I was brought up on Greek myths. I knew the lot, and read and re-read them constantly (I was a Latin teacher's daughter, after all). So I was half looking forward to, half wary of this book. Would it be a re-hash , and disrespectful one at that, of some of my favourite stories?

Well, no. Miller is steeped in these legends, as I was. But she has considered them, and thought how it might actually feel to be a god, a nymph, and above all a woman in Ancient Greek and Olympian society.

Circe, immortal Circe tells her story through the hundreds of years of her life. She's known Prometheus; Daedalus and Icarus; Ariadne and the Minotaur; Jason of Golden Fleece fame, and most importantly, Odysseus, and has stories about all of them. She herself, a bit of a misfit to Helios, her sun god father and her naiad mother, is eventually exiled to the uninhabited island of Aeaea, where she discovers and then hones her skills as a witch. We witness her growing independence; her satisfactions as she develops her spells; her joys and loneliness. She takes lovers as they come her way, but never abandons herself to them: self-protection matters. She's to some extent realistic about their - and her faults, but is to a large extent blind to the shortcomings of her next-to-last lover, Odysseus.

Her struggles with the powers of the gods, with those characters who come her way over the centuries are interesting psychological battles. Though in many ways the last section of the book, in which the story between herself, Penelope, Telemachus and her own son Telegonus resolves itself, is a little too neat: more contrived than I found the rest of the story.

I enjoyed this treatment of tales with which I was once familiar: their weaving into one satisfactory narrative. Most of all, I enjoyed the development of the character of loner, out-of-step Circe, all but outcast in her younger years, but growing to effective independence over the decades of her isolation from the world of the gods. ( )

Circe, a character from Mythology is represented here as a feminist heroine. Exiled and abandoned, she lives an independent life, defending herself against mortals and gods. Beautifully written.
I have to admit, I don't know a lot about Greek mythology. The book includes a "cast of characters", including Olympians, Titans, humans, and monsters. The book has inspired an interest in reading more about these characters! I also enjoyed listening to an interview with the author in which she describes her reasons for choosing to write about Circe, and also recommends further reading. ( )

It seems when I engage in anything to do with Greek Gods (university courses, tv shows, movies, video games, books) I think I should like it way more than I actually do. I don't know if it's the storytelling or that I'm sort of over it or if I've just heard the stories so many times yet still can't retain exactly who is God of what, only that they like to fight and fuck everything and are incredibly pompous.

I know this book received a lot of critical praise, but it didn't entirely work for me. It didn't help that we took a major break with about 20% to go or that the final section felt like it dragged on and on, while the first half was quite exciting. Perdita Weeks was a phenomenal audiobook narrator, she did a tremendous job and I don't think the book is poorly written, it just didn't click entirely for me. ( )

Beautiful retelling. I love it when someone is able to help me have empathy for an immortal goddess. ( )

This is another 4.5 which, though an excellent book, doesn't quite make it to be utterly brilliant for me.

I've seen a few reviews treat Circe either as a 'retelling' or a 'reimagining', but I think it is more accurately a 'reinterpretation'. Miller has taken various elements of Classical Greek myth (which in themselves are often inconsistent and non-linear) and woven them together into an account of the heroic age told from an unexpected focal point.

Aside from the wonderful prose that she has carried over from The Song of Achilles, I think the thing that Miller does best is deal with the anthropomorphism of the Greek gods, and just how much (or little) they have in common with humans. While the account is already ‘unconventional’ in the sense of taking the perspective of a minor female goddess, it is also rare to have a story of this period where we get to see what it may have been like to be a deity. This exploration of the line between mortal and immortal, and how the strengths and weaknesses of each can manifest in the other, was immensely interesting for me.

The thing that kept it from a perfect score for me was the absence of a substantial plot. I was a decent portion through the book before I realised that this was going to essentially be a character study for Circe rather than a complete narrative, and while it works extremely well as such, the result is that the pacing is very jumpy, and some of the climactic moments felt less impactful than they should have been.

However, while this book won't be for those looking for an action driven and fast paced romp through Greek mythology, it is certainly a well written and thoughtfully considered portrayal of Circe, and engagingly sheds light on elements of that world that are generally passed over. ( )