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A review by frenchtoast_n_books
Circe by Madeline Miller
3.0
I'm thinking that my rating is more of a 3.5 or 3.75. It isn't quite a 4 for me, sadly.
Circe is the Greek immortal witch stranded on her island Aiaia where she hones her craft and meets Odysseus during hit 10 year journey back to Ithica after winning the Trojan War. This is her story before and after her fateful encounter with Odysseus during his Odyssey.
The story elements and journey of Circe were my jam, but moments in the storytelling were broken leading me way from rich mythos and back to the reality of me sitting on my couch. It occurred through phrases of future happenings and plots that were quickly squandered with phrases saying "but we'll get back to that later" or such. It negatively impacted my experience in the story.
I also feel that because I had such a rich storytelling experience with Achilles through audio but read the physical book of Circe due to its unavailability at my library was a detriment to my experience.
I read incredibly slow with my dyslexia and my issues maintaining attention since my father's passing. This makes physically reading books very difficult, especially when books can't maintain the pacing and absorption of rich storytelling. Though Madeline cannot control or help my own issues with reading physical books, her inability to keep the blatant foreshadowing (what I'm calling it for a lack of a better term at the moment) was not helpful.
Those issues aside, I am very glad I read this book because I knew basically nothing about such an interesting member of Greek mythology. I love how Madeline dug deep into research and many different Greek stories to paint a complete story of Circe, titan and witch and mother. She also completes so many other lesser known stories of people that are barely scratched by popular Greek myth works. I very much enjoyed that, which deserves a well earned two thumbs up.
I know I'll keep reading Madeline's works because I do, for the most part, enjoy her books.
Circe is the Greek immortal witch stranded on her island Aiaia where she hones her craft and meets Odysseus during hit 10 year journey back to Ithica after winning the Trojan War. This is her story before and after her fateful encounter with Odysseus during his Odyssey.
The story elements and journey of Circe were my jam, but moments in the storytelling were broken leading me way from rich mythos and back to the reality of me sitting on my couch. It occurred through phrases of future happenings and plots that were quickly squandered with phrases saying "but we'll get back to that later" or such. It negatively impacted my experience in the story.
I also feel that because I had such a rich storytelling experience with Achilles through audio but read the physical book of Circe due to its unavailability at my library was a detriment to my experience.
I read incredibly slow with my dyslexia and my issues maintaining attention since my father's passing. This makes physically reading books very difficult, especially when books can't maintain the pacing and absorption of rich storytelling. Though Madeline cannot control or help my own issues with reading physical books, her inability to keep the blatant foreshadowing (what I'm calling it for a lack of a better term at the moment) was not helpful.
Those issues aside, I am very glad I read this book because I knew basically nothing about such an interesting member of Greek mythology. I love how Madeline dug deep into research and many different Greek stories to paint a complete story of Circe, titan and witch and mother. She also completes so many other lesser known stories of people that are barely scratched by popular Greek myth works. I very much enjoyed that, which deserves a well earned two thumbs up.
I know I'll keep reading Madeline's works because I do, for the most part, enjoy her books.