Reviews tagging 'Misogyny'

Circe by Madeline Miller

347 reviews

squil's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious reflective sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I thought this book was going to be a five star, blow me out of the water. Expectations were too high going in. I still enjoyed the book though and will continue reading Madeline Miller. She is a fantastic storyteller and can make her readers feel connected to mythology. 
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eni_iilorak's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
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thereadinghammock's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I think if I had tried to read this book as a physical or e-book, I would have put it down after a few chapters. Circe's early life was harsh, demeaning, and lonely feeling constantly othered by her family for her powerlessness. Perdita Weeks made this story engaging, heartfelt, and empowering as Circe grew in her power. I was overall pretty unfamiliar with her mythos and was able to enjoy how her story fit in with so many other classic Greek myths that I did grow up hearing about.
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saucy_bookdragon's review

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emotional reflective sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

”I thought: I cannot bear this world a moment longer.
Then, child, make another.”

I had a similar experience rereading Circe to my reread of This Is How You Lose the Time War. Both are books I read in July 2020 and found meh initially, I reread both of them in 2023, leading to them both becoming favorites!

It helped that I reread Circe for a mythology in literature class and so had to really sit with the story and discuss it with a great class (unpopular opinion: sometimes assigned reading is fun). This time, I found it to be a beautiful and emotional look into Greek mythology. Circe as a character is so well developed, I couldn’t help but empathize with her. In a way, she weirdly resonated with me. Especially in how this discusses mundanity and attempts to claim oneself.

Madeline Miller was extremely thoughtful in how she portrayed Circe, her slowburn arc across centuries, dealing with her own sadness and loneliness and the misogyny of immortals. I love how she really looked at the characters of the myths, especially in portraying immortality and how being unchanged throughout centuries would make the gods stagnant and selfish. The writing is also gorgeous, my copy has an insane amount of quotes tabbed. It's poetic and intentional, the beauty fleshing out this world and characters.

After rereading it, I’m kind of kicking myself for not fully getting it the first time. It goes to show that sometimes once is not enough to understand a story. Circe is an intelligent character study into one of Greek mythology’s infamous villainesses, patching her myths together to show her as someone far more complex in order to question women’s place in Greek mythology.
 
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certifiedpizza's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

millennia contained within an hourglass, paired with the occasional slap to the face with a fish.
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kariahkincaid's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative inspiring reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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ts_anne13's review against another edition

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dark emotional informative mysterious medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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beamingviolet11's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional hopeful reflective 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

4.25

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fox_at_the_circus's review against another edition

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emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad 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? It's complicated

4.25

There is a really good message about mastering your own fate in this book. Seeing Circe grow and learn and master her power was really satisfying and inspiring. The relationships she has throughout the book and how they change was really well written. I especially loved the relationship she has with her son, it really showed how much she grew and also healed from her childhood and trauma.
I also enjoyed seeing a bit about the gods' politics and scheming. This book covers so many greek myths, mostly from an outsider's (Circe's) perspective. It felt really nice whenever I recognised a name/myth.
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kt2e56's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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? It's complicated

5.0

This was such a beautiful piece of literature to read both in its language and how images were painted for us but in how it made such an epic scope of stories we’ve heard time and time again feel so personal and intimate. Ugh, I already want to read it again and I’m already wishing I can read it for the first time all over again. I hope this one remains a classic and as integral to Circe’s story as the original myths themselves.
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