Reviews tagging 'Toxic friendship'

Circe Excerpt: The First 3 Chapters by Madeline Miller

22 reviews

luminifera's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring 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 absolutely loved it. What a beautiful retelling of the myth. So many details!

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Drug use, Sexual assault, Body horror, Cannibalism, Confinement, Sexism, Emotional abuse, Gore, Grief, Animal death, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Misogyny, Murder, Sexual content, Violence, Bullying, Child death, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual violence, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Gaslighting, Injury/Injury detail, Animal cruelty, Blood, Body shaming, Sexual harassment, Torture, Child abuse, Cursing, Rape, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, and Drug abuse

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, War, Self harm, Infidelity, Addiction, Incest, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pedophilia, Kidnapping, Abandonment, Xenophobia, and Alcohol

It's a heavy book. However, very much worth the read, and

it has a happy ending!

jadehusdanhicks's review against another edition

adventurous challenging 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

4.0

I missed when this was massively trending back during covid but as much as it wasn’t an all time favourite I can admit the hype was for a reason. 

This tale follows the tale of Circe and essentially the stories of her life and the people she meets.  Which is shockingly a lot considering early in the book she gets herself exiled for life to an island.   

Weirdly poetic at times it had some beautiful quotes. 

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Bullying, Confinement, Alcohol, Body shaming, Blood, Death of parent, Grief, Pregnancy, Toxic friendship, Death, Incest, Infidelity, and Murder

jghedyiu23g89i3's review against another edition

inspiring reflective medium-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

4.25

The book was lovely. I flew through it on bus trips and it made the time more enjoyable. I won't spoil the ending, but it made me tear up a bit. I gave it 4.25 stars; it was so beautifully written and I adored the characters.

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Physical abuse, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Death, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, War, Animal death, and Death

siennakt30's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective relaxing slow-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

3.25

---

Content Warnings

Moderate: Emotional abuse, Incest, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Violence, Alcohol, Injury/Injury detail, Sexual content, Toxic friendship, Child death, Death, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Blood, Confinement, and War

miraiyo's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional hopeful inspiring 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

4.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Body horror, Blood, Bullying, Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Gore, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Pregnancy, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Violence, and War

bellebooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional 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

Instant classic.  It's a narrative re-analysis of Circe under a more feminist lens.  Much of Greek and Roman mythology was written by men for men, and in a misogynic society, many of those themes develop:

• The perfect woman cannot exist.  She must suffer and/or die.
• When women have power, especially goddesses, they are monstrous and destructive.
• Praised women take on the name of their male representative (husband, son, father).  Shamed women have their own name.

These themes weave the mythologies together, and it reinforces the notions within the society.

This masterpiece, however, re-examines this myth in particular, looks back at the text with a more careful eye and develops motive.  Many of the mythologies leave this out, highlighting motives based on selfishness and corruption.  However, it ignores or minimizes where those desires come from, how the society itself really is the true villain of every goddess origin story.

This isn't to excuse all of Circe's actions nor any and all women in this book.  It's wonderfully messy and complicated, all shades of gray area.  Miller skillfully shows that the black and white that was so hard pressed in Antiquity is much more muddy than people want to realize, especially as the myths do not exist in a vacuum.

I do hope that this appears as part of the summer reading list for high schoolers.  I would have loved to read this instead of The Great Gatsby, The Scarlet Letter, Oedipus Trilogy, all of which highlight women that are marginalized and victimized because of the society they live in (I have less sympathy for Daisy Buchannan, but that's beside the point).  This book deserves to join the ranks, and I most certainly plan to wear out my copy one reread at a time.

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Grief, Emotional abuse, and Abandonment

Moderate: Bullying, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, and Pregnancy

Minor: Death and War

ambdocksey22's review against another edition

adventurous emotional mysterious tense 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

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Abortion, Adult/minor relationship, Alcohol, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Chronic illness, Colonisation, Cursing, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Genocide, Gore, Grief, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Kidnapping, Miscarriage, Misogyny, Murder, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Racism, Rape, Religious bigotry, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Torture, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Violence, and War

bedtimesandbooks's review against another edition

adventurous dark medium-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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Cannibalism, Child death, Child abuse, Death of parent, Death, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Gore, Grief, War, Vomit, Violence, Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Sexual violence, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Sexism, Rape, Pregnancy, Physical abuse, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

ieryka_magic's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad medium-paced

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

3.75

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Gore, Violence, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Body horror, Cannibalism, Cursing, Toxic friendship, Toxic relationship, Self harm, Rape, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Infidelity, Incest, Grief, Gaslighting, Fire/Fire injury, Emotional abuse, Death of parent, and Death

thetainaship's review against another edition

sad tense slow-paced

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

4.5

---

Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity, Rape, Sexual assault, Misogyny, Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Child abuse, Pregnancy, and Blood

Moderate: War, Toxic friendship, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail