“That is one thing gods and mortals share. When we are young, we think ourselves the first to have each feeling in the world.”
Circe is born to the sun god Helios and quickly becomes an outcast with her plain hair and voice that sounds like a mortal’s. She spends most of her growing up years escaping to an island with her brother. When he leaves her, a sailor starts visiting and she falls in love. In her desire to make him a mortal, she stumbles upon a power she has that she didn’t know – she is not just a goddess, but also a witch. Her actions cause her to be banished, but fate will find a way to bend her future to its will.
Circe was on many top books of 2019 lists and when I was looking for my first audiobook for the year, I saw it was available and checked it out from my library through Libby. I didn’t know much about the plot so I had not set notions as to what the story would be about. I don’t remember much mythology, but the book explains everything in a way that you don’t need to know anything about mythology to follow the story.
Circe gets visitors to her island as other gods send their wayward daughters there to learn a lesson. Sailors sometimes come, but Circe hones her witchcraft on them. Then, the great Odysseus comes to her island and stays for a long while. Their relationship gives Circe the companionship she didn’t know she wanted. When he leaves, she is pregnant, but he doesn’t know it. She couldn’t go back to being alone, so she ensured she would have a child – the son of Odysseus. The fate of the rest of her life lays in that one decision.
I enjoyed listening to Circe. It takes a small part of the mythology story and makes it come alive with the characters in that belief system. The loves, punishments, cruelty and rules of the gods are all used carefully to craft a believable tale of one woman who just happened to be born to the gods instead of mortals. She learns lessons that can apply to all of us about love, letting go, boundaries and what battles to fight. I would recommend this to lovers of good fiction.
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Buy Circe here (affililate link).
