Circe by Madeline Miller
Circe is the retelling of the goddess, character from the Odyssey, underrated daughter of Helios. I love the idea of myths, however, I’m not super well-versed in them. This book gave the feel of a myth, while not feeling unwieldy or hard to understand. The scale of it felt both epic and satisfying, and I’d love to read Miller’s other mythological themed book The Song of Achilles.
What I really enjoyed about this book is that Circe, while immortal and part god, still has a lot to learn, and she does throughout the course of the book. Circe has some really good character growth – while Circe doesn’t exactly start out unlikeable, she transforms from a naive girl whose punishment makes her easy to pity, into a clever force to be reckoned with.
While it’s probably a more engaging story if you’ve read the Odyssey, being familiar with it isn’t a requirement to enjoy this book. It’s quite fun on it’s own.
For having very memorable characters, and an epic story that spans continents and generations, Circe makes my top 10 at number 3.