Circe by Madeline Miller

 5/5- Food of the Gods, I might call this book.

Imagine yourself obsessing over Greek Mythology for more than 10 years and finding this book at the right moment, at the right time of your life. Have you got these moments that you are feeling nostalgia and want to rekindle with your old passions? That’s what it feels like while reading this book.

But more like Nostalgia blending with Novelty.

The premise of this novel is very simple and self-explanatory : the life of Circe through the author’s eyes. OK TRANG.. anyone can just rewrite the Greeks Mythology right? What would make this book any different?

WELL. I wish people would write more books about Greek Mythology to be honest. But what makes this book unique is that it’s been adapted for contemporary readers. It’s fast-paced, loaded with actions and more importantly written in a beautiful but humorous way. The plot is well built and the author has found a beautiful way to link all the popular Greek Mythology tales together while making Circe, the main character, grown maturely.

She was the witch of Aiaia and probably one of the strongest, bravest, most human goddess out there. She was immortal but as she learns by herself the betrayals of the Gods and the vulnerabilities of the mortals, Madeline Miller has given this Goddess of Sorcellery a fierce, dashing and valiant backstory.

I looked down at my hands and tried to imagine them weaving a spell to shake the world.

– Circe, Madeline Miller

Besides all of those reasons, the main strength of the novel lie in the choice of the characters portrayals. We get to witness all the main stories from The Greek Mythology through the eyes of the “not your typical heroes” squad like : Circe, Prometheus, Daedalus, Hermes, etc. We all hear about Achilles and Hercules but there are a lot of characters that we as consumers and the media have chosen not to dwell on them. It’s about time that someone gives those side characters a voice.

Big thank you to Hachette Canada for the copy !