Circe by Madeline Miller – A Mythological Fantasy Review

What I Loved:

Circe is a female goddess who lives by her own rules and I loved that. If someone pisses her off, she’s using her witchcraft to take care of them. If she needs to protect a loved one, she’s walking the ocean floor to do that. She’s pretty awesome!

How I Felt:

I really didn’t know anything about this book when I picked it up. I won a copy of Circe through an Instagram book giveaway and thought, well this will be a fun new read! I found myself drawn into the story, but lost at times because I didn’t know much about Greek Mythology. While, I did land on a five-star rating for this book, I think I would have enjoyed it even more with the knowledge of the legends.

The Writing: Madeline Miller has a beautiful way of telling a story. Her writing is almost lyrical, ebbing and flowing. She offers down time, where Circe is introspective, and then times of great excitement as well. I was really impressed with her ability to write a story where the main character is alone a great portion of the time. She brought secondary characters in at times to spice things up, and overall, Circe was a beautifully written book.

The Plot: I felt that the plot of Circe took a bit to fully form for me. Not knowing the history of Circe, I wasn’t sure where the book was going. However, as I reflect on the story, it was great. There was some crazy action that would make for an awesome movie. There were twists and turns that I didn’t see coming and overall, it was just an excellently told story.

The Characters: This story circles around Circe, a goddess in exile. She was amazing. Circe had depth and such emotion throughout her life’s trials. She falls in love, she revenges herself when wronged, she has compassion…she has it all.

Overall: I loved Circe. It was a bit of a slow-burn for me, but it grew on me as the story progressed and stayed with me afterwards.

To Read or Not To Read:

I highly recommend this book for readers that enjoy a mythology. Fantasy readers will also enjoy this.

Where to Find This Book:

Circe by Madeline Miller is available at these sites.

Amazon Kindle | Amazon | Goodreads

Circe, born daughter of Helios, grows up feeling like the outcast of her family. She doesn’t possess the power of her father or the viciousness of her mother. She connects with her younger brother, but in time, he leaves to start his own life and rule.

She befriends, and falls in love, with a mortal. She discovers she is powerful, but through witchcraft, not the normal power of the gods. After turning her mortal love into a god, and losing him to another, she is exiled by Zeus to an island to live in isolation.

Her island, at times is lonely, but at others, feels so filled with visitors, she longs for the isolation again. Her story takes the reader on many journeys to meet a variety of famed Greek characters. Her power brings fear and anger from other gods and she must find a way to protect what is hers.

Just the Facts: