Circe

It's not like i'm some mythology fanboy. I read the Odyssey out of some sense of literary obligation, beholden to the early stories of the Western canon. And Circe, if she's remembered at all, is only from her brief appearance in Homer's story. Island witch, turns men into pigs.

But with this rough clay Madeline Miller manages to fashion something incredible. The book opens amidst the Titan pantheon and it's all mythological mean girls. It's a raucous read right off the bat. Naive first love to modest mortal who becomes a douchebag demi-god and the inevitable other girl. Petulant rage and the home-wrecking nymph is transformed into a multi-headed beast. It's a ton of fun that still respects the source material. Scylla aside there's touchstones aplenty with appearances from Daedalus, Prometheus, Hermes, Icarus, the Minotaur, Jason of the Golden Fleece and of course Odysseus dropping in and out of the narrative.

What's amazing is that Madeline Miller is fashioning a coming age story. A minor miracle given she's dealing with an immortal. But from that first disastrous crush to coming into her own, Circe is shown working to define her abilities and secure her independence. Childbirth is shown with all the epic pitch of any traditional hero narrative and motherhood is a defiant struggle that is, at its core, completely badass.

Miller sticks the landing and frankly I was left a little ruined for any subsequent read. Just phenomenal. You check out my video review here: https://youtu.be/B9DdmRRlF6M