book.dreamblog’s Book Reviews!

  The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller  *This review contains spoilers*   Content Warning This review mentions rape.  Introduction  First and foremost, I am not the type of person who feels compelled to give highly popular book glowing reviews just because everyone else does. I have no problem giving my honest opinion on them. I'm giving this novel a good review, not because of the hype, but because I genuinely feel it deserves it.  The Song of Achilles is a Greek mythology retelling by Madeline Miller that covers the events of Homer's The Iliad, but instead of being told from Achilles' perspective, it is told by his companion Patroclus. There has been quite a deal of speculation about the nature of Achilles and Patroclus' relationship as written by Homer--were they really cousins? Were they actually lovers? Or were they simply just really close friends? As far as the actual Iliad goes, I don't suppose we'll ever know, but in The Song of Achilles, Mille...

  Circe by Madeline Miller *This review contains spoilers* Content Warning This review mentions rape. Introduction  I want to preface this review by saying that I read this book concurrent with the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan, which is another Greek Mythology based retelling, just as Circe is. They're not the same, as Percy Jackson is a modern mythology retelling geared towards children and young adults, and Circe is adult literature that actually takes place in the ancient Greek setting. There is some overlap in characters, however.  I'm not sure if it helped me or hurt me to read these two retellings at the same time, but I'm leaning towards helped. The Percy Jackson series often explained who a particular mythological figure was to the reader, and it made it easier for me to understand the story, as I'm not familiar with all the major and minor Greek myth figures. Circe was written in more of an in-universe context that didn't give the reader explanation...

  Percy Jackson and the Olympians by Rick Riordan This review will encompass both individual reviews for the five books in the Percy Jackson series (written by Rick Riordan) and the series review. *This review contains spoilers* Content Warning This review will address the series' subtle explorations of domestic/child abuse. The Lightning Thief The Lightning Thief was truly a great start to a really great series, and it certainly didn't waste any time with the exposition as the first chapter dove headfirst into the story and the initial plot point right away. I would have appreciated (as an adult reader) perhaps a little more time in the exposition, getting to know Percy and his relationships with Grover, his mother, and his horrific stepfather before delving into the Greek mythology of the story. However, I understand that this is a children's/middle grade fantasy story, which means that getting to the action right from the start is probably the best call to hook a young r...