This was so good, it made me cry. I’m still crying right now as I type this! Bawling like a little baby. And not because I’m sad! Just because it was perfect and I have all these feelings and they are leaking out of me without my permission. (Okay, some of those feelings are sadness.)
I need to buy this book, and I need to buy it in hardcover (the endpapers are so pretty, and the deckled edges make me happy), and I need to take it out every couple of years like I do my Austen and my Tolkien and my Rowling and just read it and relish in it and love it repeatedly. I will probably cry more.
Fuck, you guys, I’m serious. I’m still crying. I should probably have waited a bit to write this review, but I put the book down, and was so utterly overwhelmed by its perfection that I had to come here immediately and put my feelings *somewhere*.
This is not a real review!!
Okay, I got up and took a couple of laps around my apartment and picked up my cat and put my face on her tummy, and now I’m feeling more sane.
Anyway, so this book was great. Probably if you read it your reaction won’t be as outsized as mine. Particularly as I calm down. And the funny thing is, for the majority of the time reading this, it felt like a four, possibly four and a half star book. I loved her prose, I loved Circe as a character, and certain lines just struck me like, yep. I loved the subtle (and not so subtle) ways she made the mythology her own. But then that ending came along and just tied the whole thing together and suddenly I’m weeping into my computer.
So yes, I think you should read this book!
One day perhaps I will write a review that isn’t entirely motivated by end of book euphoria, but that is not this day. This day we get unfiltered, incoherent enthusiasm.
For some good Circe poems! Check out Louise Gluck’s Meadowlands.
Hmm, poetry. Not usually my thing. Or rather, it’s rare that I find poets that fit my extremely picky taste. But I might check it out, thanks!
I have a bookstore gift card burning a hole in my pocket and you’ve just helped me decide what I should buy.
It’s so good! I will be waiting so eagerly for your review, and hope that you do a better job than I did.
This is probably going to be one of my favs for CBR10. I read it on Kindle, but every time I see it in the book store, I want to have a hardback copy, too! It is such a beautiful book all around.
Mine, too! And I have to thank you because your review pushed me to reading this sooner than I probably would have otherwise. So thanks! :D
This was already on my TBR, but your very emotional review moved it higher up still. I’m absolutely sure it’s a great read, but right now, my brain keeps going to Mallory Ortberg’s Texts from Jane Eyre-portrayal: “Why are your friends so turn-into-pigs-able?”
Ha! I forgot about that. I really need to buy a copy of that book.
I can’t wait to read this! I preordered it as a hard copy so it’s at my house and I will finally be able to get it next weekend! I have a Circe tattoo on my leg and left Song of Achilles so I’ve been super excited about this one.
I actually just finished a book this morning that emotionally wrecked me and felt like a gut punch so I totally get it (A God in Ruins).
The best part about this book is that it totally doesn’t destroy you. It manages to be beautiful and moving without resorting to bleakness, death and destruction.
This was everywhere at LA Festival of Books. Glad to know the hype is worth it.
I mean, I don’t believe in hype, no book is perfect for everyone; but this book is just so well done, I can’t imagine many people not liking it.
Well this just shot to the top of my TBR list. A narfna recommendation like that – how can you ignore it!
(also check your email narfna!)
I got your email and responded! Did you get my response? Or was there another one I missed?