Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Circe by Madeline Miller

116 reviews

abicaro17's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

4.25

I really enjoyed this book! I think getting to know Circe more intimately and engaging in her story as one piece instead of the fragments created an engaging and creative 400 pages. Circe is both likable and unlikable, blunt and evasive, rude and considerate, caring and unfeeling, and selfish and selfless. She evolves from a naive doormat into a strong and wise witch. I wish I could give this 5 stars but it falls flat for me. I didn't need a battle or a death but I feel like the disconnect from other characters and how flat everyone else seemed made it hard to care about the ending. I dislike comparing books (especially when they aren't actually connected) but, after reading Millers other greek retelling, this feels like an emotional let down. Not sure if my expectations were too high or if this just didn't deliver. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Violence, Alcohol, Blood, Child abuse, Grief, War, Medical content, Murder, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Bullying, Classism, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Gaslighting, Sexism, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Death, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Abandonment, Gore, and Toxic relationship

vvabecca's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Cannibalism, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Infidelity, Toxic relationship, War, Emotional abuse, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Physical abuse, Rape, Violence, Abandonment, Alcohol, Colonisation, Animal death, Body shaming, Child death, Confinement, Death, Genocide, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Body horror, Bullying, Incest, Pregnancy, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Stalking, and Torture

chaptersandscribes's review

emotional hopeful reflective sad 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

4.5

Loved this book. Let with a burning love for women and feminist strength. Built excellently on existing mythology without depending on the source material or creating a new world. Made me consider the treatment of female figures in mythology in a different light. Immediately sent me searching for similar works and other novels by Miller.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying and Toxic relationship

Moderate: Suicidal thoughts and Sexual assault

peachani's review against another edition

challenging dark sad medium-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Body horror, Grief, Confinement, and Bullying

Moderate: Death of parent, Toxic relationship, Violence, Gore, Torture, Mental illness, Rape, Death, Emotional abuse, and Animal cruelty

Minor: Alcohol, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Incest, Sexual content, Body shaming, Alcoholism, Toxic friendship, Misogyny, Abandonment, Animal death, Blood, Infidelity, Xenophobia, Slavery, and War

lilureads's review against another edition

emotional hopeful inspiring reflective slow-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

4.0

Such a fascinating story

I loved reading about Circe’s life, or rather Madeline Miller’s version of it. Miller has a wonderful writing style and weaves her retellings in a refreshing and captivating way. The story’s pace is very slow and it took me a while to get through the book but I still found myself thoroughly enjoying it. Although

I did have some grief with the choice of making Circe smash her stepson… they don’t share blood and he’s like 30 but it’s still weird to me…

I loved Circe’s humor, it comes up on rare occasions but they were very fun additions.

How she talks to her father at the end is truly wonderful such a girlboss

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Physical abuse, Rape, Misogyny, Emotional abuse, Gore, Toxic relationship, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexism, and Murder

Moderate: Death of parent

author_d_r_oestreicher's review

adventurous emotional 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

5.0

 

Circe by Madeline Miller is the ultimate coming-of-age story. Circe, an immortal, first steps out on her own when she defies her father Helios and god Zeus to give comfort to Prometheus. Later, she offended Zeus by transforming Scylla (of Scylla and Charybdis fame) into a six-headed monster. For these forays into independence, she was exiled, where she became the witch of Aiaia. She did not learn her lesson and continued to defy the gods. She experienced the other side of coming of age when she became mother to Telegonus (her son with Odysseus). Thus, the author explores coming of age with the intertwined stories of mother and child. Caveat: It helps to be familiar with Greek mythology, Minoans, and Homer to follow this book. 

 

For my extended notes: https://1book42day.blogspot.com/2024/02/circe-by-madeline-miller.html 

“As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases.” 

Check out https://amzn.to/3vfHVqc to see my books. 

Check out https://amazon.com/shop/influencer-20171115075 for book recommendations. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Toxic relationship, Death of parent, Grief, Rape, Physical abuse, and Sexism

ankiaisreading's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring relaxing tense 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

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Torture, Child abuse, Child death, Emotional abuse, Murder, Body horror, Abandonment, War, Violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Rape, Alcohol, Blood, Gaslighting, Toxic relationship, Death, and Animal death

akevaa's review

emotional reflective medium-paced

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

4.0

A coming of age book for a goddess spanning thousands of years. Great read in general; deals with the complexity of human nature and what it means to be yourself.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Blood, Sexual content, Fire/Fire injury, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, War, and Violence

Minor: Rape

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous challenging inspiring mysterious reflective 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? It's complicated

4.0

oh that was delectable.

ok so i will admit. i am a baby greek mythology consumer. before this i knew barely anything - i knew of the minotaur, and “read” the odyssey last year (no i didn’t i got 30 pages in and closed it and then pretended i read it for my year 12 literature class…. i ate that essay up)

anyways i can solemnly say this book has actually turned me into a greek mythology lover. wow did i love the way miller wrote.

her writing seems to have this lyrical quality of it that seems like she herself is immortal, like circe. honestly i could read her work for days.

also the way she made some stories beginner friendly? chefs kiss.

i was so enthralled in circe’s life, i couldn’t stop thinking about her. granted my insanity for the twilight series was unmatched, but i have banned myself from twilight for a while. and in the meantime circe has taken its place in my noggin.

god i cant gush about this book enough

now the question is…. why is it only a four star?

i found this so ooo ooo o fucking hard to read for like the first 150 pages. not because it’s boring! oh no! because it reads like i’m trying to read an untranslated bible. granted it works for the book! if it was written any other way i would be a little bitch about it! but the reason i dnf’d the odyssey wasn’t because i was bored, but because the writing style was like trying to read 30 layers of subtext in one sentence. this book had less of that, but i would spent ages reading a page. i’d say i’m a quick reader, but genuinely i would spend 5 minutes on each page. like just having to wrap my head around some of the phrasing being used made my noggin want to explode. i think over time i will get used to it if i keep reading books in this same style (is style the right word idk), but for this being my first book of its kind it was a doozy!

anyways shout out to medea what a bad bitch.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Rape, Murder, Sexual assault, and Alcohol

Moderate: Incest, Toxic relationship, Physical abuse, Blood, War, Infidelity, Child death, Misogyny, and Medical trauma

jennaniho's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

I knew I was going to like this book, but I didn’t know I was going to absolutely love it. Miller’s writing style and prose made it hard for me to put this book down, though I had to from time to time; some chapters were deeply emotional, triggering, and brutally honest. 

Being the eldest daughter, I felt an instant connection with Circe. Her unwavering resilience, the way she slowly embraced her inner fire and untamed spirit, her determination to persist in the face of adversity, her inevitable mistakes, her worries, her fears, and her love —all contribute to making Circe a heroine defined by herself. Also, anyone who is bold enough to stand up against the Olympian gods and the Titans on their own, will always have a special place in my heart. 

With Circe, Madeline Miller shows us that women have been their self-made heroes since the beginning of time, and it is our divine right and power to create our lives under our rules alone. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Torture, Sexual assault, Abandonment, and Child abuse

Moderate: War, Gaslighting, Emotional abuse, Body horror, Grief, Death of parent, Animal death, Blood, and Hate crime