CIRCE

Circe by Madeline Miller

Rating : 4/5

I got A Song of Achilles years ago back when Costco still had books. That was a 5/5 book for me, I think I read it three times. Miller has a very distinct writing style.

So you can imagine Circe has been on my to read list for a while. I was very pleased to find it in hardcover at my local library. Libraries are amazing, libraries are wonderful, libraries deserve more funding. In other hot takes, Hitler was a bad person.

I like Greek mythology. My dog and my bird are both named after Greek mythological figures, with my bird’s beautiful namesake making a minor appearance off-page.

The original characterization of the immortals was my favorite part of the story. Helios is glowing yellow, so radiant that he hurts to look at. The most powerful of the titans. He’s Gary Stu but super duper narcissistic. Powerful and narcissistic and unchanging- that’s a theme among all divines in this story except our titular protagonist.

Glaucus is blue-skinned. Oceanos is powerful but sickly looking. Hermes is infinitely charming but derisive. Artemis is wrathful. Among my favorites were Circe’s siblings: The beautiful not-twins Pasiphae and Perses who constantly bully Circe, and the philosophical and amoral Aeetes. I loved what was shown, but I loved what was not shown even more. Perses and his dreadful necromancy. Most of all Aeetes, who’s implied to be the most powerful of the four siblings. He and Circe are close as children, but he drifts apart to chase power. Circe sees him as cruel, but to him mortals deserve no more consideration than one might give a rock. You can’t be cruel to a rock. Nymphs are widely seen as useless, with the pretty ones being somewhat less useless. None of the immortals are portrayed favorably by Circe.

It’s far more interesting than the tired “gods are just humans but immortal and hot.” Which is not a criticism of ASOA, if you’re wondering; it’s more of a human story, but the divines are portrayed as equally cold. Circe the book occurs on a grander scale, which I liked.

Circe the character is seen as somewhat of a glorified nymph, and not one of the pretty ones. Her chin is too pointy and her voice is unpleasant. We later discover this is because she sounds like a mortal. Gods have a certain voice that is instinctively terrifying to mortals, but Circe can blend in.

I have to make a “Not like the other girls” critique here. It’s like the classic romance protagonist: nobody likes her because she was so smoll and her eyes were homophobic and her teeth too white! But it’s fine because she’s powerful and nice. And unlike those stinky divines, Circe’s power requires actual effort.

She cares about mortal lives and her killing of Scylla (whose life she single-handedly ruined) is portrayed as an empowering event. She’s not meant to be without flaw. She transforms and kills entire crews of men if she gets bad vibes from their captain, innocent individuals be damned. She’s naive to a fault. She makes questionable but gradually improving choices in the romance department. She falls in love with literally the first man she ever sees. Come on.

Anyway. I really liked the book, it just wasn’t a 5/5 for me. I spoiled the mythology midway, but the actual ending was different and it was a good change. I thought it would be weird if the 15 year old boy had romanced the 50something year old woman and I’m glad Miller did not go that direction. But would I have said the same if the genders were reversed? Young Greek princess and some faraway king? I bet you can find lots of feminist critiques about Circe. Themes: being powerful in a world where women are powerless; female friendships; the significance of her being “ugly”; Pasiphae’s love life. But I don’t want to write that. Go somewhere more academic.

What was the plot? What was that ending? There’s 5+ major plot points I haven’t mentioned at all. I won’t take that away from you; go read it yourself. But I will say it’s a happily ever after that makes you glad to be human.