Reviews with content warning for Sexual assault - Circe

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Circe by Madeline Miller

922 reviews

sycamore22's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional mysterious reflective medium-paced

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

5.0

I checked this out from the library, but I would purchase it to reread. The prose of this story is absolutely stunning. I love the themes of identity, growth, bearing a painful past, hurtful vs. healthy relationships, and willpower, being sick of the world, but still finding joy within it. I love the way this book spanned hundreds of years, but I felt that I perceived that time as fast as it went for the main character. I especially loved the scene with Trygon. I saw a lot of pieces of myself in Circe (good and bad), the experience of womanhood and all the internal workings of it resonated with me deeply. I loved being able to vicariously live my own dream of being a forest recluse through her. Man, this book is a work of art. The only thing that was weird to me was that she eventually became partners with her son’s half brother. Greek mythology is full of those kinds of relationships though, so I wasn’t all that surprised.

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kennamartin's review against another edition

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emotional inspiring reflective sad slow-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

5.0

One of my absolute favorites, as a woman this s was so special to me.

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francestal's review against another edition

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adventurous mysterious slow-paced

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

3.5

I read this book after being curious at how popular it was, but since finishing it, I don’t have much to say. I appreciated that the author uses Circe to examine her relation to femininity and what it means to be a woman through phases of her life (being a daughter, a woman being alone, a woman navigating romance, becoming a mother, a woman as her own person). I also appreciated the beautiful imagery and how easy it was to visualize any setting the story goes to. However, the book felt very slow. I felt like I had to take breaks and then drag myself through pages before getting invested again.

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carlycormier_'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional slow-paced

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

3.0

When I purchased this book I was excited to read a “spinoff”/“retelling” of a classic piece of literature through a feminist lens. However, after reading it I don’t feel that it was everything I was lead to believe and was hoping it would be. As a college student studying classical/ancient history maybe this is my reasoning for not loving it(?) I had to take a long pause and put this book down because 1) it felt too much like more of the same in regard to my academic focus, 2) certain sections required me to muster up the desire to keep reading (pace, plot, etc).

Miller has a lot of potential which is what excites me the most after reading this. Her mastery and deep knowledge of classical history and mythology truly shines, but that’s also the downfall of Circe. This could have been a contemporary masterpiece, a new mythological epic in its own right, but it just sort of fell flat to this. Arguably, a lot of fat could have been trimmed off this book and it would have been more intriguing and enjoyable. I expected Circe to be this wild ride of a story, but in the end it was too much of a hyper-slow burn for me. I did , however, really enjoy how Circe is a complicated character. She is multi-faceted and flawed. This is the big success with this retelling.

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