Review | Circe by Madeline Miller – Life of a Literary Nerd

Title: Circe

Rating: ★★★★★

Publisher: Little, Brown & Company

Release Date: April 10, 2018

“It is a common saying that women are delicate creatures, flowers, eggs, anything that may be crushed in a moment’s carelessness. If I had ever believed it, I no longer did.”

Circe is a story about peace, power, and magic. It’s a story that commands you to demand your own worth. seek your own happiness, and embrace who you’re meant to become. We follow the outcast Titan Witch Circe through the trials and tribulations of her life, and what she makes of them, in this beautifully moving story.

I love stories with an oral history style narration, where the character is talking to the reader and sharing their story. It feels so intimate and personal that it’s so easy for me to connect and empathise. And the writing was so utterly beautiful that I could not put the book down.

Circe is such a wonderful character. I was mostly familiar with her from the Odyssey, but seeing her highlighted her; she shined like the child of the sun god. Circe goes through such a journey from purposeless and miserable to determined and fearless. She comes to possess this fierceness for life that transcended the page. Her story was heartbreaking, uplifting, and validating.

After I was finished, I felt this deep sense of comfort and calmness. Circe made me feel not alone in difficult journey of being a woman who is finding herself. I felt seen and encouraged. It can be hard to write reviews for books you love because you just want to sit back and bask in the awe you have for a story, but if my rambling words can somehow convince you to give this story your time, I don’t think you will regret it.