A review by aardwyrm
Circe by Madeline Miller

emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? No
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

 D’Aulaire’s Book of Greek Myths, Not Like Other Girls special edition. I am not a purist who requires active protagonists or that plot twists be a huge shock every time, but Circe does, chooses, and changes more or less nothing over the course of her thousands of years, and every story beat (always accomplished or at least catalyzed by someone else) is broadcast in big neon letters. 75% of the story is Circe sitting around waiting for someone more interesting to come tell her a bit about some more interesting Greek myth that's happening, at which point she will take no action. The last bit is her mildly annoying Athena, very belatedly fixing a couple of her own mistakes that she could have addressed at any time, and making it clear that being a wife and mother is the only thing an immortal, magical being could possibly be doing with her time. Like Jane Eyre before her, she describes herself at length as ugly and unloved and troublesome, and then a succession of strangers walk in to tell her she's beautiful and adored and also she never meaningfully troubles anybody. 

I don't know, the prose is pretty good. But there's no meaningful reimagining of any of the myths, or even drawing from unusual sources. Individual scenes have emotional weight, but then Circe's passive whingeing has the same stakes and pacing all through the book, so they never actually mean anything. She periodically declares herself to be much better than last time she made the same choice, which is kind of like character development. Altogether, style but no substance, the sort of thing you get when someone who doesn't know their genre reinvents the wheel and it comes out square.
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