I really enjoy retellings, so this book was perfect for me and this is one of the best retellings I have read. I'm now interested in reading more about Greek mythology and more by this author. I didn't necessarily think that he writing style was particularly brilliant or beautiful, but it was well constructed which made it easy to read. I think the strongest part of this book is the characters. The main character was especially well developed and believable and I kept reading because I was committed to finding out more about her. I didn't really know very much about Circe before reading this book so I found this to be a refreshing way to learn. Thoroughly enjoyed this book and I would recommend it (especially to mythology lovers).

'I thought once that gods are the opposite of death, but I see now they are more dead than anything, for they are unchanging, and can hold nothing in their hands.'
5 wonderful Madeline Miller stars! After The Song of Achilles, I was intrigued to see what marvels would come next. Set in the aftermath of the Olympian victory over the Titans, Circe is a lesser daughter of Helios, the Titanic Sun God, a nymph and immortal.
I am not going to go into details of plot. When I started reading, I remembered little of Circe's story, but as I went along I consulted my old friend Wiki for background information. You will recognise many of the cast of thousands!
The writing is beautiful and evocative- it feels like easing yourself into a warm Mediterranean Sea and carries you along on its tides and currents. My heart went out to Circe time and time again. I've never actually liked the idea of living longer than anyone else, but immortality never looked so bad!
Recommended.

Thanks to Netgalley for an ARC of this book. All opinions are my own.

This book blew me away.

There are many ways of judging a book: the cleverness of the plot and concept; the beauty of the prose; the depth of the characters; the emotional effect it has on you personally; the importance and relevance of the themes it addresses, to name but a few. But given that I’ve never encountered a book that’s managed to cover every single category equally without stretching itself thin, I usually try to judge a book on how well it deals with the aspects it’s chosen to focus on; in other words, the extent to which it excels at being true to itself and what it wanted to be.

And Circe is a marvel, in that respect: a book which is wholeheartedly, fiercely true to itself. This tale knows exactly what kind of atmosphere it wants to invoke, what effect it wants to have on its reader, and what story it wants to tell, and is relentless in the pursuit of those goals. The result is a book which, for all that its content is almost episodic at times, and for all its links to a thousand other legends and myths, feels absolutely self-contained, fully realised, and wholly its own entity, with each and every carefully chosen word leading the reader right to its beating heart.

Honestly, this is entirely appropriate – discovering and being true to who you are is probably one of the book’s most important themes. The inexorable passage of time, the constraints and blessings of both divinity and mortality, the challenges of parenthood, and the ways women are repressed and rise up against that repression are just some of the other themes explored in gorgeous, thoughtful detail, but it’s learning how to forge your own path in the world that is the book’s guiding current, underlying each twist and turn of the plot.

Speaking of the plot, you’d be forgiven for expecting very few surprises along the way if you’re familiar with Greek mythology, but the joy of this book comes in filling in the blank spaces, the edges, the gaps between words in the epics of yore. Madeline Miller has a talent for bringing those blank spaces to such vivid life that the stories she weaves there feel almost inevitable (fated, even!) as they unfold, with the minor tweaks and changes to the myths preventing them from ever becoming too predictable – but really, the plot is not what this book is about at all.

It’s about the characters and places and times that the plot connects. It’s about women, and their children, and their struggles to carve out a place for themselves in a world dominated by men without carving out the essence of themselves in the process. It’s about a goddess who never truly feels comfortable with her own divinity, a witch who refuses to flinch from the blood that stains her hands even as she loathes it, a woman who overcomes scorn and exile and injustice and her own uncertainty to tread an uncharted path towards her truest self. This is Circe’s story, and it is breathtaking.

However, it would be remiss of me not to note just how many other characters leave an indelible mark on these pages – including, I’m delighted to say, a whole host of other women, who are variously innocent, ambitious, conniving, vengeful, wise… in short, as diverse as the real women that populate this world. Maybe someday I’ll read a book where that doesn’t come as a breath of fresh air (and really, that day can’t come quickly enough), but for now, I’m still thrilled by the sheer number of female characters drawn in such vivid detail in this book that I could practically hear their voice as they spoke.

But of course, they would never have come to life so vibrantly without the prose. I honestly can’t recall the last time I read a book so gorgeously written, where every single line felt like a perfectly sculpted work of art. But more than simply being beautiful, the prose felt almost ancient, primordial, as though the words truly were those of a divine being recounting her own story. It overflows with power, by turns bewitching and brutal, and every description of an otherworldly god or monster (and really, at times it almost feels like a ‘who’s who’ of Greek mythology, in the best of ways – with just the right number of links to Miller’s earlier work The Song of Achilles to be meaningful but not trite) somehow makes them seem both tangibly real and terrifyingly alien. It makes for an utterly bewitching read.

There’s just one more thing I’d like to mention in this absolute behemoth of a review: the ending! I have to confess, for about 3 chapters towards the end, I was feeling distinctly grumpy. Without saying too much, there was a particular route I was fervently hoping the story would go down, and in the end, it went in a completely different direction. However, the last few pages soothed every ounce of my indignation. The very last scene in this novel is one of such completely fitting circularity that I honestly think it might be one of my favourite ways a book has ever ended. I don’t think I’ll ever stop wondering what the story might have looked like if it had taken that other route instead, but the final paragraphs of this tale were so perfect that I can’t quite begrudge not knowing. I’m content to simply have had the enormous privilege and pleasure of reading this absolutely wonderful book.

I have been waiting for this book for long that it is actually ridiculous! I fell in love with Patroclus in The Song of Achilles and I have fallen in love with Circe here.

If you are yet to read The Odyssey by Homer then I really recommend it. As a classics student it was one of the best books. I also do not feel that you can appreciate the story full without reading The Odyssey. In Circe there are so many parts missing, only so many tid-bits. This is truly Circe's story and no one elses.

While this inspired by The Odyssey, and while the story of Odysseus does take up the majority of the story-telling there are other myths and other stories woven into the telling. I loved how the all came together. And you get the sense of immortality of Circe and how time flows differently for the gods.

I loved how Circe was used as the narrator. I feel ever story she is in she is undermined and seen only as a witch. Some one who hinders and never helps. She is looked down upon by the other gods and is mocked for her human voice. Yet she is a determined, naive and sassy person. Who works incredible hard. She also does not let her divinity or her abilities make her into a bad or demanding person. Yes she goes through a stage of turning men into pigs but everyone is allowed a bad day.

I loved and adored this book - it was a fun and fast telling of all the major Greek myths. And despite being set in a fantasy Circe somehow had a human voice and human vulnerabilities.

And whether or not you know the Greek myths I can promise that this is a fantastic read.

I loved Song of Achilles and worried that this would be the difficult second book at first but I was soon swept away in the story and loved how it pulled so many strands of Greek mythology/history together via the one character..
Circe's viewpoint added so much to all of the tales and I felt I was living on her island. I stayed up all night to read this and loved it.