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Circe

Madeline Miller

Start date: May 1, 2025

Finish date: May 31, 2025

Discussion: Book of the Month

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Book of the Month

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What Members Thought

May 04, 2018 ✨Skye✨ rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: favourites, 5-star-loved-it

Wow. What a beautiful, beautiful book. Madeline Miller is easily becoming one of my favourite authors!
This book follows Circe, a goddess who also happens to be a witch. She is exiled for these powers to an island called Aiaia, where she discovers many things about the world and herself. This book spans centuries of her life and the people she encounters along the way. It has spiteful gods, horrific monsters, witchcraft, romance and literally every emotion under the sun! This book made me angry, Wow. What a beautiful, beautiful book. Madeline Miller is easily becoming one of my favourite authors!
This book follows Circe, a goddess who also happens to be a witch. She is exiled for these powers to an island called Aiaia, where she discovers many things about the world and herself. This book spans centuries of her life and the people she encounters along the way. It has spiteful gods, horrific monsters, witchcraft, romance and literally every emotion under the sun! This book made me angry, it made me sad, it made me feel proud. It has such a whimsical quality and is told in a historical fashion, with such a wildly fast pace that it may seem off-putting to some. I'll describe it the same way I described The Song of Achilles-events that would take up whole novels written by other authors are just small portions of this expansive world, and I really, really like that. It is a testament to Miller's skill that these experiences can still have the same emotional impact in such a small amount of time as it would in a full book. (My main example of this is her brief relationships.)
The characters in this are so strong. Circe is such a spirited, determined woman and so unlike most female main characters. She's resourceful in the face of cruelty, she's fearless and fierce when someone threatens who she loves and she retains hope when all seems lost. The minor characters are so complex and so real -they may not all be good, but they are so vivid and complex. They are all mythological and I feel I learn things reading Miller's books. My personal stand-outs were Daedalus, Ariadne, Penelope, Medea and Odysseus.
This book is simply captivating. I was so eager to read this beautiful story! It held my attention from start to finish with it's gorgeous writing and constantly winding plot. I am in love with this book.
One final thing-Miller can do a damn ending! Both the endings to this and The Song of Achilles are some of the most impactful I have ever read. The last few pages of this were so full of hope and just encompass everything great about her writing. I usually hate an open ending, but this was honestly just perfect.
...more

23 likes · Like · see review

May 29, 2021 Celia Buell (semi hiatus) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: british-author, womens-roles, coming-of-age, friendship, owned, family, retelling, romance, historical, young-adult

3.5 stars, rounded up for Goodreads

*disclaimer, this took me a month to read because I read a lot in between, but in a short enough timespan that I kept it in my currently reading because I didn't need to revisit the beginning. I read most of the book from 5/26 - 5/29.

***Review begins here***

Huh.

That's about how I would describe this book. Just, huh.

But as for an actual review, Circe was interesting. It starts off with a lot of slow description about the familial relationships of Circe and her ...more

8 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