ashleysbookthoughts's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Wow. Have you ever read a book that stuck with you so much that you dreamed about it? I’ve been dreaming of airplanes and Marian Graves for the past several nights.
Great Circle was just the epic story I needed to close out the year. It’s almost 600 pages, but reads like a much shorter novel. Maggie Shipstead is a great writer. Her prose is descriptive yet readable and she manages to capture the sensations her characters experience. There are periodically asides (about the history of Missoula Montana, the history of women pilots) that in a lesser writer’s hands would be extraneous and annoying, but Shipstead manages to use these asides to add depth to her story.
I don’t want to say more, because I think the discovery is a huge part of the experience of this novel. Suffice to say, I felt all the things while reading this: worry, rage, heartache, hope, and joy. I loved it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child abuse, Rape, and Sexual assault
Moderate: Abortion, Child death, Death of parent, Drug abuse, and Infidelity
Minor: Homophobia
More...