Tower of Iron Will

Circe is best known as the witch from the Odyssey who turns men into pigs, but thanks to the complex genealogies of Greek mythological characters Circe is related to dozens of other stories. Miller picks and chooses among the myths in order to tell a coming-of-age story in which the protagonist requires hundreds of years to come-of-age. The novel belongs to the modern sub-genre in which a supporting character from fiction or myth gets to tell their own story and typically the villain becomes the hero or vice versa. Miller's Circe starts out as a surprisingly naive young woman who takes a lot of abuse from her family. Only in exile does she discover her own power and identity. Isolation and a history of abuse sometimes cause Circe to drift into cruelty, but she always regrets it and tries to make amends. If anything, she falls in love too easily, but the author prevents the romantic elements from driving the plot. Circe is a promising debut novel, but I hope its success does not trap the author into a formula of retelling stories from mythology for a post #MeToo audience.