Reviews tagging 'Death'

Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry

45 reviews

bookedbymadeline's review

informative slow-paced

3.0

I’ll start off by saying Mythos was an interesting read but kind of overwhelming or annoying at times.

The first part was the worst as I had trouble wanting to read it with the overwhelm of facts. As another reviewer put it, and I can’t word it any better myself, it was like reading a Wikipedia entry!! It’s so much information being thrown at you in a straightforward way (which is fine), but it got tedious and boring at times. I had to set it aside multiple times and focused on other books instead. And when it’s not info overload, Fry uses so much alliteration I began skimming. It was like he was trying to reach the word count by adding in as many adjectives possible 😬

This book is categorized as fiction so I think I was expecting more depth and better story flow. But it’s a lot of who’s who and who hated who without a real story/long lasting impact. But then when it was more of the storytelling writing I was looking for, the irritating amount of adjectives came in (Stephen I don’t need a run on sentence giving all the synonyms for sad) 🙈

Writing especially the dialogue can be a bit much-I will just never understand British humor 🙈 I cringed at the parts that I think were meant to be funny?

The last two parts were much better! Part one did have new info that I didn’t know about so I did appreciate that. The writing was just so dry and mainly an info dump. Once we get to parts 2 and 3 with the “lesser” gods and mortals (Persephone, Eros and Psyche, etc) it flowed much better and was an easier/more enjoyable read for the most part!

I own the other two books in the trilogy already and loved hearing Stephen Fry do a reading for Troy so I pushed myself through. Partially glad that I did but by the end I was so over it 😂 I’m hoping what I’ve seen from other reviewers is correct in that Heroes is way better than Mythos! 🙈

If you know nothing or very little about Greek myths then I’d recommend this for the pure amount of info you’ll get on the gods and background stories. You may enjoy this if you love Greek mythology too, I love the topic but sadly this one didn’t do it for me but I know others enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Murder, Rape, Violence, Infidelity, and Incest

Moderate: Child death, Suicide, and Death

hiddeninfantasy's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Body horror, Cannibalism, Death, Infidelity, Animal death, Violence, War, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Sexual content, Abandonment, Incest, Toxic relationship, Child death, Confinement, Kidnapping, Rape, Sexual assault, and Sexual harassment

davbat's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Really good, but I think the subject matter was just too ambitious for one book.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Child death, Cannibalism, Blood, Suicide, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, Physical abuse, Kidnapping, Injury/Injury detail, Sexism, Ableism, Abandonment, Rape, Murder, Xenophobia, War, Violence, Torture, Slavery, Sexual violence, Infidelity, Infertility, Incest, Grief, Gore, Genocide, Colonisation, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Death of parent, Body horror, Alcohol, Fire/Fire injury, and Animal death

Everything in the Greek Myths.

issyd23's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative lighthearted mysterious reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Basically Percy Jackson but for adults 3⚡️

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Body horror, Cannibalism, Child death, Animal death, Adult/minor relationship, Abandonment, Child abuse, Animal cruelty, Blood, Bullying, Death, Death of parent, Dysphoria, Emotional abuse, and Domestic abuse

achay91's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Violence, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Animal cruelty, Animal death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, Sexism, Alcohol, Child death, Death, Death of parent, Rape, and Sexual assault

Moderate: Bullying

catherinedsharp's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

I used this audiobook to fall asleep to do I did miss bits of it but I still very much enjoyed the text. 

As a person who has some understanding of myth, it was easy to click to the stories that I already knew and I was fascinated by those I didn’t!

The writing style was funny, casual and accessible to all, not sparing any details to understand the brutality of some of these myths.

An enjoyable book, did. enjoy and would recommend.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Blood, Death, Pregnancy, Sexual assault, Animal death, Infidelity, Sexual content, Sexual harassment, and Adult/minor relationship

missisis's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Infidelity

Moderate: Rape, Death, and Pregnancy

missisis's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative relaxing sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Rape, Pregnancy, Death, and Infidelity

bookcheshirecat's review

informative medium-paced

4.25

“For the world seems never to offer anything worthwhile without also providing a dreadful opposite.”

➽ I have always liked the Greek myths, so Stephen Fry's retelling was great to experience! I highly recommend the audiobook, as he's such a great narrator and makes the different stories sound so interesting! I know a bit about Greek Mythology, so I liked how Stephen Fry retold the stories in an interesting way, adding his own comments and referencing research about the origin and deviations of the myths!

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Content Warnings

Minor: Physical abuse, Death, Murder, Rape, and Sexism

team_mosaic's review against another edition

adventurous dark informative reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

literally just a retelling of greek mythology, but the tone and language feel like you're infodumping with a close friend, which is qn utter delight

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcohol, Animal death, Cannibalism, Violence, Sexual violence, Sexual harassment, Sexual content, Pedophilia, Infidelity, Incest, Death, Adult/minor relationship, Blood, Body horror, Suicide, Stalking, Sexual assault, Sexism, Rape, Physical abuse, and Murder