The Song of Achilles

4.5 stars seems like a good number.

I have just spent like half an hour trying to quench any tears that could fall so I didn't cry on the bus. I hate how Patroclus never got any peace for like a year, I hate Achilles' bratty child. Like you're twelve, go sit down and play with some toys or something. I loved Thetis' arc once she spent time with Patroclus and looked into his memories and finally realised what Achilles spent most of his life trying to tell her.

I most of all love how this book was written, it gave us the childhood of Patroclus and then moved into his friendship with Achilles that morphed into something more, finally ending on irony. While Patroclus was never meant to amount to anything, he did in a way. He killed the 2nd best warrior on the Trojan side and took up Achilles' role perfectly until the unavoidable. He was the one in the prophecy, the best of the Myrmidons.
Achilles was numb to death, utterly numb until he saw Patroclus and then he was fed on revenge. He was never meant to be a killer, not all warriors are it seems. His mortality, his love, was enough to hold him back until it was the only driving force. But then, here comes the ironic part, it was prophecised that he would die yet he didn't want to until Patroclus died. Once Hector was killed, he fought only to die.