Circe by Madelline Miller is a Guaranteed 5 Star Read

I am just going to start with this: if you want the FULL story of Circe without having to read the book and like a 5 second review- go watch the video I will link here.

Now to the actual book you all clicked on this article for.

Circe by Madelline Miller.

We follow our main protagonist Circe throughout her life. Much like a history book we see these events in her life happening in snapshots of the most memorable and impactful.

We watch her timeline of life as child in the hall of her father Helios and the mistreatment she received from everyone in her life, her first love of a mortal and the growth of her power, her jealousy and heartbreak turned act of vengeance which does not go unnoticed or unpunished, and finally the unraveling of her punishment and her effects on the lives of those around to her final decision for herself.

Many myths are interwoven in her story and we are reintroduced to a whole cast of characters that we have seen before if you are a lover of myth. Many of these characters were shown to us with a whole new perspective that many myths do not touch on. The importance of deeds and the thoughts of the times are heavily contested by our main character and minds in this book are not only changed in terms of the characters but the readers as well.

Why I highly recommend this book.

There are so many good reasons to love this book.

One of the main reasons was that this book challenges our thinking of heroes and villains. One particular audio that I have been loving of Tik Tok recently (please do not come for me too hard on this haha) was of Loki saying:

"See I know something children don't. That no one bad is ever truly bad. And no one good is ever truly good."

I love this audio because it is the truth. We all have our bad and our good. History determines our legacy for us and there is nothing that we can do to change the public perception. It is never a stable or sure thing, but it was the biggest aspiration for the men of that time to be remembered.

In a way many throughout history have fallen victim to that desire only to be ruined within its pages or ruined in their lives for the quest of something beyond their power to control. This book is a great reminder and it shows us these things through inner monologues, discussion and debates amongst characters, and the outcomes of lives told as mere stories rather than real people as the timeline progressed for Circe.

Throughout the book ideologies, hierarchy, social roles, and justice were all touched on. What made it more interesting as the book progressed was that it does not even seem to be the main purpose of the story to dwell on those things. Rather as our character goes through life, her seeming naiveté and ignorance grows into knowledge and principles. With that these elements are just automatically interwoven and it is credit to the author for being able to seamlessly meld Circe's inner thoughts and feeling with the plot of the story in a way that does not seem to belabor or drone on.

What I may have changed, if anything.

As mentioned above, this story was woven over many thousands of years because our protagonist was an immortal deity. This allowed for an interesting choppy read and at the start it was a point of contention for me as someone who likes to see the plot and the world unfold like a movie. You get too many jump-cuts or flashbacks and it becomes annoying and distracting rather than a good use of technique.

So if you are like me and that annoys you, rest assured that it does get better when you try to think of it as snapshots of a life rather than a cohesive picture. She is an immortal deity, therefore, there really is no other technique that can be used or we would have an Iliad & Odyssey sized work.

Not entirely necessary for the life of one goddess.

In conclusion, it is better to read with that approach in mind otherwise that would have been more distracting to the actual story than it ended up being.

Rating.

I gave this book a 5/5 star! It was such a fantastic read and one that I have been trying to push on all of my friends who are into reading as well. It is a fun and light-hearted read with many great messages hidden underneath. This made for a perfect mix as someone who likes to both mood read and go in-depth on a book.

This is definitely on the list of my top favorite books of all time and (knock on wood) in the top of the running for my favorite book of 2022!