Reviews tagging 'Blood'

Circe by Madeline Miller

292 reviews

jhbandcats's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad tense medium-paced

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

5.0

A beautiful book about the need to be loved and the difference between loneliness and solitude, this story begins in Circe’s childhood and, as she’s immortal, ends after hundreds of generations.  We follow her from the halls of the gods to the island home she shares with wild animals when she’s exiled after angering Zeus. 

Circe makes a life for herself collecting herbs and plants for witchcraft and weaving on the unusual loom that was a gift from Daedalus. She has few encounters with humans and immortals, and her reputation as a fearsome witch grows. Any who challenge her spend the rest of their days in a sty looking at fellow pigs. 

The author is able to craft an interesting character study where there’s little interaction with other people. I was initially put off by the almost juvenile storytelling till I realized that, as she’d just been born, Circe was indeed quite juvenile. As she matured, so did the writing style and so did my appreciation of the talented author. I hope she continues to rewrite Greek myths. She expands on stories I learned in my youth and I want more. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Body horror, Confinement, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Rape, Abandonment, Adult/minor relationship, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Death, Gore, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Murder, and Violence

zam_ahaana's review

adventurous emotional mysterious sad 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

3.5

A great book for Greek myth fans, but really slow paced! It took me a while to get through this one, but a great read! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Violence, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Emotional abuse, Blood, Rape, Torture, Sexual harassment, Gore, and Death

Moderate: Child abuse, Domestic abuse, and Emotional abuse

readingbrb's review

adventurous emotional fast-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape and Torture

Minor: Blood, Fire/Fire injury, Child death, and Incest

raccoon_anarchy's review

adventurous dark emotional informative mysterious reflective sad fast-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Misogyny, Murder, Emotional abuse, Toxic relationship, and Abandonment

Moderate: Gore and Body horror

ashfrxns's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful reflective relaxing 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

4.25

A gone girl se ela tivesse um final feliz

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Fire/Fire injury, Sexual violence, Rape, Deportation, and Violence

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Pregnancy, Infidelity, Murder, Incest, Alcohol, and Animal death

Minor: Emotional abuse

thepurplepixel's review

adventurous hopeful reflective slow-paced

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

3.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Abandonment, Torture, Emotional abuse, Murder, Blood, Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, and Physical abuse

paulawind's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

Spoiler

Her final act, the act of “becoming herself” being becoming human and a mortal is so powerful. She never sat well with the other gods, her heart was too big for that. Drinking her potion was an act of defiance, taking her own destiny into her hands, I felt so happy for her when I read the last words. Perfect ending to a nearly perfect book

I am a Greek mythology hoe so of course I loved this book. Feminist story set in the canon which diminished women mostly to tools for heroes to chase their glory. Miller doesn’t strip away achievements of men but rather shines light on the women who were always in the background of these stories, giving them the centre of the stage. At last.
Circe is written with such an intense amount of compassion to women in general, not only the ones from myths. Circe starts off as an innocent soul, with heart of her sleeve - life is beating that out of her but never fully succeeds. She learns to guard her heart and those she loves, seizing power for herself and you can’t help but think “good for her”.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Death, Injury/Injury detail, Pregnancy, Animal death, Death of parent, Rape, Violence, Blood, Infidelity, Torture, Physical abuse, Sexual content, Abandonment, Bullying, Child abuse, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Grief, Murder, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual harassment, Classism, and Misogyny

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

micropunk's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Death, Gore, Grief, Fire/Fire injury, Animal death, and Blood

Moderate: Infidelity

kiingchika's review against another edition

adventurous informative mysterious slow-paced

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

4.0

This book was definitely more focused on Greek mythology than Song of Achilles, which I enjoyed to some extent. Madeline Miller is such a brilliant writer, and I felt like I was reading an epic of Circe’s life from beginning to end (it feeling like an epic, though, was a bit of a drag at times because I was like what on earth is going on / where is this going). The ending was such a satisfying wrap-up to Circe’s battle throughout the novel. I don’t think I would read it again, but it was brilliant. 

Spoiler

I say that because although I know mythology is filled with incest and complicated relationships ra ra ra, the marrying and having a child with the son (Telemachus) of a son (Odysseus) of a man (Hermes) she’s been with was gagging me. It really was. It made my head hurt, actually. I was unfamiliar with Circe and everyone surrounding her before this book, and if I was Penelope, I’d be sick as hell that the woman my husband cheated and had a baby on me with ended up getting with my son. But! I digress!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood

Moderate: Death