New Book Releases of April: Circe by Madeline Miller

   I usually browse through new book releases almost every month. Lately it’s been hard for me to find something that grabbed my attention and could hold it long enough for me to commit to reading it. Last year with its "Nyxia" and "Even the darkest stars" it was much better on that account. This year after so many months I’ve finally found a novel that shined among the one-and-the-same mass. Seriously, what's with all that Reversed Harem trend?! Sounds cheesy and cheap and feels like a whole flock of average writers is going crazy all over it. But the book I came across was refreshingly ... classic in style if it can be called that, well not compared to old classics but among the modern age books it is.

   Circe by Madeline Miller is based on ancient Greek myths. And while we already have books depicting those, it is different from them too. There is a main character that pushes the whole story forward - Circe, the witchy daughter of titan Helios himself. It's not a bunch of stories about different gods like it was with Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman. And in style those two couldn't be further apart. Well, no one can write like Gaiman, that's a fact. He has his own Gaimanian genre with its own Neilian trope. Nevertheless, I'm glad that writers keep returning to those old stories, legends of ancient civilizations, because we need to pass that knowledge on to new generations somehow.

   Circe can be in some ways closer to people due to narration being done from the first person POV. First person always makes it easier to get deep into the feelings of the character without the need to guess them. I like the guess game, I sometimes get irritated when everything is overexplained but it wasn't the case. The narration in its simplistic ways is flowing naturally there. All the mythic events are presented in their shameful and unhidden details, either a nymph rape or zoophilia, but that's ancient legends for you. Some people can be disgusted by it, but there are books with much more alarming content than that out there in the world. It makes it as honest and real as ever, no matter what you feel about it.

   The main character is not your ordinary hero, but not a typical deity either, she is like a complete opposite of both and yet it works. One might argue that the author was leading us to some big last moment like a battle (which didn't happen here but is overused in so many novels), and indeed I've seen reviews about the book like that. I don't understand what they expect from a story based on famous myths though, the author can't really change the events or add too many new things, it wouldn't ring true to anyone who is even slightly acquainted with Greek mythology.

   The story has a solid ending, a happy ending too with a character making the final giant leap in her growth, and even though there wasn't really any major physical battle on the last pages, I would still argue that the scene with Scylla can actually qualify for the part if need be, but the truth is you don't really need a war between characters to make a perfect story - any conflict can give birth to a story, spilling blood is not the only way. And it isn't hard to see where the conflicts and confrontations lie in this one, Circe is carrying them inside herself, everywhere she goes we can see her inner world clash with the outside. She is too different from others and yet too familiar to us, readers, who at least once in our life felt misunderstood or underrated. Ones who feel that they don't fit into the standards of this world might appreciate this new look on ancient myths, it has a solid chance of winning them over.