The Song of Achilles

Growing up inhaling fairy tales, mythology, and Victorian Gothic literature naturally set the stage for a teenage obsession with LGBTQ+ retellings of my beloved classics. The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller was the first to perfectly capture this, with its wholesome but heart-wrenching portrayal of the forbidden love between Patroclus and Achilles, against the backdrop of the Trojan War.

For those drawn to the genre of Historical Queer Fiction because it offers affirming representation by challenging dominant narratives, I also recommend later favourites like Fingersmith by Sarah Waters and the TV series Penny Dreadful by John Logan. These works also stand out for their richly detailed historical settings, immersing us in tragic narratives woven through with doomed love stories and characters' struggles with their inner demons, two recurring themes of love and identity that continue to frustratingly resonate with me well into adulthood.

As a teenager, I distinctly recall moments of unabashed sobbing over fictional worlds, from the abrupt ending of Inu Yasha to my first encounter with The Song of Achilles, both testaments to the enduring power of storytelling to elicit raw and visceral reactions. What got you ugly crying when you were younger?