A review by laurrreads
Circe by Madeline Miller

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

“Humbling women seems to be a chief past time of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep.” 

Circe was the first greek mythology retelling I’ve read and for just dipping my toes into the water of this genre, I thought it was very well written and overall a beautiful story. Madeline Miller’s portrayal of Circe lets the reader see her character in a different light. Circe’s story is told primarily through her emotions and focuses heavily on her inner dialogue and conflicts. 

My main gripe with this book was the length. While i can appreciate a long book, this book felt unnecessarily long at times. The chapters were almost episodic, covering large spans of her life and at times jumping years if not decades from one chapter to the next. This aspect of the pacing I actually enjoyed as I enjoyed how much of Circe’s life and lore was crammed into each chapter. Overall though, the book just didn’t need to be 400+ pages in my opinion, hence the 4 stars. 
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