Reviews with content warning for Abandonment - Circe

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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raccoon_anarchy's review

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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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thepurplepixel's review

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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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thaliareads's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious tense slow-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

4.0

While this was an incredibly interesting read, I didn't enjoy it as much as The Song of Achilles. I think the issue I had was that it was more winding. It wove a much deeper and more complex story spanning a much wider history. Despite the equally high stakes, due to Circe's immortality, it somehow felt less high stakes than the mortality Achilles was working with.

All that aside, especially for those who like Greek mythology, this was a really fun read and was a really interesting compilation of the life of and myths surrounding Circe.

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paulawind's review against another edition

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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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