Circe

I feel I've given out too many good reviews, so I want to be harsh...but darn it! This is a great book!

This is an excellent retelling of the Circe myth that weaves it's way through a healthy chunk of Greek mythology. It's written in a style that should be enjoyable for readers of modern fiction. I don't think knowing old Greek stories is needed to enjoy this book, especially if you happen to like fantasy novels.

As someone who at one time had sections of the Argonautica, Iliad and Odyssey memorised (now long since relegated to a cobwebby mental box) I actually found that knowing the key points made this much more exciting.

I was on the edge of my seat muttering to myself:
“How will she handle this one?”...
“Oooh! I know who you are!”...
“Wow that's a different take!”...
“She worked that story in - nice one!”.

It did get a bit slow in places, and did take a while to get going, but it's well worth soldiering on.

Full disclosure:
I once rewrote the story of Circe as a play for a group of 8 year olds. In my retelling, Circe and Odysseus came to their understanding over shared ice cream... so I suppose I'm OK with “reimagining” the Circe myth.