spoko 's review for:

Circe by Madeline Miller

4.25

reflective sad slow-paced

Plot or Character Driven: Character

Strong character development: Complicated

Loveable characters: No

Diverse cast of characters: Yes

Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

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I like the way Madeline Miller tells mythic stories. I should say that I’m not at all precious about myths, and I don’t understand why anyone would be. They were never static stories, consistent and unvarying. So I don’t know the canonical details, and I’m good with that. Beyond that, though, I like the specifics of Miller’s telling. Especially with this book (vis-à-vis The Song of Achilles), the characters she sculpts, and I like the speculative world she builds. I was intrigued throughout by the particulars of

witchcraft

as Circe and others employ it. It was a fun read, for a lot of reasons.

That said, I did also have some issues with it. Not least

Circe’s interaction with the first group of sailors who arrive at the island. Did I misread, or did she allow herself to be raped before she dispatched them? Why?

Then too, I didn’t love the way Circe interacts with men generally throughout the book. She’s too eager, a bit too willing to subsume her own personality & desires under those of the man she’s with. Even as she matures, this doesn’t seem to go away. It’s a character trait, sure. But I think this story wants to be the story of a strong woman carving her own space into the world, unswayed by any man, and sadly, it isn’t that.

Those things (and a few other less significant ones) aren’t enough to make me dislike the book. But they are there, for sure.