This is rather reductionist of me, but also perhaps the most succinct way to describe this book: Remember how Wicked told the tale of The Wizard of Oz from the perspective of the Wicked Witch of the West? Circe tells story of The Odyssey from the perspective of Circe, one of classical mythology’s original witches. This was a ferociously readable and wonderfully vivid story. Like so many people, I’ve long found mythology and folklore to be fascinating subjects for myriad reasons. But I’ll freely confess that I sometimes find the classics on the dry side and certainly on the sexist/misogynistic side. Miller’s Circe is none of those things. It’s so satisfying to get to know powerful Circe herself – not as an enchantress featuring briefly in the life of Greek hero Odysseus, but as a fully-formed individual, who we first meet during her divine, but still no-less-awkward childhood and follow as she grows to become perhaps the most powerful – and entirely self-taught – hedge witch of her time.