Introduction

“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child – not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power – the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

My thoughts

The reading train just keeps chugging on – my first book of April was Circe and I was so excited to get into it!

My first book of 2021 was The Song of Achilles so I was already familiar with Madeline Miller’s writing when I got into this. As expected, Miller did not disappoint! It’s been so long since I’ve been interested in Greek mythology and I’m grateful for Miller’s prose transporting me back to a time when I was younger. Miller truly has a gift for writing that I feel other authors lack – it comes so natural to her and the subject matter isn’t easy in the slightest.

Let’s get into this story: I had such high hopes for this book. Like I said, Miller’s writing is beautiful, the story just wasn’t doing it for me.

I wasn’t expecting a romance like in her debut novel but I at least expected Circe to be a narrator that I could identify with. However, she wasn’t. Circe isn’t perfect – she’s insecure, she’s vengeful, she’s loving, she’s strong, she’s everything I could’ve asked for in a strong female narrator…..but we just didn’t click.

Like with Evelyn Hugo, I found myself very annoyed with Circe most of the time. I don’t know if that says more about my own lack of patience than the character herself, but there were times when I had to skip whole paragraphs because Circe’s narration was just boring.

On a positive note, I loved Circe’s growth – I’m just mad it took a couple hundred years for it to come about. She went from being this timid and doting daughter, not fully aware of the world beyond her father’s realm, to this strong witch who is able to command her own table in her own home and demand exactly what she wants from her life.

Despite my negative feelings, I’m not disappointed in this book. I went into it expecting it to be similar to The Song of Achilles and that was my fault. Circe and Patroclus are two very different narrators who wanted different things from their lives. I think it probably would’ve been better for me to read Circe before The Song of Achilles – I probably would’ve given it a higher rating if I wasn’t so busy comparing.

Rating

It kind of hurts to have to give this book 4 stars. I realize that I rarely give books anything lower than a 4 star rating because I think all books are good books if you learn something from them and enjoy them but Circe truly doesn’t deserve anything less. I had such high hopes after The Song of Achilles! It was my first book of the year! It made me cry! It made me long for a love that Achilles and Patroclus shared! But Circe just didn’t do that for me and I didn’t enjoy it as much as my other five star reads. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this book to a friend, though.