by Madeline Miller
Rating: ****
Thoroughly good book. What shone through was Miller's love and dedication to her art. I really felt she poured herself into her characterisation of Circe. It came across very sharply to me as an incredibly personal work and the tireless emotion and graft behind the writing added to its impact. I found odd passages a bit lax and sometimes Circe irritated me, I wanted to shake her, I felt she was a little bit sloppy at times with her speech and thought, however, on the whole the narrative is very fresh and modern without being naff and patronising, which you sometimes find, especially in mythology retellings. The way that well-known myths were effortlessly woven through the story were very clever and skilfully done. Miller captured the essence of the Gods' magic without, again, it sounding whimsy and Disney. It worked and it worked well.
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