I haven’t read historical fiction in a while, and I ran into Circe on the Editor’s choice section of a book store (thank you to them for the reference). I like this genre, partly because we have some impressions of these mythologies a prior, and also because the characters are relatable and prove that problems of relationships, emotions and morality endure across centuries.

Circe is not powerful or gifted, and the first chapters read more like an observor of this ancient world unlike most mythologies that are written as records of deeds of the mighty and powerful. This reveals the agendas, cruelty, deliberate ignorance and trade-offs made by world shaping characters such as Helios, Circe’s father/the sun god and Perses, her mother/nymph daughter of Oceanus.