Eine sehr schöne Geschichte 🏛️

this is not fun if you can’t memorise Greek names

‚Ich würde dich in völliger Dunkelheit erkennen, wenn du stumm wärst und ich taub. Ich würde dich in einem anderen Leben vollständig wiedererkennen, in anderen Körpern, zu anderen Zeiten. Und ich würde dich in all dem lieben, bis der allerletzte Stern am Himmel in Vergessenheit geraten würde.‘ Eine besondere Geschichte über tiefe Liebe & Freundschaft, bis über den Tod hinaus.

This review is very difficult to write, because I am gonna try to explain, why I cried in the end even though I didn't like the characters that much and couldn't emotinally connect with them. Lets start with the characters. Achilles was very likeable in the beginning, because he didn't want glory and wealth, but love and friends. He didn't show off his abilities and put himself before others, but beside them as an equal. He seemed like someone you should have as a friend. This is when he met Patroclus for the first time and who can blame the guy to fall for this perfect Achilles? He was drwan to him as anybody else was and I totally got that and loved to see their relationship evolve with them. With Patroclus I had a whole other experience than with Achilles. I didn't like him in the beginning, because he seemed to care so little about himself and cowered before others. He gave up so early in his life and just didn't fight back. I was so frustrated with him! When Achilles took an interest in him he didn't even change. He still didn't quite like himself and wanted to be left alone by everybody other than Achilles. Even knowing this about the boys, I couldn't connect with them, because everything was described and written so distantly. I knew what they wanted and sometimes what they felt (mostly of Patroclus though), but couldn't feel it. I had problems understanding why they chose to do what they did, sometimes it was totally unreasonable (chapter 13!) Then the war came and everything changed - including the characters. Firstly, there were now more characters to consider, which helped the story to develop further, beyond Achilles and Patroclus. I liked the story in the second half of the book a lot better, because there just happend more and I am a big fan of action. I didn't need a conection to the characters to understand the war and the decisions made. But Achilles changed for the worse, while Patroclus grew into a role where he saw more to himself and defended his relationship with Achilles and other he bonded with. I just couldn't understand what he still saw in Achilles. But sometimes love is not reasonable, so I won't critizise it (I just didn't get it). The writing style was exquisite if a little distant. Perfect to describe the story and the war and to make me feel like I lived thrrogh Troy. But not perfect to describe a realationship on an emotional level. The End made me cry a lot. Because I didn't see it coming. Knowing the story of Troy I should have, but I didn't. The last few chapters took me apart, because it felt so real to me and I didn't have to understand all of the characters decisions to understand this one. I would recommend this book only to advances english readers and to lovers of greek gods and their legends and heros.

Ich liebe dieses Buch, aber weiß nicht so ganz wieso. Während dem lesen, hatte ich auch nicht immer das Gefühl, dass es mich umhaut, aber als ich das Buch geschlossen habe, darüber nachgedacht und "Archilles Come Down" auf Dauerschleife angemacht habe, hat es irgendwie Klick gemacht und ich hab es richtig angefangen zu lieben. Defintiv hat ein großer Teil das Ende dazu beigetragen. Es hat mich einfach so so glücklich gemacht, dass alles aufgegenagen ist. Es war poetisch, emotional und traurig. Weil ich es während dem Lesen und danach so unterschiedlich eingestuft habe bekommt es von mir auch zwei Bewertungen. Lesen: 4 Sterne Nachhinein: 5 Sterne