Do you want a book that will make you grin until your cheeks hurt? What about one that will make you believe in true love? Or one that will tug your heartstrings? With the recent rise in reading thanks to Booktok and Bookstagram, it seems one can find recommendations for just about any kind of book, from romance, mystery, fantasy, and much more. And across these platforms, the author at the top of everyone’s recommended list appears to be the one and only Madeline Miller. 

With hit novels such as The Song of Achilles and Circe currently taking Booktok by storm, Madeline Miller has been on readers’ radars for quite some time, and with her upcoming book featuring Persephone, goddess of spring, Miller’s popularity is only poised to grow. 

An important quality of Miller’s works that appeals to readers is her retellings of the classic myths that have been so ingrained in our heads. From Achilles and the Trojan War to Circe and the Odyssey, Miller revisions these myths, and tells them from a lesser-known perspective.

Like many others, I was introduced to Madeline Miller through Booktok, more specifically through a compilation entitled ‘books guaranteed to make you cry.’ The challenge that the short 13-second clip presented was too enticing to ignore, and I succumbed to the siren’s lure of Miller’s mesmerizing writing. Luckily, I was able to power through the book without crying. Unfortunately, Ericka Wilson ’24 wasn’t so lucky. As she admitted, “I did end up tearing up at the end, although mainly I was smiling throughout.”

And perhaps it is this emotive quality of Miller’s that has touched the hearts of so many of her readers. The Song of Achilles specifically is renowned for the intense, tear-jerking moments and the emotional turmoil that it incites in readers, winning the 2012 Orange Prize for Fiction and being a frequent New York Times bestseller.  

Some, however, argue that Miller’s retellings take away from the original myths, “stripping down” their meanings into skeletons of what they once were. A New York Times review by Daniel Mendelsohn on The Song of Achilles argues that Miller’s choice to render her novel as a love story “cripples her book…The Iliad has focus and weight because it zeroes in on what is, despite its length, a very narrow subject: Achilles’ wrath, what it stems from and what it means. Because it is cast as Patroclus’ autobiography and concentrates on the love affair, The Song of Achilles necessarily has to start much earlier and then catch up with Homer. The result is an odd disproportion. There’s a lot of time and energy devoted to adolescence but as the action progresses into the territory of established myth — the abduction of Helen, the formation of the Greek armada, the landing at Troy, 10 years of warfare — you feel as if once-famous episodes are rapidly ticked off a list.”

As Tasnim Hossain ’23, president of the Bronx Science Book club shares, “I feel that Madeline Miller’s books are popular due to the fact that her stories aren’t based around the normal major ‘hero’ and the ‘damsel in distress’ characters, but instead are focused on characters that weren’t as relevant in the normal myths. Looking at these characters through multiple perspectives and not as black and white characters makes them less 2D to me and just makes the story all the more enjoyable.”

The Washington Post critic Ron Charles echoes this stance in his review of Miller’s Circe, stating, “the feminist light she shines on these events never distorts their original shape; it only illuminates details we hadn’t noticed before.” 

This new stance may not simply be a quirk of Miller’s, but rather a vital element of revisiting old stories from a modern perspective. Critic Spohie Benbelaid in The Oxford Blue writes, “The Song of Achilles offers a more accessible version of the Iliad for modern audiences, specifically for non-classicists.” To adjust to the modern world, it is not only important to re-envision these myths through a modern lens, but in fact, it is vital to do so. Many of the original myths include topics that are outdated by our current societal standards including depictions of sexism, misogyny, and racial discrimination. The re-envisioning of these myths provides a way for these myths to still be relevant to readers despite the passage of time since their original conception. 

Miller’s works have not only revived an interest in Greek mythology, but they have also paved the way for books featuring people of the LGBTQ community as main characters. An article published in Retrospect Journal reflects on the impact of Miller’s novel The Song of Achilles, ten years after its publication, “The Song of Achilles has been a watershed moment for YA literature. Its immense success showed that books that focused on non-heterosexual storylines geared at a younger audience were just as capable of topping the best-seller charts and winning awards.” 

In the end, as Hossain notes, “Although we may all know the classic mythology stories, Miller includes another component to them that makes people wonder how much we really know about them. I think this is what makes her work so enjoyable and successful, since it makes it seem like mythology is open to interpretation.”

As Tasnim Hossain ’23, president of the Bronx Science Book club shares, “I feel that Madeline Miller’s books are popular due to the fact that her stories aren’t based around the normal major ‘hero’ and the ‘damsel in distress’ characters, but instead are focused on characters that weren’t as relevant in the normal myths. Looking at these characters through multiple perspectives and not as black and white characters makes them less 2D to me and just makes the story all the more enjoyable.”