The Song of Achilles
Madeline Miller
Patroclus tells of his lifelong bond with Achilles, from boyhood to the Trojan War, in the same author's lyrical first novel.
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Books like Circe
Circe gives the witch of the Odyssey her own story, following a Titan's daughter from the halls of the gods to exile on an island. These seven books retell old myths from fresh points of view.
Books to read next
Ariadne
Jennifer Saint
A princess of Crete whose half-brother is the Minotaur tells her own story, and her sister Phaedra gets a voice too, in a lyrical debut.
Elektra
Jennifer Saint
Three women, Clytemnestra, Cassandra and Elektra, are each caught up in the Trojan War and its aftermath, and take turns telling the story.
Stone Blind
Natalie Haynes
Medusa, the one mortal Gorgon, stands at the center of this retelling, which deals with the gods' cruelty and counts a crow and an olive tree among its narrators.
The Witch's Heart
Genevieve Gornichec
A witch punished by Odin starts a new life in a remote forest with Loki and their unusual children, in a debut that turns to Norse myth.
Till We Have Faces
C.S. Lewis
Orual, an aging queen, tells the story of her beautiful sister Psyche, in a 1956 retelling of Cupid and Psyche by the author of Narnia.
The Penelopiad
Margaret Atwood
Penelope, the wife who waited for Odysseus, looks back with dry wit while her maids break in as a chorus, in a short novella.
How to choose
Circe is slow and lyrical, so choose by what you want more of. For the same author's prose, read The Song of Achilles, a love story set in the Trojan War. Ariadne and Elektra stay with Greek myth and its women, and Elektra splits its story among three narrators. The Penelopiad is a short novella with dry humor, while Stone Blind is more intense. For another world of gods, The Witch's Heart turns to Norse myth, and Till We Have Faces is a quieter classic from 1956. You do not need to know the myths beforehand. Several of these include violence, and Stone Blind deals with sexual violence, so check content notes if that is hard for you.
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