can’t act on them, the boy he loves is a demigod, but he also can’t help them. Patroclus knows that he shouldn’t but he can’t not be with Achilles, he needs to be with Achilles, he needs to belong to Achilles. And we get to see just that. The love these two boys have for each other is so earth shatteringly deep, it's almost inconceivable. But it's there and it is beautiful. They would do anything for each other and they do, and while it’s heartbreaking it’s also really amazing too. I have never read or watched anything with the love that Achilles and Patroclus share. The story that this book tells is about totally unadulterated love.
SAPPINESS SCALE: SAPPY AND MOPEY
Thanks for reading!
Ju
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