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).

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

#1 New York Times Bestseller -- named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

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416 pages

Average rating: 7.88

1,390 RATINGS

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41 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Leopardsnake
Nov 10, 2023
10/10 stars
I loved this book. The struggles and the pain were hard . But the ending was satisfying.
diva
Oct 17, 2023
8/10 stars
Oh my gosh this was so exquisite! At times, so heart wrenching that it made me want to cry while, so so beautiful..
Circe is such a unique character. She has been depicted in such depth and her feelings have been given justice.

Her gruesome childhood was shown very vividly and I could see her character and independence building gradually as she realized that no one would be a pillar of support for her and she would have to forge her own path.

The quotes I liked!
"You can teach a viper to eat from your hands, but you cannot take away how much it likes to bite."

''Then I learned that I could bend the world to my will, as a bow is bent for an arrow. I would have done that toil a thousand times to keep such power in my hands.''

"But in a solitary life, there are rare moments when another soul dips near yours, as stars once a year brush the earth."

"All my life, I have been moving forward, and now I am here. I have a mortal's voice, let me have the rest."

Circe was greatly underestimated her whole life but still managed to hold off Athena with her spell and protect her son, Telegonus. She went through so much and yet, didn't lose herself. She was a mortal at heart, encased in an immortal body with a mortal voice.

I suppose there are many retellings of Circe, but this is the first one I have read and I really loved it. Besides, the cover is a-maz-iing!
I recommend this book to all Greek mythology lovers!
bizzyyoung
Oct 12, 2023
10/10 stars
One of my favorite books of all time. A subversive retelling of Greek mythology.
Corvus_Libri
Sep 18, 2023
10/10 stars
A story of divinity, death, magic, & what makes life worth living. This could be a retelling of all the myths that make you love the women of Greece or it could be the story of how one sinks into their own being stretched out over millennia.
A great story that I will be happy to come back to and to read anything else this amazing author puts out. The writing style is both comfortable and new, I find it gives me the feeling of translations but slightly to the right from every point in time there have been translations of the ancient greek.
susanontherocks
Sep 09, 2023
10/10 stars
Wonderful to see all these famous myths told from a woman’s perspective. To see what might have happened from the other side.

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