Reviews tagging 'Pregnancy'

Circe by Madeline Miller

716 reviews

hannahbaird2023's review

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dark emotional reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Madeleine Miller has an incredible talent for narrative. Like Song of Achilles, this blew me away.

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shiyuplsloveme's review against another edition

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inspiring reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

I enjoyed this a lot more compared to song of achilles. it's an interesting story with very well fleshed out character development which I felt was lacking in Miller's previous work

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emtees's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? No
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Circe follows the mythical witch of Homer’s epic and other Greek mythological stories through a journey of self-discovery and growth.  Born to the nymph Perse and the Titan sun-god Helios, Circe is strange from the beginning, less beautiful than most nymphs and cursed with an ugly, scratchy voice.  Like most of her kind, she seemingly has little power; as she says, nymphs are at the bottom of the hierarchy of the gods, appearing in the myths mostly as victims of the sexual predation of gods and even mortals.  But Circe and her siblings are different; for unknown reasons, they possess a talent for witchcraft, manipulating elements of the natural world to change it to their will.  Circe’s first working of magic is the magnificent and terrible transformation of the nymph Scylla into a giant sea-monster, and while her siblings are praised for their skills, she finds herself punished to set an example, exiled alone on the isle of Aiaia.  But Circe’s punishment turns out to be a gift; freed of the mockery of her family and the rest of the gods, Circe grows into the powerful witch of the Odyssey. 

Like many mythological beings, Circe’s story is told in scattered tales across different sources.  Miller does an excellent job of weaving them together into a coherent “biography,” creating relationships between the various characters said to be descended from Helios, finding explanations for things like Circe’s remote home, and tying Circe’s tale to others like the legend of the Minotaur or the transformation of the sea god Glaucos.  In the process she creates a world for these gods that feels somewhere between mythology and fantasy, internally consistent and complex, with its hierarchies and personal rivalries and complex rules.  But this book is much more than just connect-the-dots with Greek Gods.  Miller creates a thematically powerful story with Circe, finding a common thread in her stories and weaving it across the novel.  I didn’t see the ending coming but it was such a perfect one for this character.  

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mairiairi's review against another edition

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challenging reflective slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? N/A
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

the character growth in this book is freaking unbelievable. Hated everyone up until the last quarter of the book. Worth the wait, bc once I got to the end everyone was relatable lol

Book felt like it was slogging a bit at the beginning, wasn't interesting, everyone was a completely self-absorbed, narcissistic jerk including Circe. Then she gets a couple hundred years under her belt and becomes more self-aware, growing out of the teenager stage into the young adult stage, and it's so organic and natural that I didn't even notice it until I read over the quotes I'd posted and realized there's a huge difference between the first, second, and third of the book. I def found her growing on me and ended up rooting for her by the end of the book (which is crazy considering how weak and spineless she was at the beginning). It was really really well done.

The writing kind of reminds me of Hamnet, though probably more flowery and descriptive, but definitely not as pretentious as Wolf Hall. This was subtle enough that you had to think about it and read slower than usual, but it wasn't so subtle that you felt dumb for not understanding, and not getting anything out of the book. The writing also didn't get in the way of the story at all, imo.

Had some really good morals/lessons, and some thought-provoking takes on human nature, existence of man, etc. and I wish I'd had a physical copy so I could annotate. Or a teacher to tell me to write a paper on it. Fascinating stuff fr fr

I did get a lil bit bored until about halfway - it was a bit tedious, because she's stuck on an island, but definitely not anywhere near as bad as A Gentleman in Moscow, this actually had a storyline lol it did leave me feeling like I was reading one of those multi-generational books and there's a reason I never read those. To her credit, I think it definitely sells you on the "she's centuries old, exiled on an island" without dragging or being boring like you'd expect.

Definitely want to get a physical copy, reread, and annotate everything. Too many relatable characters, but most of them see their flaws and work on it so that by the end of the story they've changed and are far healthier than where they started. Anger management, trouble with trust and vulnerability, dealing with loss or loneliness...there is so much they either grow through OR recognize in someone else as being bad, and seeing my own problems represented in a book was so encouraging to me. I don't have to keep doing this to myself and those around me, don't keep hurting people just because you're too proud to admit you're the source of the hurt - these gods suck, but I don't have to lol

So interesting that she is drawn to humans time and again. Those are the only ones she's interested in, everyone else is a side hustle. Why? Because she's drawn to authenticity and weakness, being deemed weak and naive to the family of gods that she was born into. And so much more. But I have work tmr and it's already 3:30am so imma leave it at that and if any of this piqued your interest then just go read it already (it's subtle enough that even if you're under 13 it's fine, but you won't enjoy it so wait till you're like 15+ << only saying this bc my lil sister follows me HAHAHA sup tia)

also: there were some long quotes I liked that didn't fit in the update thing, so I'm leaving them as comments under this review lol

(also also, note that I wrote right before the book gets good:
yk what I hate? The fact that everyone is an idiot. Absolute selfish, self-involved, narcissistic idiot. First Athena, she won't even explain anything to Circe even though if she had, then Circe would have known better and wouldn't have done all that to protect her son. Then the son, for being so bullheaded and unhappy about his place in life that he won't listen to common sense despite someone who's been around for HUNDREDS OF YEARS telling him about the prophecy. Then stupid Odysseus for being so angry that he won't even take two seconds to listen to a literal child tell him why he's landed on Odysseus' precious land, honestly it's his fault for being such a stupid guy and getting in such a rage over a little kid landing on his island, like brotherrrrr he caused that, the son wasn't even tryna harm anyone and he had permission from O's son. Like O, if that makes you mad, go take it up with your son, not your guest you idiot. Honestly that part was so insufferable, I couldn't even bring myself to care about anyone involved, they were all stupid.
)

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kyleighf's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? No
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.25

Well…. I finished ;-;
Only took me 10 months :/
Idk if I was just in a slump or if the style of the writing really put me off from reading but I don’t know. Not one of my best reads. Which was disappointing because I’m obsessed with Circe the Greek myth and still am. It’s a hard story to tell with all its history and old timey stuff, and I appreciated the actual story itself. The writing just didn’t do it for me :/

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bekieboo's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

Fantastic retelling of Circe’s tale. I loved seeing her perspective and watching her mature and stumble through her early years. I felt how different it would be to be a god growing up in their world, but also how similar it is to growing up human. It’s a tale of powerful women, goddesses, and monsters - good and bad and the people and experiences in their life that shaped them. Beautifully written, this book made me nervous, disgusted, proud, and emotional. Circe’s journey out of naïveté and into a powerful witch made me hungry for more similar tales.

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readingraine's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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mothmaven63's review against another edition

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challenging emotional reflective relaxing sad slow-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? A mix
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Diverse cast of characters? Yes
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

An intensely beautiful book

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phoevincent's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious sad medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? Yes
  • Loveable characters? Yes
  • Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0


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rhiannon814r's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective medium-paced
  • Plot- or character-driven? Character
  • Strong character development? It's complicated
  • Loveable characters? It's complicated
  • Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75


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