Review: Circe by Madeline Miller
20 Books of Summer 2020: Book 2
I loved Greek mythology when I was a kid. The stories had a kind of randomness—the appearance of monsters, transformations into animals, and Zeus making a pass at everything with a pulse. Madeline Miller’s Circe borrows its plot points from famous myths, but centers Circe in each. True to the source material, the gods are largely uninterested in mortal concerns, getting involved for their own reasons with little concern for humanity. Circe is most interesting when probing the gap between gods and mortals—though Circe inherits a long life and rapid healing from her sun-god father and nymph mother, they view her as lesser and she doesn’t fit in. Nor does she fit in among mortals, who occasionally mistake her for a goddess. read more