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A review by faimt28
Circe by Madeline Miller
4.0
Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ (maybe 3.5-3.75?)
TW: rape
Circe is a retelling of the story of the witch from The Odyssey, although I never read the Odyssey, I just know parts of the story, so I couldn't tell you how different this is from the original myths, and thus my review is in the eyes of someone who had no idea who Circe is, and just recognized some of the well known Greek mythological stories (Daedalus and Icarus, Odysseus, Medea, the Greek gods and titans). Phew that was a run on sentence haha.
Also this was one of my @bookofthemonth books and I’m so happy I got it I love book of the month (ps I have a referral code for a $5 book in my bio)
Anyway! This was a great book, though it took a little while to grow on me. I'm glad I didn't give up on it, though I considered it around 35%.
The story of Circe starts out from when she is young, a nymph who doesn't seem to have power or beauty, and thus is not particularly liked or loved by anyone. She instead turns her focus to mortals, and as a result finds out she is a powerful witch. When this truth comes to light, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island for the rest of time, where she works on her witchcraft and comes across all those mythological characters I mentioned.
The thing I loved the most about this story was to see the progression of Circe and how she grows as a person through hundreds of years. I don't want to say too much more because spoilers! But the ending was worth it.
Some other thoughts:
* I'm not sure this book would be very well liked by someone who is very familiar with Greek mythology, but for someone like me who doesn't know much beyond things discussed in Percy Jackson, the story is very new and exciting
* It is a little difficult to get past the middle-ish section but I encourage you to stick through with it
* The plot line of this story is messy, as it spans through the centuries of the life of a immortal goddess, so it is a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters.
TW: rape
Circe is a retelling of the story of the witch from The Odyssey, although I never read the Odyssey, I just know parts of the story, so I couldn't tell you how different this is from the original myths, and thus my review is in the eyes of someone who had no idea who Circe is, and just recognized some of the well known Greek mythological stories (Daedalus and Icarus, Odysseus, Medea, the Greek gods and titans). Phew that was a run on sentence haha.
Also this was one of my @bookofthemonth books and I’m so happy I got it I love book of the month (ps I have a referral code for a $5 book in my bio)
Anyway! This was a great book, though it took a little while to grow on me. I'm glad I didn't give up on it, though I considered it around 35%.
The story of Circe starts out from when she is young, a nymph who doesn't seem to have power or beauty, and thus is not particularly liked or loved by anyone. She instead turns her focus to mortals, and as a result finds out she is a powerful witch. When this truth comes to light, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island for the rest of time, where she works on her witchcraft and comes across all those mythological characters I mentioned.
The thing I loved the most about this story was to see the progression of Circe and how she grows as a person through hundreds of years. I don't want to say too much more because spoilers! But the ending was worth it.
Some other thoughts:
* I'm not sure this book would be very well liked by someone who is very familiar with Greek mythology, but for someone like me who doesn't know much beyond things discussed in Percy Jackson, the story is very new and exciting
* It is a little difficult to get past the middle-ish section but I encourage you to stick through with it
* The plot line of this story is messy, as it spans through the centuries of the life of a immortal goddess, so it is a bit difficult to keep track of all the characters.