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4.25 AVERAGE
4.25 AVERAGE
adventurous
challenging
emotional
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
This was pretty good but fell short of the sky-high expectations set by Song of Achilles. Circe is a cool character, but I think the fact that she’s immortal and she’s gliding through thousands of years minimizes some of the intensity of plots for me. And I just didn’t connect with her as much, although I did feel for her and I love that she turned men to pigs and ultimately chose mortality, which makes life much more sweet
adventurous
dark
informative
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Impressively touching/universal/relatable for a book from the perspective of an immortal goddess. Thoroughly enjoyed.
challenging
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I greatly enjoyed this, don't let my rating fool you. It's just that coming on the heels of the emotional devastation that The Song of Achilles wrought in me, this just didn't hit as hard. It was still absolutely delectable, as are all my heavy-hitting feminist Greek mythology retellings are. I love Circe, I love the ending she made for herself after an entire life spent struggling under a patriarchal unending society, and I was only slightly icked by who she ended up with. This is Greek mythology after all. What's an enduring, world-bending love between friends and their sons' half-brothers, right?
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
adventurous
emotional
reflective
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I often found myself quite bored and it took me a veeery long time to read this book.
The writing style really irriated me. I think I would have liked it if the story was interpreted more freely, as then it would have served the pupose of making it feel like a real tale of ancient times, but that way, it just made me feel like I was reading a quite boring, very detailed text in my latin class.
There were some empowering and more modern touches to it, but also lots of missed opportunities: someone, I think it was Cindy, staded in her review that she would have liked it if the nymphs that join Circe on her island would have had their own empowering stories, and I absolutely agree. I would also have loved some more queer representation, not just off-scene or alluded to as it was (there were some comments among the lines of "he grew to a young man who would attract the eyes of both men and women") I personally found it quite boring also because Circe narrated in a very serious way all the way through, Iwould probably have liked a more humorous touch, howerver, that is not the novel's fault but simply serves to show how bad I am at chosing books to read. I should probably have stuck with Percy Jackson.
I sadly did not really care for Circe, I don't really know why. However, I really appreciated her character arc, and I also liked some of the other characters. I thought Odysseus was very well-written, and I loved Telemachus, Dedalus and Penelope.
One thing that reaaly bugged me was that I didn't get the magic system, but that might be my fault. However, I found that the will-thing mentioned in the end that is used to explain why Penelope could become a witch made no sense: Circe stated herself at one point that her sister was a lazy witch, which kind of contradicts the notion of witchcraft being led by willpower, and it would be too much of a coincidence to have three siblings who are each very different all be some of the extremely rare deities to know witchcraft.
The writing style really irriated me. I think I would have liked it if the story was interpreted more freely, as then it would have served the pupose of making it feel like a real tale of ancient times, but that way, it just made me feel like I was reading a quite boring, very detailed text in my latin class.
There were some empowering and more modern touches to it, but also lots of missed opportunities: someone, I think it was Cindy, staded in her review that she would have liked it if the nymphs that join Circe on her island would have had their own empowering stories, and I absolutely agree. I would also have loved some more queer representation, not just off-scene or alluded to as it was (there were some comments among the lines of "he grew to a young man who would attract the eyes of both men and women") I personally found it quite boring also because Circe narrated in a very serious way all the way through, Iwould probably have liked a more humorous touch, howerver, that is not the novel's fault but simply serves to show how bad I am at chosing books to read. I should probably have stuck with Percy Jackson.
I sadly did not really care for Circe, I don't really know why. However, I really appreciated her character arc, and I also liked some of the other characters. I thought Odysseus was very well-written, and I loved Telemachus, Dedalus and Penelope.
One thing that reaaly bugged me was that I didn't get the magic system, but that might be my fault. However, I found that the will-thing mentioned in the end that is used to explain why Penelope could become a witch made no sense: Circe stated herself at one point that her sister was a lazy witch, which kind of contradicts the notion of witchcraft being led by willpower, and it would be too much of a coincidence to have three siblings who are each very different all be some of the extremely rare deities to know witchcraft.
adventurous
emotional
informative
relaxing
fast-paced
adventurous
informative
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes