Took me a while to warm up to the book. There were seemingly no character traits to speak of other than “oppressed”, “oppressive”, and maybe “vindictive”. It took a serious while for the book to explore any topic other than those three.
Once all the main players are established, the book takes on a bit more of a slow pace. But in a good way. The story becomes an episodic string of little vignettes, leaning heavily into the realism of tending to animals and farming as a solitary hermit on an island. Those miniatures of realism with a sprinkling of the supernatural, one can’t help but think of Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Having the character of Circe as the continous thread throughout generations, littered with brief encounters, moments of quiet passion, and inevitable separation, it all feels very reminiscent of 100 Years of Solitude. But in a Good Way.