Reviews tagging 'Fire/Fire injury'

Circe by Madeline Miller

103 reviews

librarymouse's review

adventurous emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Madeline Miller exceeded my expectations with this one. Circe as both character and story is lovingly rendered, and the culmination of her constant change and constant striving for more at the end of novel is more than I could have hoped for.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Confinement, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, Mental illness, Sexual assault, Gore, Misogyny, Sexual content, Child abuse, Pregnancy, Body horror, Blood, Death, Domestic abuse, Fire/Fire injury, and Rape

Minor: Genocide, Slavery, and War

waitwhathelp's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, Torture, Grief, and Rape

Moderate: Child death, Violence, and Torture

hammie_32's review against another edition

challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

This was really disappointing. I had a lot of hopes for a dark, reflective retelling of a myth often starring a villainous evil bitch, easily defeated. And this gets 2.5 stars ONLY because for precisely the first 50% of the book, it was the dark, captivating, sorrowful tale I was promised.

And then it turned into a shitty "feminist" novel. And I know that makes me sound gross, but it's in quotes for a reason. Because why, why does every book featuring a powerful woman always have to end up about

motherhood

? I have nothing against it, and yes, sometimes that IS a powerful statement to be made. Not like this, and not this often. If someone somewhere needs permission, you have my allowance to write a feminist, feminine power, woman-dominated, whatever else story where your main female character DOESN'T

get pregnant

!! Doesn't "

find power in nurturing

." Doesn't

use a child to remedy their own traumas

!!! Successfully might I add! It's just never the feminist statement that these authors think it is, and I'm so sick of having to read it after hearing the same sentiment shouted from the rooftops for years by young women and femmes.

I wish I could have more love for this book. But I want 500 pages of an immortal's torment at the hands of humanity. I want a narrative of her suffering on finding a few kind souls, only to be torn apart by the next pack of dogs. I want a dark assemblage of our species' sins told via a recollection of an eternal life's worth of memories. I want her to be twisted and cold and cruel and I want it to be justified because that would be real. If someone wants something happy in there, throw a Sapphic romance in at the end that doesn't "fix" her. But I can't stand to read Circe talking about the cruelties of men, cruelties of gods and goddesses, cruelties of LIFE, just to turn around and

pop out a baby

because she wishes a reprieve of her solitude.

And then she

fucks her stepson

, and that just made me mad.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape and Sexism

Moderate: Sexual content, Death, Gore, Pedophilia, Blood, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Violence

Minor: Animal death, Fatphobia, Fire/Fire injury, and War

inkwellimps's review

adventurous dark emotional hopeful inspiring sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

Would have been a 5/5, but I didn't care for the ending. The lead character ends up

with the half-brother of her son. I know it's normal for gods, but reading it in a modern context is "ick" to me.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Sexism, Sexual violence, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Misogyny, Body horror, Abandonment, Sexual assault, Pregnancy, Murder, Injury/Injury detail, Incest, and Fire/Fire injury

thewillowwood's review

dark emotional reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

A very pensive and emotionally impactful book that reflects on Circe’s psyche deeply.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Body horror, Confinement, and Misogyny

Moderate: Rape, Torture, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, and Sexism

starryeyedlover's review

adventurous emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Animal death, Infidelity, Pregnancy, Child abuse, Death, Fire/Fire injury, Abandonment, Physical abuse, Sexism, Sexual assault, Grief, Injury/Injury detail, and Rape

Moderate: Forced institutionalization, Medical content, Classism, and Cursing

Minor: Incest

loxeletters's review against another edition

adventurous emotional fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

This was a fun read! Definitely very enjoyable. I read the last half in two sittings over 12 hours lol.

I feel this is a superb kind of retelling: it really captures the feeling of reading the Odyssey and Iliad while conforming, at least in the later chapters, more to our modern taste in storytelling. The beginning certainly had strong narrative resemblance to the old classics.

My main gripe with this book is that, for being marketed as a feminist retelling, it really focuses so much on men and Circe's relationship with them. There's no female friendship or relationship in this book that is given as much space or development as her relationships to her lovers, her father, Telegonus, and her brother. 

That being said, I did really enjoy exploring her complex relationship with Telegonus, and even shed a few tears there. She went through so much and still would give everything for him. That really touched something in me.

Important ideas explored here are immortality and divinity, needless cruelty, motherhood, loneliness, and death. Regardless of my complaints, this was a lovely read.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Fire/Fire injury, and Confinement

Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual violence, War, Pregnancy, Grief, and Misogyny

eliotadrift's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional mysterious sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape

Moderate: Fire/Fire injury and Violence

el_wheel's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional inspiring reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Injury/Injury detail, Misogyny, Violence, Body horror, Animal death, Child abuse, Confinement, Death of parent, Alcohol, Blood, Emotional abuse, Fire/Fire injury, Grief, Gore, and Pregnancy

Moderate: Abandonment and Rape

rjbedell's review

adventurous dark emotional mysterious tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

Beautifully written, equal parts brutal and empowering in its epic sweep of a life across a thousand years.  Occasionally bogged down in dark tensions, or whisked along by a revolving door of side characters that Miller usually succeeds in making relevant.  Ends on hopeful, inspiring notes as a testament to humanity, love, and mortality.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Grief, Infidelity, Self harm, Torture, Toxic relationship, Rape, Child abuse, Confinement, Violence, Blood, Pregnancy, Animal death, Body horror, and Fire/Fire injury

Moderate: War, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, Sexual violence, and Physical abuse

Minor: Suicide, Incest, Death of parent, Terminal illness, and Child death