Reviews with content warning for Pedophilia - O Grande Círculo

Check the content warnings before you read this book.

Summarizing this book, or my feelings about it, in one tiny review seems impossible, as it's so big and complex. I'll try nonetheless.

There's the story of Marian Graves, who goes through trauma, multiple sexual awakenings, but stays constant nonetheless; a stubborn, boyish woman who loves to fly. There's the people who surround her, some of whom get their own stories - especially dear Jamie - some of them remain side characters to Marian's.

Then there's the story of this actress - Hadley - who plays Marian in a movie, but also has problems of her own to deal with. Fame, grief, love, scandal, finding a goal in life (no one is as blessed as Marian, after all, with a life direction handed to her on a golden plate (or in an airplane)).

I thought it was interesting, to follow these lives, but I did find myself confused quite often. This because of multiple reasons: the massive amount of characters - their names, their varying agrees of importance to the story and how exactly were they connected to Marian again; the switching timelines, and the timejumps within those timelines; and the writing, which was beautiful, but sometimes unclear on whether it was being literal or figurative.

Also unclear to me, was the meaning of this book. I'm inclined to say it was just a character study; a behind the scenes on these two women's lives and the extra mile they have to walk to achieve the same things a man can with half the effort, the trauma they have to go through, both emotionally and physically. But then why would you write this dual timeline, why not just focus on Marian, who was interesting enough on her own? Maybe it was a way of showing the discrepancies that can exist between a real life and the way outsiders view it. Oftentimes the script of the movie they're producing in modern times, doesn't rhyme with what actually happened. Take for example the (spoiler?) sapphic love affair Marian has with someone she meets during the war. Society is so eager to paint her as a straight woman that they choose to ignore this very real part of her.

That does bring me to one critique, though: the only lesbian mentioned in this book gets killed off relatively quickly after we get to know her. I get that it was necessary to the ending of the book, but damn, it's 2022, we've had enough of seeing lesbians die in media.

Content Warnings

empeddle's review against another edition

Go to review page

adventurous emotional inspiring mysterious reflective sad 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

4.0

Very good, liked the book but was a little underwhelmed towards the end. It felt very similar to The Seven husbands of Evelyn Hugo (the two women definitely give off those vibes).

Content Warnings