DNF-ed at like 75% 'cause the characters haven't changed or grown and at this point I'm too disappointed to finish the novel, Which makes me really sad because there were some good story ideas there.


Also why does everyone call this novel joyful when every other page is about the main character's traumas ?

3.25/5

I wanted to love this one so much more than I do...

From the very first page, I had problems with the writing style - which is, unfortunately, clunky, tedious to read and almost made me give up entirely. The constant perspective shifts throughout the book could have been fun, but instead were confusing due to the heaviness of the writing. Not to mention the constant - and I mean constant - slurs and crassness throughout. I understand that we are experiencing this story through Katrina's eyes, who has a lot of internalized transphobia to unpack and who is dealing with more than any of us will ever understand - but did we really have to keep talking about people watching a 17-year-old cum?

The plot, while initially sounding right up my alley - I mean, this is a book about music, about a violinist, I spent 8 years of my life doing just that, how could I not love it? - is just boring. And it really shouldn't be, not with a music teacher whose soul is sold to the devil, her search for her special 7th student, and a literal alien family in the mix for good measure, but I just wasn't taken it by any of it. Speaking of, Lan's story line was completely out of left field to me? It changed the tone of the book so much and didn't mesh well with the more "classical", for lack of a better world, atmosphere of Shizuka and Katrina's world. I understand that we needed a spaceship so Shizuka could avoid being eternally damned, but it needs to make sense in the world/book, and to me it just... didn't.

Very sad that this one didn't work for me.

This had a lot going for it, in theory: Achilles as a trans woman, with a heavy focus on the gods. Very cool ideas, and decent execution, but man, did I ever find it challenging to actually get into a lot of this.

Part of that was because of the writing - while beautiful, it wasn't always very accessible. While I mentioned the focus on the gods being a tick in the "pros" column, those passages were difficult to get through for the first half of the book, until I got more adjusted to the style, I think. The repetition of each god's dozen names didn't always help. I found that cool, to be fair, but I would be lying if I said my eyes didn't glaze over somewhat.

The other part that made it hard for me personally to get into?



The fact that I actually felt the need to make that while reading should tell you how distracting I found hot!Agamemnon. But not like, distracting in a hot way. Let's be very clear about that.

Regardless, I do think this was a cool book and overall well-done, even if a lot of pieces didn't click with me personally. I can't say I liked any of the characters - there were chapters, even in the last quarter of the book, where I remember thinking to myself that I fucking hated Achilles, which is not a good sign - mainly because I feel like I didn't really get to know many of the characters beyond some shallow traits that were all related to their relationships with Achilles. But they did have a lot of potential!

I'll end on a positive note: the second-last chapter was easily the weirdest and best of the book.

Oh, wait, I lied about ending on a positive note because I would be remiss not to mention the other constant thing that bothered me throughout (second to Agamemnon): the horse inaccuracies.