Circe - We Loved Your Book So Much We Ate It

Hardcover, 393 pages

English language

Published April 10, 2018 by Little, Brown and Company.

ISBN:: 978-0-316-55634-7
OCLC Number:: 1029608347
Goodreads:: 35959740

(1 review)

The daring, dazzling, and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song Of Achilles that briliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of the Odyssey.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not obviously powerful like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur; Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus; the murderous Medea; and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who …

The daring, dazzling, and highly anticipated follow-up to the New York Times bestseller The Song Of Achilles that briliantly reimagines the life of Circe, formidable sorceress of the Odyssey.

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child--not obviously powerful like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power--the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves. Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts, and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur; Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus; the murderous Medea; and, of course, wily Odysseus. But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from or with the mortals she has come to love. With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love, and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

6 editions

el dang reviewed Circe by Madeline Miller

Wonderful slow read that works much better for me than its source material does

5 stars

I never found this book a page turner, but I loved it from start to finish. Miller's writing is beautiful, and the character she turns Circe into is a wonderfully biting commentator on the affairs of gods and men alike. What she does with this story feels at once very true to the Homeric tradition--in that everything she adds is woven into the mesh of stories that previously existed--and a clearly intentional addressing of the most frustrating things about the old stories. She isn't kind to the macho man heroes of old, but does make them much more interesting, believable characters. In particular the "here's what happened after" she does to the Odyssey deals with everything I find frustrating about that story in a very effective way.

Subjects

Circe (Mythological character)--Fiction.
Mythology, Greek--Fiction.
Goddesses--Fiction.
Magic--Fiction.