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Circe

Madeline Miller

Start date: November 1, 2021

Finish date: November 30, 2021

Discussion: BOTMs

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What Members Thought

Nov 03, 2022 Abyssdancer (Hanging in there!) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Well, this is a lovely story … taking the bones of ancient mythology and fleshing them out with a modern twist of contemporary character flaws and beauties … Circe becomes a sympathetic character with a deep sincerity of brilliance and determination to overcome outside forces from gods and goddesses as well as mortal men …

Circe is the daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perce, a sea nymph … of the scores of children sired by Helios, he dislikes Circe the most, and Perse shares this dislik Well, this is a lovely story … taking the bones of ancient mythology and fleshing them out with a modern twist of contemporary character flaws and beauties … Circe becomes a sympathetic character with a deep sincerity of brilliance and determination to overcome outside forces from gods and goddesses as well as mortal men …

Circe is the daughter of Helios, the Titan sun god, and Perce, a sea nymph … of the scores of children sired by Helios, he dislikes Circe the most, and Perse shares this dislike … against her Grandmother’s warning, Circe begins to experiment with witchcraft … after confessing to Helios her talent of witchcraft, Circe is banished to an island bewitched with a beautiful house, sources of food and wine that replenish themselves, and endless herbs, flowers and other plant life from which she conjures poisons, spells, and amulets … visitors such as Hermes and Odysseus fall in and out of love with her, but Circe thrives in exile and becomes a brilliant witch through sheer will, as she explains …

I am so in love with the concept of this book … throughout my education, it seemed like units of mythology in school focused on male heroes and gods, with mortal women and goddesses portrayed as something that happens to males and never as key players … Madeleine Miller is able to portray women in mythology as strong and self-determined characters who dominate careless and self-absorbed men … Circe’s powers are developed through her own experimentation and inspiration … she withstands loneliness and neglect, throughout her early life, but in exile, she befriends herself, and luxuriates in her power …

What stopped me from giving this book the full five stars is the weariness of character development that sets in following the birth of Odysseus’s love child … I realize that this weariness resonates from the unfolding of Circe’s character and is story driven … but the weariness enveloped me like the gloom of a cloudy day with no rain … I couldn’t feel the tension anymore, like the story kind of petered out into a study of different shades of gray …

But I believe this book is a must-read for anyone who loves Greek mythology … the author reimagines the character of Circe as a mythological force to be reckoned with … I can hardly wait for any future retellings of mythological literature …. ...more

23 likes · Like · see review

Jan 07, 2019 Jess Penhallow rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, goodreads-choice-awards-winner, bc, greece

This was THE BOOK of 2018 and I can see why. It is very cleverly crafted and I loved how all the different myths were weaved into the story. Circe was a complex yet likeable character and I really felt for her throughout the story. Despite many missteps she had a real heart to her and was clearly trying to do the right thing.

I must also comment on the female relationships in this book. (view spoiler) ...more

6 likes · Like · see review

Apr 01, 2021 Lila rated it really liked it

It feels like short stories that became a book. Don't get me wrong, I love Greek mythology and even then found it interesting. But it still felt like no major plot happened. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Aug 23, 2020 Lulu rated it really liked it

I picked up this book because I wanted to learn a little more about Greek mythology without textbook style writing. I was not disappointed at all. This was a slow burn, but it kept me engaged until the very end. Very vividly detailed.

2 likes · Like · see review

Sep 18, 2022 Daniy ♠ marked it as dnf

Shelves: authors-i-wont-read

Madeline Miller writting feels like dry skin.

2 likes · Like · see review

Oct 28, 2018 MK rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: book-of-the-month-club, owned, read-2018

If I am being honest with myself I expected not to like this book as much as I did. I felt at the beginning that it had little plot and I wasn’t sure it was really leading to anything. But the longer I read, the more I was enjoying the story. Truthfully, everything in the book doesn’t really come to a head until the last fourth of the book, it’s almost that when the real story starts. It was ultimately a wonderful journey and I would read more from this author given the chance.

1 like · Like · see review

Feb 19, 2024 AK rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: reviewed, owned

I had no right to claim him, I knew it. But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.

Ever since I'd read 'The Song of Achilles', I had been looking forward to picking up this book one day and it was honestly a book worth waiting for. It's best not to compare it with Achilles and Patroclus' story because that one had a war and grief to build up to, whereas this one served to show Circe I had no right to claim him, I knew it. But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth. Such a constellation was he to me.

Ever since I'd read 'The Song of Achilles', I had been looking forward to picking up this book one day and it was honestly a book worth waiting for. It's best not to compare it with Achilles and Patroclus' story because that one had a war and grief to build up to, whereas this one served to show Circe's story. Even as a child of the Titans of old, she was the most human of them all and reading that last line just brought a smile onto my face.

Circe's journey as she went from someone who didn't think she had power or mattered because everyone around her said so to finding herself in her craft was quite intriguing. She never questioned the remarkable world around her at first, never thought to wonder if there was anything more and I could see how even though she was the eldest of her siblings, she figured her powers out the last because of these reasons.

People around her took her for granted. I honestly thought her bond with Aeetes would withstand the test of time because he had grown up by her side, even if that time was short, but even that bond festered. I liked seeing her development through all the major events in her life - Scylla, Prometheus, Daedalus, Hermes, Odysseus, Telegonus, Telemachus.

What Odysseus had said about Circe being the god who liked her divinity the least really stuck with me, because it was perhaps that quality of hers which made her care for the lives that would be lost because of a mistake she'd made. She lost so much, yet she persevered and even when she could've lost her head and forced Telegonus to be with her on the island, she understood enough about her son's happiness to let him go.

I loved that we got to see more of her than just as the witch in Odysseus' story as he went home to Ithaca. She was different from her siblings and from the other children of Helios. She may not have inherited her father's light but she glowed with her own light as she tried to correct her mistake with Scylla, as she chose to help Medea and Jason, as she understood Odysseus' decision to leave her island, as she chose to raise Telegonus even with that threat to his life and went through all those dark days because of how she loved him, as she helped her sister even when she had no reason to. I know she would herself and her powers in exile, but I'm glad she finally left it and hopefully, she lived the life she saw and was as happy as could be. Once again, I have to mention how I loved her drinking the sap from the flowers and accepting that she is finally who she was meant to be. ...more

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May 27, 2021 Jaid rated it really liked it

Shelves: hs-bob-2021, mythology-retellings

3.5 stars, rated up.

I liked this book. I probably would've enjoyed it more if I were more into Greek mythology. But I have always been curious to have a more in-depth story about Circe, and this really fulfilled me. Fun fact: Circe was a name I wanted for a daughter. What can I say - I'm in love with misunderstood, powerful women.

The best part of this book to me was the way Madeline Miller portrayed the love of a mother. That part alone makes it worth the read in my opinion. ...more

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