Madeline Miller is one of my favorite authors, I started out by reading her first book, The Song of Achilles. When I heard she was writing a book about Circe, the Greek goddess of magic, I knew I had to read it. And it was honestly a great read, by the second chapter I was so into the book that I just couldn’t put it down and I was spending every second of my free time reading it. I also love everything Greek mythology and I just love the history surrounding it so I was definitely sucked into the book the moment I started reading it.
Now to actually start reviewing the book, Circe starts with the birth of Circe to her parents, Helios, the god of the sun and Perse, an Oceanid nymph. From the moment she’s born, Circe is different from everyone in her household and it is even more noticeable after the birth of her three youngest siblings. She ends up falling in love with a mortal, who unlike the gods, will die. So she begins experimenting in magic to try to keep him alive and ends up discovering that she discovers that she has a talent for witchcraft. Madeline Miller has such a great way of writing for these characters and helping the readers try to picture everything in their head, she would explain the way Helios’ house looked and how it felt when he was and wasn’t there and I could picture the house very clearly and I could feel the Circe felt. She writes in such a descriptive way that I could vividly picture everything that was mentioned.
Many know Circe from her part in The Odyssey where she was turning men into pigs and you may even know her from when she was doing the same thing in Percy Jackson and the Olympian series. Miller mentions so many figures from Greek mythology that I’ve heard of from researching Greek mythology. Miller has a great way of actually writing about these figures in mythology and the way that she has them talking and acting is what I would describe as great characterization. From the myths that I’ve read on these characters I could see them clearly acting this way and I love the fact that she characterized them and gave them their own motives and motivations. Another great thing about the way she writes her characters is that every time she mentioned someone that might have been a god or a hero, I had the strongest urge to go and learn more about them and their myths so I would write them down on a sticky note and just leave them on the page to remind me to research them later and learn more about them.
The book is sort of divided up into two parts, you have the part where Circe has just been born and she’s learning and growing and with her family. Then the second part of the book is more about how Circe is grown and how much older she is now. And with this growth, came new emotions and thoughts that we really didn’t get to experience in the first part. Miller’s way of writing Circe’s emotions is so thoughtful to how Circe felt towards all that’s happened to her in her many of years of living. The way that she has written Circe processing each new experience that she’s been through is very eye opening. When I was reading about the experiences she was going through and thinking about how I might react or understand the situation was very different from how Circe would react and understand. So, seeing the misunderstandings and thoughts of Circe is very eye opening because you can see her line of thought and you can see how she came to that conclusion and it’s just helps you understand that though some people would write Circe off as evil, from reading her thoughts, you can tell that it’s a bit bigger that and understand her perspective on these situations.
Miller really talks about the displays of power and how power can alter or affect your life. She really talks about the way power can change your life and also change the way you see or understand other people. A power imbalance is first seen when Circe is younger and really comparing herself to the rest of the family and how powerful her Titan aunts and uncles as well as her father are compared to her. The power imbalance continues to be seen later on in the book with Circe and the mortal men that she is in contact with. Power really affects the way you relate to people and causes an imbalance between people with and without power and Miller really contemplates that fact in this book and she plays up the thoughts between these people and their feelings.
I really suggest reading this book, it’s very well written and the characterization on figures from the Greek myths are astounding and if you’re a lover of mythology like me, this book is definitely a must read. If you aren’t that into mythology, I still suggest the book, you may have to be a little bit more patient so that you can get a grasp on the characters and what’s happening in the book. But, I still think that this book is remarkable and I think that people would really enjoy the story.
I would like to apologize for the lack of specifications in the book, I didn’t want to spoil anything so I tried to keep it light just in case anyone might read the book after this!
If you have any suggestions for me or Maddy of books to read or any tips in general, please feel free to reach out to us. We have an Instagram and Twitter, @homemadebookies, or you could email us at homemadebookies@gmail.com. Thank you so much for reading!
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