Book Review - CIRCE

TITLE: CIRCE

AUTHOR: Madeline Miller

PUBLISHER: Little, Brown and Company

PUBLICATION DATE: April 10, 2018

GENRE: Ancient Historical Fiction

FROM AMAZON: “A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess’s story,” this #1 New York Times bestseller is “both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right” (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times)

THE REVIEW:

This book won awards and raves, which leads me to believe that the world is nuts. 

I struggled to get through this book; it took me 14 days. I dreaded having to do it: dull drudgery.

The word that came to me consistently was sterile.

Passionate gods and passionate people doing passionate things, and I felt none of it. The overuse of similes was glaring. The story should have been amazing, but it was flat. CIRCE came across as unemotional because we were told of her feelings, never shown. She did lots of thinking. The characters lacked depth. A few chapters towards the end perked up a bit but not enough to make the effort of reading the entire book worthwhile.

HBO is doing a series based on it.

CIRCE is Madeline Miller’s second book. She is a Latin and Greek teacher. Her first book, The Song of Achilles, took her ten years to write. It was an award winner, too. I did not read it. I don’t think I will.

Granted, I am in the minority opinion; you can take your chances.

I gave it one butterfly because at least the myth was correct.

~ 20200124 ~

Next up: The Mist, by Stephen King