Reviews with content warning for Medical content - Circe Excerpt: The First 3 Chapters

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Circe Excerpt: The First 3 Chapters by Madeline Miller

55 reviews

laurajeangrace's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

3.75

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alexisgarcia's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective 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

5.0

This book was amazing. I read Madeline Miller’s phenomenal The Song of Achilles and had to get more. Her prose is so lush and beautiful. I’ve never read writing like hers. It reignited the love I have for greek mythology and especially retellings. It is such a fun and entertaining read and I would definitely recommend.

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tinybluepixel's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

5.0

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tabbybabbles's review against another edition

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dark mysterious sad slow-paced

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

4.25

Was really well written, but felt slow. Redeemed by the fact that I still couldn’t put it down.

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poubelleboi's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional tense slow-paced

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

4.25

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aardwyrm's review against another edition

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emotional reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, Not Like Other Girls special edition. I am not a purist who requires active protagonists or that plot twists be a huge shock every time, but Circe does, chooses, and changes more or less nothing over the course of her thousands of years, and every story beat (always accomplished or at least catalyzed by someone else) is broadcast in big neon letters. 75% of the story is Circe sitting around waiting for someone more interesting to come tell her a bit about some more interesting Greek myth that's happening, at which point she will take no action. The last bit is her mildly annoying Athena, very belatedly fixing a couple of her own mistakes that she could have addressed at any time, and making it clear that being a wife and mother is the only thing an immortal, magical being could possibly be doing with her time. Like Jane Eyre before her, she describes herself at length as ugly and unloved and troublesome, and then a succession of strangers walk in to tell her she's beautiful and adored and also she never meaningfully troubles anybody.

I don't know, the prose is pretty good. But there's no meaningful reimagining of any of the myths, or even drawing from unusual sources. Individual scenes have emotional weight, but then Circe's passive whingeing has the same stakes and pacing all through the book, so they never actually mean anything. She periodically declares herself to be much better than last time she made the same choice, which is kind of like character development. Altogether, style but no substance, the sort of thing you get when someone who doesn't know their genre reinvents the wheel and it comes out square.

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lavenderbluestories's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This book was an EXPERIENCE. At first, I was a bit skeptical because I could tell it was going to be very dramatic, and I was afraid the characters wouldn’t be relatable enough for me. But as I read on, I become fully enraptured with Circe’s world.

The titular character turned out to be someone who I sympathized with a lot, and she was such a strong, independent character despite her repressive position and all the powerful men who came into her life trying to subdue her.

I often find powerful women in books are portrayed as unlikeable and ruthless, and although Circe is certainly ruthless, her inner monologue offered a fascinating perspective that made me root for her throughout the whole book.

The progression of the story was super unique- it didn’t follow one plot line, but instead told many different stories of people who drifted in and out of Circe’s life. It was an refreshing take on the concept of immortality. So often, immortal characters mention one or two defining events over hundreds of years, and it leaves you wondering what the rest of it was filled with. Circe dictated what it was like to watch entire generations born and gone over and over again, intertwined with stories of people who touched her life in a matter of days. The timeline was twisting and turning, and I think that was what made me absolutely smitten with this book. Definitely worth a read!

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