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3.5/5
Non-Fiction
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Rating: 3.5/5
Pages: 393
Started: 12 January 2023
Finished: 17 January 2023
Summary:
Madeleine Miller's lyrical novel follows the eponymous Circe in her transition from helpless nymph to powerful witch to nothing more than a woman in love with a man. Told from Circe's perspective, the novel gives readers a glimpse of the motivations behind the facade of cruel sorcery seen in Homer's The Oddessey.
Thoughts:
I was so overwhelmed by college applications and school that I wasn't able to enjoy the language of this book as much as I wanted to, but I still really enjoyed the story. At the most basic level, Circe is a powerful witch who does evil things, so of course I support her on principle, especially because many of her evils had fair reasons. That such a villain in history is portrayed as a complicated yet ultimately sympathetic person is very cool, especially considering how much accurate detail Miller includes. The way she weaves so many myths together while maintaining her own narrative is really impressive.
While I know it's not the point of the book, I love Circe's island. The fact that she has power and everything is all her own seems so nice. Aside from her first mistake with Scylla, she mostly just hurts those who hurt her. I aspire to being a witch living alone turning dangerous people into pigs, to be honest.
The surprising part of my experience reading this book was that I wasn't as mad about the power loss trope as I usually am. While I still think it was the wrong choice on her part, the way her wish to be human was presented was compelling and believable, and made it at least reasonably tolerable for me to read.
This was a lovely book, and I hope to try one of Miller's books again later this year, when I'm less stressed, because I think her characters and prose have so much potential.