Review: Circe

Circe by Madeline Miller
My rating: 4 of 5 stars


*This book was provided to me by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review*

How do I even begin to start describing how much I absolutely loved this book? I knew how popular Miller’s ‘Song of Achilles’ was, but for some reason I had never picked it up. After reading ‘Circe’, I’m definitely will have to add it to me list of things to read. Reading about the Greek myths always brings me back to my middle school days and how much I enjoyed learning their stories. When I saw that Circe herself would be using witchcraft, i knew I had to get my hands on this book immediately.

Her name is Circe, she’s the daughter of Helios, banned to an island because of what she has done. Her crime wasn’t the fact that she could cast witchcraft, or the fact that she made someone a monster and someone else immortal. Her crime was telling everyone what she did and making her father seem like a fool. As punishment, Zeus demanded she isolated to an island for all of eternity. However, just because she could never leave, didn’t mean others couldn’t come to her. So her thousand years of life are filled with wonder and stories of all who she had met and all she had cursed.

When I first started reading this book, I knew I was going to like it. The writing was beautiful and captured me from page one, and I liked Circe. I enjoyed watching her grow from the girl who wondered her fathers empty halls, looking to belong somewhere, and seeing her became this goddess who even Athena wouldn’t stand against. She had faced mortal men who thought to subdue her, gods and goddesses who thought to trick her, and finally her own divinity in the end. For some reason it wasn’t an ending I was expecting, though after I had read it, I should have known it was where her path might have lead, but I never suspected a thing.

I think that was the greatest thing about reading this book. Even though most of us know the stories about the Greek gods and while some of the stories in the book are familiar, everything felt fresh. It was purely Circe's’ story, yet it involved so many different characters and seeing them in a light that played well with the story. I can’t wait to see what Miller has up her sleeve for her next book, but I’ve become such a fan of her writing style that I honestly can’t wait.


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