A review by redporchinverter
Great Circle by Maggie Shipstead

adventurous dark 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

3.5

Great Circle didn't exactly provide the rip-roaring adventure yarn I was looking for (I keep accidentally reading books with pedophilia), though it certainly has lift whenever Marian's in the cockpit. The ending left me unsatisfied in a way I can't quite put my finger on, but Maggie Shipstead is so skilled at conveying the allure and terror of being unmoored, of oblivion as both self-destruction and self-liberation that perhaps a more cathartic bang of a conclusion would've felt like a betrayal. I would've read a whole book just focused on Marian, Ruth and Eddie in World War II-era England.
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