as they say: screaming, crying, throwing up

My GOD the finale was the best one, I am obsessed, I have no words.

Perfection.

This was my first time reading a graphic novel - I found it alright. I read this in one sitting because it was highly cute and because there were very few words. I wish we had more, but I understand that’s not how graphic novels work.

Bookstagram is absolutely obsessed with Heartstopper and I think I’ll have to read the rest of the series to fully understand why. It ended on much more of a cliff hanger than I expected!

The author does a wonderful job capturing all the pining and the yearning looks, she is very adept at conveying a lot of emotion with not very complex drawings.

I very much look forward to hunting down the rest of the series at the library and then watching the Netflix adaptation.

This is a hard book for me to rate because everyone on the internet is absolutely obsessed, and also it’s a rare day that I read mythology/historical fiction. So going in I had relatively high hopes but also knew this was not my genre of choice, so take my review with a grain of salt.

Let’s start my saying this: Madeline Miller has gorgeous prose. No doubt about it. So many phrases literally had me pausing to say “nice.” For instance, the one that particular struck me was: “I shift, an infinitesimal movement, towards him. It is like the leap from a waterfall. I do not know, until then, what I am going to do. I lean forward and our lips land clumsily on each other. They are like the fat bodies of bees, soft and round and giddy with pollen. I can taste his mouth, hot and sweet with honey, and dessert.”

However, the lyrical prose is most of the positives I can say about The Song of Achilles. Perhaps had it not been so hyped I would not be let down, waiting to be absolutely devastated as everyone promised me. I shed no tears. I felt no devastation.

The first 60% of the plot took so long to get through because literally nothing happened. A lot of elaborate, prettily written descriptions of a rich Greek elite’s day. Lots of ripened juicy figs, lots of mentions of Achilles’ golden hair in the sunlight.

Things picked up during the start of the war, but really it was only the last 20% of the book that contained the bulk of the plot. This is a Greek tragedy so the last 20% unravels exactly like that Tik Tok audio “oh no. oh no. oh no no no no no.”

Also, my feelings would absolutely change for my partner if he ultimately refused to put aside his pride in the way Achilles chose. Achilles was deemed the greatest warrior of his generation who could turn the entire tide of the war that had been ongoing for 10 years, but his pride/reputation was more important than the lives of countless men that he had personally befriended/championed???

I understand these two were in a difficult catch-22 situation. There was no right decision. Either way they would’ve ended in tragedy. But I’m with Briseis at the end, who told Achilles that he knew what would happen when he agreed to Patroclus’ terms. How could he not? It was so obvious. We all knew. We all knew and yet Achilles felt that was a risk worth taking. And he was surprised at the result?? How.

I know the story of the Trojan War is separate from SOA/Madeline Miller but I was also extremely annoyed at how many people had to die for Menelaus’ pride. There was a 10+ year war AND FOR WHAT!! Why are men like this. Not much has changed today, unfortunately.

Anywho, that’s why I’m rating SOA 3 stars and will not be reading Circe. I read this because I wanted queer mythology and I got that. It’s always a nice reminder that queer people have existed as far back as human history goes, and have not only been a part of history but also have made it.

Ok I have updated my review because at first I was 4.5 stars rounded up but upon reflection I am rounding down.

I’m new to graphic novels but really enjoyed this one! Based on the cover/name I thought it might MG/YA but it’s new adult and definitely deals with some adult topics (more in passing than explicitly).

The art was really well done, I liked the color schemes for each character.

Overall, cute and warm, and will inspire me to read more graphic novels!

Very cute. A bit heavy handed in the morals/key takeaways.

I think this is supposed to be a bit of a love triangle but it feels very clear that Hana is not into Bryan at all because all she does is complain about him. He honestly doesn’t seem that bad for a young internationally famous K-pop idol but Hana is NOT having it. To be clear, I’m not a Bryan stan but Hana made it sound like he was the absolute worst when in reality he was merely alright.

Because all Hana did was complain about Bryan, it was clear immediately when Minjee was introduced that they would be the ones falling in love, even if it took Hana a while to realize it.

I loved I’ll Be The One, and enjoyed Flip the Script.

I was unprepared to write such a long review but it turns out I had a LOT of thoughts.

THINGS I LIKED:
It took me far too long to realize in the paperback whenever we read Esme’s perspective she uses the appropriate accent marks on all the Vietnamese (including Quan and Khai) when it’s Khai’s perspective he doesn’t use them. This makes perfect sense with how they think of the world, and it was a nice touch.

Honestly this entire series made me think about how great Quan is, he did so much to help his brother and he was even going to marry Esme and was around for Stella and gave Michael a lot of shit. I loved that he was so open about things, giving Khai his sex manuals (shoutout to Quan for owning and clearly thoroughly reading She Comes First), talking Khai through whatever he needed, etc.

Loved the relationship between the cousins/brothers, how open they were with each other, how funny, how very present and loving they were.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE
I wish the side female characters were much more fleshed out - I noticed this in The Kiss Quotient as well, all of the sisters are merely present in the room or used to asking the probing questions so the protagonists can further fall in love but for how well written all the male cousins are, I was surprised.

In the first book there are constant references to their mom being mean/yelling a lot but in this book that is never mentioned? She was a bit controlling in the beginning by literally surprising her son with a woman who was going to move in him but other than that she was quite welcoming to/always brought Khai plenty of food/etc.

Also I entirely forgot about these two hanging plot points until just now: the whole time Khai wonders why Esme speaks in Vietnamese only to him (it’s mentioned a minimum of four times) and also all of Khai’s family alludes to how wealthy he is/that he’s a big time boss as his company but Esme thinks he’s just a regular worker bee and she doesn’t know what his family means, and yet neither of these points are ever addressed or resolved.

Now, let’s talk about this ending. It was simply too convenient - suddenly Esme’s dad shows up right in the nick of time (after receiving ONE voicemail from a stranger??) to see the wedding, suddenly Khai meets Esme’s daughter whom she NEVER mentioned and doesn’t question why Esme never told him a single thing about her?? And then four years later in the epilogue Esme graduated summa cum laude from Stanford AND her parents are married???? All of that seems simply implausible and it happened for too quick compared to the pacing of the rest of the book.

QUOTE
I really liked this quote of Esme realizing her value: “She wasn’t rich, classy, or smart, but she wasn't something you could use once and toss away. She had value. You couldn't see it in the clothes she wore or the abbreviations after her name or hear it in the way she
spoke, but she felt it, even if she didn't entirely understand where it came from. It pounded inside her chest, big and strong and bright. She deserved better than this.”

RATING
I was on the verge of rating this as 5 stars until the very end, where it far too conveniently wrapped up, so it was bumped down to 4. Overall, it’s decent. Based on this review I seemed to have only pointed out the bad things, but I actually did enjoy this book. I will be quite excited to read Quan’s story next.

LOVE