Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Circe by Madeline Miller

91 reviews

kwichris's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Circe is a cleverly written novel about the goddess herself and the experiences she endured from her perspective. This novel spans centuries in time with both well-known and new mythological events and experiences Circe must navigate. Circe is shown as a more fully-developed person than in the minor roles she's played in other grand masterworks of classical literature. She perseveres through more hardships than can be imagined and her shere ingenuity and life-experience guides her actions through each trial and tribulation. Through it all, Circe demonstrates how many of us feel at different points in our lives despite never being bestowed with divinity as she has. Just as Circe is more fully realized in this novel, so too are her accompanying characters often the focus of the story when they encounter Circe. All in all, Madeline Miller has crafted a wonderfully detailed novel encompassing more mythology and the human experience than one might expect. If you're a fan of Greek mythology, history, and novels that really flesh out their characters, then I would highly recommend this book! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Rape, Blood, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Sexual content, and Violence

Moderate: Animal death, Grief, Mental illness, Murder, Alcohol, Bullying, Child death, Torture, and Incest

Minor: Physical abuse, Infidelity, Classism, Confinement, Adult/minor relationship, Toxic relationship, and Slavery

ghulsona's review

adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense 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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Injury/Injury detail, Medical content, Misogyny, Violence, Bullying, Abandonment, Grief, Rape, Emotional abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, and Sexual violence

Minor: Death, Alcohol, and Sexual content

galexy_brain's review

adventurous dark hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Classism, Confinement, Death, Sexual content, Toxic relationship, Animal death, Death of parent, Grief, Infidelity, Abandonment, War, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcohol and Slavery

strange_and_unusual's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring reflective sad tense 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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Body horror, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

passivewax's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense 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? Yes

4.75

WOW! Blown away. Beautiful and dark and the best testimony I’ve seen to the worthwhile flaws of being human. 

“I had walked the earth for a hundred generations, yet I was still a child to myself.”

Something else I want to add is that often I have trouble being able to envision scenery when reading, like following along with an author’s depictions is usually pointless for me and something I will read twice and then skip over because the description just doesn’t do it for me. Miller’s writing never once stumped me or had me reread, even in complex visual scenes. And also - it was so beautiful! The world she created and the imagery of nature and feelings was so extremely vivid. Was a nice change for sure. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Violence, Rape, Sexual violence, Torture, Medical trauma, Slavery, War, Alcohol, Cursing, Death, Incest, Medical content, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Sexual content, and Toxic relationship

momma_needs_to_read's review

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

This was such a good book. I absolutely love Madeline Miller’s writing. She is able to perfectly describe settings and characters to a point that I was really able to picture it in my head. This book made me want to live on a deserted island with the animals and my own little garden outside a cottage.

I love Greek mythology and I’ve been wanting to read this for so long and I’m glad that I finally did. The book starts with Circe’s younger days and continues on as she explores and finds her true self. Anyone familiar with Greek Mythology will recognize most of the characters and their stories. This is such a great retelling. However, there were a few parts that kind of crept by and felt less interesting than others. Other parts had me completely enthralled, but then it would get to a slow part and start to lose me a bit.

Overall, I loved this book. I definitely recommend it to all Greek Mythology lovers.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Abandonment, Gore, Blood, Rape, Sexual assault, Confinement, Emotional abuse, Murder, Death, Gaslighting, and Grief

Moderate: Toxic relationship, Toxic friendship, Torture, Sexual content, and Slavery

adiloretto's review

adventurous emotional inspiring medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Violence, Emotional abuse, and Toxic relationship

soshereads_'s review

adventurous dark reflective sad slow-paced

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

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: War, Toxic relationship, Sexual assault, Sexism, Animal death, Sexual violence, Grief, Confinement, Violence, Bullying, and Rape

Minor: Pregnancy, Murder, Infidelity, and Injury/Injury detail

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring mysterious reflective relaxing sad tense slow-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? Yes

4.0

Welcome to Αἰαία, see the pigs transform from humans. Welcome to Αἰαία, hope you like Circe you ain’t leaving. Caroline Polachek would love it here 4🏝️

I love how intricate names in Greek mythology are: Helios, Pasiphaë, Minos, Aeëtes & then there’s literally Jason!💀

NB Fuck, marry, kill: Odysseus, Achilles, Paris (in that order) 🏛️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Blood, Gaslighting, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Rape, Misogyny, Suicidal thoughts, Toxic relationship, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal death, Child death, Confinement, Drug use, Medical content, Mental illness, Self harm, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, Stalking, Suicide attempt, Toxic friendship, Violence, Gore, Kidnapping, Sexual assault, Slavery, Animal cruelty, Domestic abuse, Murder, Physical abuse, Pregnancy, Sexism, Torture, Child abuse, Death, Death of parent, Emotional abuse, Grief, Medical trauma, and War

wet_towlette's review

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

4.75

Circe is so real, I love her. I wish she was able to get some better revenge or something though. It was kind of lacking in the action sense. Not that I really minded it, it's just that this story is marketed as an epic and usually with epics there's a lot more action.

Spoiler

I'm happy she got her happy ending I just wish it wasn't with her son's brother 😭 that is so weird.

 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Pregnancy, Toxic relationship, Animal cruelty, Gaslighting, Animal death, Rape, Violence, Emotional abuse, Abandonment, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, Sexual assault, Torture, Alcohol, Body horror, and Sexism

Minor: War, Grief, and Child death