Circe: The No. 1 Bestseller from the author of The Song of Achilles… (2018 original; edició 2019)

Star and a half for pretty descriptions. Various reviewers all summarized this book wildly differently. Finally, someone summarized it in a way that made me want to check it out. The inside cover seems to purport the book as a suspense thriller. It is in fact a romance spanning centuries, with Circe sleeping with various men and barely describing it. The suspense shows in the last quarter of the book over something really stupid, with no buildup and there's nothing to support or maintain it. I had a vague idea of who Circe was before reading this. I was really into minor Greek gods in middle school, plus a few major ones, and enjoy exploring knowledge about them still. None of the ones I was interested in are mentioned at all in this novel. Helios is a Greek sun god. Selene is his sister, a moon goddess. She's mentioned a couple of times here. You know who's not? THEIR SISTER EOS, THE GREEK GODDESS OF DAWN AND MOTHER OF THE FOUR WINDS, WHO -ARE- MENTIONED. Flames! Flames on the side of my face! Dishonor! Dishonor on you! Dishonor on your cow! And there's several mentions of the Underworld, BUT NONE OF HEKATE. You know, Underworld goddess, and -goddess of witchcraft- among many other things. I was furious when the retelling "Solstice" by PJ Hoover omitted her, and am angry now for multiple reasons. Can't have her in the story, ooh no, because this is a story about a character that the author alternately describes as a nymph, goddess, or demigod. I feel like this should have had very different character choices in it.

And the suspense factor is that a famous god is going to kill her kid. Total fakeout: it is in fact just two women sniping at each other. I feel cheated. And I'm sorry, Circe, but you're not going to a god who has everything they could ever need, whereas you are widely hated and no one will help you. Of course I'm wrong, because you're a Mary Sue. Plus, your Mother Goddessing (ha ha, I made a joke. Thanks to Das_sporking for the term) only furthers this. While you describe things beautifully, you whine a lot. I didn't care about your kid, the fact that your family hates you, and I don't care about you. The much-hyped battle between Circe and the goddess goes on for two seconds. The goddess is quickly replaced with Odysseus' wife, with whom Circe essentially squabbles for over twenty pages. Then they become friends and it's boring.

Near the end of the novel, Circe thinks to herself that it's strange to have constant company in the form of Odysseus' wife and son. Did she forget all those years when nymphs and sailors packed her house and roamed her island? I didn't. There's a boring sea battle and then some incest. Maybe not; I'm not entirely clear on how they're related. The book ends with a boring, cliche HEA. I was underwhelmed by this book and wanted the author to make different choices. ( )

This is an excellent telling of Circe's story - every bit as good as Margaret Atwoodd's telling of the story of Penelope in her "Penelopiad".

I bought this just after the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v Wade with the Dobbs decision (2022), so the gender politics (here, set in the realm of ancient Greek myth) feels particularly appropriate. ( )

The story of Circe, as told in the Greek myths is an interesting one, so I was keen to see it explored further. Alas, this book was not the one to deliver that. The characters are wooden, Circe dull and the gods far too human. The characters described are already well known and described with greater superiority and eloquence in Homer, Apollodorus and Hesiod. If those writers have taught us anything about the character of the Greek pantheon it is that they are elemental, childish even. From beginning to end thus book failed to deliver in either a new perspective or in believable characters. Very disappointing, considering the grandeur of the original texts. ( )

wahHHHHHHHHHHhhhhhhhh (← me weeping and wailing)

seriously this is so good. i think what makes me like this book even more is that it does a lot of things i don't necessarily like but somehow here they were carried off to perfection. it's the artist, after all, not the art. and the imprint of masterful crafting is all over this book. it's so easy to read in the sense that it all just flows. it takes place over so many thousands of years that i felt like i'd been reading it forever, when in fact it had been a little over a week. very clever and good. and also, all the characters are so COMPLICATED in a really special way. the character work is just extraordinary, a synthesis of myth and modernity. and i am very emotional at the ending, especially about penelope and telemachus. wow. loved it. ( )

I absolutely loved this book ! Madeline Miller masterfully wove various stories from The Odyssey and presented them through the eyes of the exiled golden goddess - Circe.
The book showcases many important themes such as Morality , Fragility and Fulfillment and more importantly , Women , Power and Misogyny.
It was an eye opening look into the role of women ( most importantly nymphs and mortals ) in ancient Greek tales.
Cannot wait to read more by Madeline Miller
I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands. ( )