Ali’s Reviews > Circe > Status Update

"It was so simple. If you want it, I will do it. If it would make you happy, I will go with you. Is there a moment that a heart cracks? But a cracked heart was not enough, and I had grown wise enough to know it."

"I have a better idea. I will do as I please, and when you count your children, leave me out"

"I remembered what Odysseus had said about her once. That she never went astray, never made an error. I had been jealous then. Now I thought: what a burden. What an ugly weight upon your back."

"Would I be skimmed milk or a harpy? A foolish gull or a villainous monster?
Those could not still be the only choices."

"The bench would scrape, and he would stand. The men watched with bright eyes. They wanted the freeze, the flinch, the begging that would come.
It was my favorite moment, seeing them frown and try to understand why I want afraid. In their bodies I could feel my herbs like strings waiting to be plucked. I savored their confusion, their dawning fear. Then I plucked them."

"But of course that was never a real danger. Sons were not punished."

Whoa!
"...Take them to your bed."
"That is absurd," I said. "They would run screaming."
"Nymphs always do," he said. "But I'll tell you a secret: they are terrible at getting away."

"No wonder I have been so slow, I thought. All this while, I have been a while without wool, a ship without the sea. Yet now look where I sail."