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A review by miglena
Circe by Madeline Miller
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Madeline Miller weaves words together so beautifully. Her writing is so poignant and is able to touch depths that people rarely go to. I ached and wept for Circe throughout the whole book and literally cried through 40% of it.
I finished this book in two sittings, but I would have finished it in one if I didn't have work. I have no doubt I will be coming back to this book again. There are so many quotes that I just want to press into my skin and carry with me.
This book deals with the concepts of free will, captivity, isolation, feminism, how deeply rooted mysogeny is and how it plays out in our interactions, who is considered good vs evil, and many more. Madeline Miller shapes mythology, action, and romance together to craft this book. It asks us to look within ourselves and reflect.
I feel lucky to have read this book, it was enthralling and a truly magical experience.
Here are some quotes I love and keep thinking about:
"A golden cage is still a cage"
"I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it."
"Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep."
"Circe, he says, it will be all right... He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive."
I finished this book in two sittings, but I would have finished it in one if I didn't have work. I have no doubt I will be coming back to this book again. There are so many quotes that I just want to press into my skin and carry with me.
This book deals with the concepts of free will, captivity, isolation, feminism, how deeply rooted mysogeny is and how it plays out in our interactions, who is considered good vs evil, and many more. Madeline Miller shapes mythology, action, and romance together to craft this book. It asks us to look within ourselves and reflect.
I feel lucky to have read this book, it was enthralling and a truly magical experience.
Here are some quotes I love and keep thinking about:
"A golden cage is still a cage"
"I had been old and stern for so long, carved with regrets and years like a monolith. But that was only a shape I had been poured into. I did not have to keep it."
"Humbling women seems to me a chief pastime of poets. As if there can be no story unless we crawl and weep."
"Circe, he says, it will be all right... He does not mean that it does not hurt. He does not mean we are not frightened. Only that: we are here. This is what it means to swim in the tide, to walk the earth and feel it touch your feet. This is what it means to be alive."
Content Warnings
Graphic: Blood, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Domestic abuse, Forced institutionalization, Gore, Grief, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Violence
Moderate: Slavery and War
Minor: Self harm