Across North America, flocks of birds hurl themselves into airplanes, causing at least a dozen to crash. Thousands of people die. Fearing terrorism, the United States government grounds all flights, and millions of travelers are stranded.
Reese and her debate team partner and longtime crush David are in Arizona when it happens. Everyone knows the world will never be the same. On their drive home to San Francisco, along a stretch of empty highway at night in the middle of Nevada, a bird flies into their headlights. The car flips over. When they wake up in a military hospital, the doctor won’t tell them what happened, where they are—or how they’ve been miraculously healed.
Things become even stranger when Reese returns home. San Francisco feels like a different place with police enforcing curfew, hazmat teams collecting dead birds, and a strange presence that seems to be following her. When Reese unexpectedly collides with the beautiful Amber Gray, her search for the truth is forced in an entirely new direction—and threatens to expose a vast global conspiracy that the government has worked for decades to keep secret.
My thoughts: I’m still struggling to explain how I feel about this book. I really haven’t read a story this stunning since The Fault in Our Stars came out. It reminds me that there are two ways I read a book. One way or one type of book causes me to feel my head with questions. What’s going to happen? Why would he/she do that? How did they pull that off? In this case I’m trying to be a part of the world. And these types of questions come from anticipation or frustration. I’m either excited about what’s going to happen, or annoyed about what’s already happened (or not happened) and confused about what’s going to happen.
The Song of Achilles isn’t in this category. It’s one of those books that I just let immerse me. I have no questions (or at least no questions I really need answered), and nothing specifically stands out because none of the aspects of the book are lacking. The writing is exquisite yet harsh, the story vivid. And the characters are multifaceted (except for Agamemnon, he’s just a straight up jerk). And this book also made me look at a lot of characters (especially Achilles) differently. Except for the first time I saw the trailer for Troy (with Brad Pitt), I’d really never given him too much thought. Not to mention Patroclus.
In fact, this book has made me want to give other characters from Greek mythology another look, because everyone has a story to tell. We might not get to hear it, but that doesn’t mean it’s not important or that the person wasn’t (once) important to someone at some point. The world is filled with people like Achilles and Patroclus, and only time will tell who will be remembered and uplifted, and who will be unappreciated and misunderstood.
Also, JUST GO READ IT!... Thanks.
