This is one of the most beautifully written books I've ever read. The flow of words and the emotion behind them is so wonderful to read.

Before reading this book I knew basically nothing about Circe. I read the Odyssey and remember her being mentioned but that's about it. This is also one of the first Greek mythology retellings I've read. I've always been interested in them just never got around to reading any.

[contains spoilers]

The first sentence of this book is what made me decide to read it. "When I was born, the name for what I was did not exist." We use names to explain everything around us, and so for her to be born so long ago that she doesn't have some sort of name to explain herself just seemed really interesting to me. Of course I knew she's a goddess of some sorts so she's thousands of years old before her existence has even started to begin.

The story is told through her perspective throughout all of her life. You learn of her upbringing and the events of her childhood leading up to her being exhiled. These beginning memories are told in a more rushed way compared to the rest of the book. Thousands of years are told in less time than for her to tell the last few centuries of her story.

The writing is very beautiful and emotional and exciting. I had to force myself to stop reading so that I could go to bed the first time I picked it up. The characters are told solely through Circe's perspective which really makes you understand her character and why she made all the decisions she did. She is a goddess but also admits mistakes and this part of her is different than the other gods. She is detached from her family on both sides, the gods/Titans, and the Nymphs. This difference between them is what leads to her exile.

Throughout the story Circe hears stories about the world through Hermes. This means some of the things she hears aren't the exact truth and so as a reader you receive the same information as her and are never quite sure what the full story is.

Other people eventually come to visit her, and at one point she leaves the island to help her sister and falls for a man while she's there. She falls for a few others throughout the story and each time the love she has for them is different because the people are different. It captures such a lonely way to love and it's so powerful to read.

Quotes I love:

"This is the grief that makes our kind choose to be stones and tree rather than flesh." pg.55

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"What was I truly? In the end, I could not bear to know." pg.65

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"But I pressed his face into my mind, as seals are pressed in wax, so I could carry it with me." pg.151

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"Such a constellation was he to me." pg.152

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"Living with him was like standing beside the sea." pg.216

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"He showed me his scars, and in return he let me pretend that I had none." pg.237

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