Marketed as a feminist retelling of Homer's The Odyssey, Circe by Madeline Miller is told from the titular female's perspective. From her birth to Titan Helios and his naiad wife Perse, to her eventual exile on the island of Aiaia, Circe relates her story in relation to all of the other big names in mythology: Odysseus, Athena, Daedalus, Scylla, and more.
Circe is born the weakest, meekest of four siblings, with a voice thin and reedy, quite unfitting for a goddess. Her siblings tease her mercilessly, but Circe simply avoids them. When Prometheus is brought to her home for part of his punishment (for gifting fire to humans), Circe pays him a small kindness of giving him nectar to drink. He's something she's never seen before: a god enduring endless pain for humans.
So when Circe meets a young sailor, she's reminded of Prometheus's philosophy. Circe quickly falls in love with the man, and uses her powers to make him a god. But when he's turned immortal, he quickly forgets about this woman who is dwarfed among the beautiful nymphs and naiads, the more powerful gods and goddesses.
Circe is eventually exiled to the island of Aiaia for using her powers, and there she learns to live on her own, crafting her spells and draughts, defending herself against greedy men and remaining, for the most part, cut off from the world. But when Odysseus comes to her shores, she is brought into the human world in a forceful, yet normal way, discovering herself as both a goddess and a woman.
The writing was lyrical, and I could tell Miller paid close attention to how she ended her chapters, often concluding them with poetic images that resonate on several layers.
That being said, the style was rather distanced - it didn't feel immediate. I understood Miller's reasoning for this - Circe is an immortal goddess, distanced from the mortal world. It's also a myth set in the distant past, so turns of speech and expressions don't flow the way we might expect them to in our time period. This didn't disrupt my reading, but it did make me wish there had been a smoother rhythm in the language, as I believe Miller certainly had that capability within her.
I'm not sure if this novel quite lived up to the hype, but I still enjoyed it. If you enjoyed the Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan as a child (or an adult!), you'll find similar comfort and excitement in these pages, but the themes made more mature. With its complex protagonist, one who grows without extreme, heavy-handed feminist tropes but rather comes into her own, Circe will certainly bewitch you.
7/10 📕