March is Women’s History Month, and it’s also the start of spring. With that in mind, here are three books that center around women and new beginnings.
“Circe” by Madeline Miller tells the story of an ancient Greek witch named Circe who turns men into pigs. To me, this book feels like Circe’s coming-of-age story, even though she is immortal. I loved watching her grow from an innocent, lonely child to a scarily powerful adolescent goddess making war-hardened soldiers suffer for their crimes. Miller’s prose is one of my favorite parts of her book. The beautiful song-like quality of her writing makes the book feel more like its own myth, rather than a re-interpretation. Miller’s descriptions of the depression, loneliness and heartbreak Circe experiences make the reader feel like you’re actually living Circe’s life with her. However, what makes this story feel like more than just a story about a woman’s suffering is that she evolves from a scared child into a fierce and fearsome woman. In this way, “Circe” is not just a retelling. It’s a rebirth.
“Lies Like Poison” by Chelsea Pitcher has a somewhat horrifying concept, but it is a story of shocking joy, hope and perseverance. It follows the perspectives of Poppy, Lily and Belladonna, three girls who discover that their best friend, Raven, is being abused by his stepmother. They make a plan to poison her, but it soon falls apart: one of them backs out, and Raven is sent away to boarding school. For three years, the girls stop talking to each other. However, the night Raven returns home, his stepmother is found with belladonna flower petals in her tea. This leads the police to take Belle into custody. The group is forced to come back together to uncover the truth, and from there, Pitcher takes you on a wild ride of betrayal, revenge and romance. This is probably one of my favorite books of all time, which is a high award coming from a book lover. It’s a feminist story of love and self-discovery, and it uses references to fairy-tales like Jack in the Beanstalk, Sleeping Beauty and so forth to make a message about the ways society views traditional femininity and masculinity. Pitcher’s prose catches me off-guard every time I re-read this book. The characters are beautifully written and their stories are so meaningful and heartfelt. Despite being a murder mystery, the allure of “Lies Like Poison” is not its whodunnit plot line, but more its complex characters who struggle to figure out how to love themselves, and each other.
“Girl, Goddess, Queen” by Bea Fitzgerald definitely falls under the “springtime/feminism” genre that I’m shooting for in this book review. Like “Circe,” this is another Greek mythology retelling. It follows the goddess of flowers, Persephone, who chooses to jump into hell rather than marry a stranger. This book has everything a Young Adult Hades-and-Persephone retelling could ask for: an overbearing but loving mother, a Lord of the Underworld who just wants to be left alone to paint, a three-headed dog and genuinely funny banter. This book is lighthearted while also gracefully handling themes of violence against women. Yet, with all that said, this book is Fitzgerald’s debut novel, and it definitely feels like a debut. As far as Greek mythology retellings go, I tend to find the “Persephone-jumped-to-hell” trope a little overdone and tactless if you know the original myth. “Girl, Goddess, Queen” isn’t my favorite book by a longshot, but I still liked reading it and think it fits these categories perfectly.