Circe

In the first quarter, I was sure that I was going to rate it 4 stars or above; halfway through, the book lagged and I was frustrated with Circe, I was sure then that I would only rate it 3 stars, 3.5 at best. By the end, I was back to 4.

This sort of wishy-washy rating is due primarily to Circe's inaction. For most of the book, she seems to chafe at her exile but does not even seem to be plotting to leave. Especially after Hermes points out that others can come to her island, I felt like more would be done to show how Circe bends the world to her will using that fact, instead, yet another thing is foisted upon her which she hates (the nymphs). As another review mentioned, I felt that as a feminist retelling, her relationship with the nymphs was squandered. In many ways, the structure of the book reminded me of the Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo, in that her life story seemed to be framed by the men she had had relationships with. However, unlike that book, there was no female-female relationship anchoring the story and I felt like that was something that was really lacking in this book. In addition, when Pasiphae mentions that Circe will never leave Aiaiaia and Circe comes home to spends time ruminating on that, I was sure I would see some fight in her. Yet she continues to languish on the island. Also, their connection is another female-female relationship which was squandered. Of course, that was salvaged in the end, by her relationship with Penelope, which explains the rating bump. It was also good to see Circe finally stand up for herself, even if it only happened after a 1000+ years.