CIRCE
"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times).
In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.
Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.
But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.
With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.
#1 New York Times Bestseller -- named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.
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Community Reviews
Circe by Madeline Miller
385 pages
What’s it about?
Helios is the powerful god of the sun. He takes the nymph Perse for a wife and their first daughter Circe is born soon after. She is a strange child and struggles in this world of gods. This is Circe’s story- told by Madeline Miller.
What did it make me think about?
This made me think about a Greek Mythology class I took at the University of Illinois a very long time ago. Professor Scanlon would have loved this book! I really do need to tackle "The Iliad" and “The Odyssey” one day. Maybe later....
Should I read it?
So, earlier Madeline Miller wrote a runaway bestseller titled "The Song of Achilles" which I was just not interested in reading. I did not realize that Circe was another novel from this same author. Since it arrived in my library hold stack I decided to give it a try. So glad I did! This was so different than any book I have read recently. The characters are all taken from Greek mythology and twisted into a story that is fast paced and interesting. I recommend this one.
Quote-
“That is one thing gods a mortals share. When we are young, we think ourselves the first to have each feeling in the world.”
If you like this try-
The Buried Giant by Kazoo Ishiguro
Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His yeats of Pilgrimage by Haruki Murakami
The Enchanted by Rene Denfield
Simply an amazing novel. For anyone who loves Greek mythology, this is the novel for you. Circe is all about the witch from Homer’s Odyssey, who turned men into pigs for invading her island and her peace. However, there’s more to it than that. Circe gives readers a history of the characters as well as a place in the Greek pantheon. There is magic and wonder on every page and a tone that makes the narrative incredibly relatable.
Often an overlooked character who has been made famous by a series of scenes in a novel, this novel gives this incredibly powerful character a history that gives her a place in modern literature, a place in history past this, a woman who was “tamed” by a lost sailor. As such a compelling character, her representation never seemed to do her justice, casting her like a lovesick woman, a lonely woman, or even as a villain. None of these representations ever gave this character the proper representation, and now there is finally a novel that takes all those representations and gives them some context, adding in complexities and depth.
There’s so much going into this novel, bringing in famous characters from mythology to show the importance of Circe’s role in mythology. The first daughter of Helios, a titan of the Sun, not to be confused with the God of the Sun, Circe was often overlooked as ordinary with a voice was more mortal than it was godly. Her voice and perception ultimately made her the back sheep of the family, often teased and often overlooked by her family. Moreover, from her perspective, this did not bother her much. There’s so much depth to the characterization of the story and the dynamics. They turn Circe into an incredibly relatable character, a compelling character whose own hubris and naïve understanding of the gods mark her falling. Hubris is shown often in Greek mythology, the hero always falls to their hubris, but in Circe’s case, it is more complicated than that. She does not understand quite what it means to be arrogant, powerful, dangerous, or naïve. Again, she was an overlooked character in much of mythology, as well as by her family in this novel, so it takes her time to find herself. However, this does not make her villain; it makes her human, mortal, complicated. Moreover, that is part of the reason why this novel is compelling. Circe is such a compelling character not just because of the power she has within herself which everyone underestimated, but because of her personality.
Circe has not exactly had a comfortable life, it has been hard and emotionally abusive, but she came through all those hardships and used them to influence her, to make her better than everyone around her. This lends itself to incredible character development; it allows her perception to see beyond the pain, to see the hope and beyond. This is something many stories before hands have neglected to show. Circe is powerful, but it does not define her. She does not let anything define her. As a feminist read, this is a great one, because it gives rise to her perspective in a man’s world, this story gives her influence in history and Greek mythology while also delivering a multidimensional character.
Circe is amazing. The character development and her journey is so incredibly compelling. It is a story full of magic and wonder that will inevitably draw in every reader. (★★★★★ | A+)
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