Circe

Book Title: Circe

Author: Madeline Miller

Date Started: July 30th 2017

Date Completed: August 6th 2017

Genres: Fantasy, Historical, Romance
Quality Rating: Five Stars
Enjoyment Rating: Five Star

Final Rating: Five stars

Review:

◆ Thank you so much NetGalley and Bloomsbury for this ebook for review ◆

If I could read Miller's classical retellings forever, I'd do it without hesitating. Actually, to call Circe and her other novels retellings greatly under praises them. Miller crafts the entire life of one of the most infamous female immortals of the Greek world; it weaves with The Odyssey but it spreads its wings much further.

Something that I loved about The Song of Achilles, Miller's first novel, was the depth of exploration in the ancient world that has the presence of gods, but from a mortal perspective. Circe does the opposite and explores the immortal side of antiquity - which I may have loved more (jury's still out on that one). Miller is a classicist primarily, so there's already a pretty solid trust of accuracy (or at least creative freedom on original information) of the ancient world when stepping into one of her books. I'm a mythology geek anyway, but walking through the halls of Oceanus' made me want to go and look myself in a room with a book of myths for the next month.

As you might imagine being a (somewhat) retelling of The Odyssey, a story in which Circe traditionally plays one of the earliest archetypal seductresses, there's a bit of romance. Romance that Miller (somehow) makes feminist and genuine, without being dominating. In fact, there are several instances of truthful events from the traditional myth that are a whole host of problematic in our modern society, that Miller twists into reality. I love how she writes in the canon that storytellers would twist events in the favour of the Greek heroes, and how those are the stories that eventually echo through time. What actually happened is therefore up to the imagination, and Miller uses it brilliantly to tell her version of the story of Circe.

There's a lot of storytelling in general, and recounting events scattered everywhere in this book. Historically, it was a key part of the ancient world and not only does it give us a wide scope of the world itself, it makes everything feel so human - even if it's the immortals speaking. It's such a human thing to do, tell stories without really realising they're stories.

Circe, who was a character I was generally apathetic to when I studied The Odyssey in college, became a heroine I could not have predicted I would like so much. She's a very developed character considering there isn't that much to go off of. Like I mentioned, this novel is about the whole of Circe's life, not just her interactions made famous through The Odyssey. The creativity and vibrancy with which Miller expanded her personality and experience was just a joy to read. She was both a gentle and fierce heroine to which I related to more than expected. I'd happily read another novel expanding on the parts of her life Miller doesn't have time to explore in depth.

I also liked how Odysseus is painted as just as much of an idiot as he is in The Odyssey. He may be the master of cunning, second to Achilles as the Greek heroes. But he is an idiot, and Circe knows it well.

I was sad to get to the end of this book, and I'm tempted to read it all over again when it's officially released next year. Do I love it more than The Song of Achilles, one of my favourite novels of all time? I actually don't know, I enjoyed them both so much, but I did like the exploration of the female experience in the ancient world in this one. Either way, I loved Circe and I don't want to have to wait anywhere near as long for the next Madeline Miller book.