Book · 2011
The Song of Achilles
by Madeline Miller
Patroclus follows Achilles into the Trojan War, narrating the years it takes to watch the boy he loves become the killer a prophecy always promised.
What does Reddit think of The Song of Achilles?
r/suggestmeabook does the heavy lifting here: 907 of 1029 tracked mentions, against 110 on r/Fantasy and just 12 on r/printSF. It shows up as the default answer whenever someone asks to be wrecked, usually in the same comment as Circe (↑198: "even better than Song of Achilles") or The Book Thief (↑184). The pitch barely varies across threads: first-person Patroclus, the fall of Troy, crying by the last page (↑281: "I cried after reading it"). r/Fantasy supplies the dissent. A ↑313 comment says the reader spent the whole book "wishing for Patroclus to ditch Achilles and find someone that actually cares about him," reading the central romance as one-sided devotion rather than tragedy. Mentions peaked at 245 in 2020 and have dropped every year since, down to 65 in 2025. That's a book Reddit already worked through, not one still spreading into new threads. Miller's other novel trails it into nearly every recommendation, for better or worse.
Community feedback & reader fit
Themes
- · Achilles and Patroclus as an Iliad retelling
- · grief and devotion measured against prophecy
- · the central romance argued over as one-sided
- · paired recommendation with Circe
Common praise
- + r/suggestmeabook reaches for it whenever someone explicitly asks to be wrecked, not just moved (↑281).
- + The first-person Patroclus frame gets credit for making an ending everyone already knows still land.
- + Commenters keep stacking it next to The Book Thief as the other book that reliably made them cry (↑184).
Common criticism
- − A ↑313 r/Fantasy comment reads the central romance as one person staying devoted to someone who barely notices him.
- − Several threads treat it as a package deal with Circe rather than judging it on its own, which buries what's specific to this one.
- − Mentions have fallen every year since the 2020 peak of 245, down to 65 in 2025.
Who it's for
Bring tissues if you already cry at Greek myths knowing exactly how they end. This is for readers who want the romance to be the plot, not a subplot bolted onto a war story. If Circe worked on you, this is the other half of that recommendation; Reddit treats the two as a matched pair more often than as competitors, and r/suggestmeabook's 907 mentions are mostly built on that pairing.
Mentions over time
Top subreddits
Which Reddit comments matter for The Song of Achilles?
Top-upvoted quotes across the subreddits where this book is mentioned. Click through to read the full thread.
“Circe and Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
“In a very quiet whispery voice: *the song of achilles.* I spent the whole book wishing for Patroclus to ditch Achilles and find someone that actually cares about him.
“Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller
“Try *The Song of Achilles* by Madeline Miller! I finished it a couple of days ago and I think it definitely matches what you're looking for (aka I cried after reading it). It's a historical romance depicting the battle of troy and is written in the first-person point of view. Patroclus (the narrato…
“Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell Tigana and anything else by GGK Good Omens/Small Gods/any other Pratchett standalone Watership Down by Richard Adams None of this is particular niche. I know that /r/fantasy did a stand-alone novels poll fairly recently, check the sidebar/wiki. Edit: last poll: h…
“The Song of Achilles.
“I can’t recommend Circe enough. Imo even better than Song of Achilles.
“Surprised no one has mentioned them but {{The Book Thief}} is pretty damn sad. {{The Song of Achilles}} also had me crying at the end
Convinced? Pick up The Song of Achilles
Readers also mention
All books like The Song of Achilles →Books that share discussion threads with The Song of Achilles — counted from the comments, not curated.
Circe
Madeline Miller
An exiled witch on a deserted island turns men into pigs and spends three thousand years deciding what she actually wants.
Uprooted
Naomi Novik
A village girl handed over to a reclusive wizard as tribute turns out to be the only one who can fight the corrupted Wood eating her valley.
The Goblin Emperor
Katherine Addison
An exiled half-goblin prince inherits a throne he never wanted after an airship 'accident' kills his father and half-brothers.
The Three-Body Problem
Liu Cixin
A Chinese radio astronomer's decades-old reply to an alien signal puts Earth on a collision course with an invasion fleet centuries out.
Station Eleven
Emily St. John Mandel
A pandemic collapses civilization and a traveling troupe keeps performing Shakespeare in the wreckage twenty years later.
Project Hail Mary
Andy Weir
A high-school teacher wakes up alone on a spaceship with no memory of how he got there and one job left: save Earth.
The Song of Achilles — frequently asked
Is The Song of Achilles as sad as Reddit says?+
Yes. r/suggestmeabook keeps recommending it in the same breath as The Book Thief (↑184) for readers who specifically want to cry, and a ↑281 comment says exactly that: "I finished it a couple of days ago... I cried after reading it." The 907 mentions on that sub alone suggest the reputation isn't a fluke.
Should I read The Song of Achilles or Circe first?+
Reddit doesn't show a strong order preference; the two get recommended as a set almost every time either comes up, including a ↑198 comment calling Circe "even better than Song of Achilles." Start here for the war story and the ending everyone talks about, or start with Circe for the more forgiving narrator.
Is The Song of Achilles's central romance actually one-sided?+
That's the live disagreement in the data. A ↑313 r/Fantasy comment says the reader wanted Patroclus to leave and find someone who "actually cares about him," reading the relationship as devotion without reciprocity. r/suggestmeabook doesn't raise that objection; it treats the romance as the entire reason to read the book.
Why is The Song of Achilles mostly an r/suggestmeabook book instead of an r/Fantasy one?+
Because it isn't genre fantasy in the way that sub usually means it: a Trojan War retelling with no worldbuilding beyond the gods already in Homer. r/Fantasy's 110 mentions mostly come from standalone-novel list threads. r/suggestmeabook's 907 mentions come from people asking for an emotional gut-punch, which is the request this book answers directly.