A review by house_of_hannah
Circe by Madeline Miller

adventurous emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Going into this I essentially thought it was the female version of The Song of Achilles; I was wrong. There is no sapphic story here, and instead we not only get the story of Circe, but Odysseus and his family as well. 

I thought a good chunk of the book would be about Circe honing her craft, but for someone in exile she enouncters a lot of people ! It's mainly a telling of the events, big and small, that happen during her exile until she figures out what she wants from her life. 

Since this is based on a Greek myth, be prepared for the shenanigans of the Gods. A good chunk of characters in this book are complete assholes, as is to be expected. This didn't make the story more interesting though, and I found myself getting a bit bored with it. Circe herself always felt quite softspoken even when she was learning to stand up for herself. 

Overall this is just an average book for me. I was really into the fact that Circe was a witch, but I ended up not having much interest past that. It just ended up feeling repetitive, and cannot live up to the hype of its predecessor.
Expand filter menu Content Warnings