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3.34 AVERAGE
3.34 AVERAGE
The ancient Greek gods live in a dilapidated house in modern London and get up to their usual mischief, with apocalyptic consequences.
Greek mythology is one of my favourite things to read about, so when I saw the title for Marie Phillips’ book, I decided to read the first couple of pages. A book has never made me laugh so much and so quickly before, and after only three pages I decided to buy it. The dialogue and internal thoughts of all the characters are hilarious and true to the characters’ personalities. From Artemis’ discussion with a tree called Kate who works at Goldman Sachs in the first chapter to Aphrodite accusing her son Eros of betraying his family by becoming a Christian, the dialogue in this novel is the best that I have ever read.
Not only is it laugh-out-loud funny, but it reads like actual dialogue; many of the conversations sound like any conversation you might overhear in public and the natural delivery attests to Phillips’ skill as a writer. The novel is not merely a comedy though. Phillips uses the characters to address deeper issues such as consent, trauma, mental health and guilt as the gods learn to live is as humans.
'‘I’m the goddess of hunting and chastity,’ said Artemis.
Another silence. Then the tree said, ‘I’m Kate. I work in mergers and acquisitions for Goldman Sachs.’'
Nearly all of the characters are three-dimensional and believable, despite being outrageous exaggerations of themselves as portrayed in mythology. The goddess of chastity, Artemis, can’t stand to look at scantily clad women and blushes at the mere mention of sex. Unfortunately, she lives with Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, who is sleeping with almost every god in the house and works as a phone sex operator. Meanwhile Athena, goddess of knowledge and war, forces the others to listen to her lengthy presentations which none of them can understand because of the language she uses; Ares, god of war, need only be in the room with any two people for them to start fighting and insulting each other; and Apollo, god of music and prophecy, is a television psychic who’s arrogance surpasses all others.
The novel features an endless cast of memorable characters who are flawed and somehow relatable, despite being gods who have lived for thousands of years. However, I found myself disappointed with the characters of Persephone and Hades, who I felt were hurriedly included at the end of the novel and came across as flat. This may be an issue personal to me though, given that these are two of my favourite gods in mythology and I was so excited for them to be included.
'‘What are you up to?’ said Apollo. He didn’t really care. He just wanted Eros to tell him quickly and then ask him what he was up to, so that he could say ‘Nothing,’ in a mournful voice.'
The ending of the novel is the only thing that stops me from giving this book a full five stars. The ending that the author chose was only possible due to a massive plot hole that felt jarring when I reached the end, giving the impression that the ending was rushed. I couldn’t help but feel that Phillips wanted to write about gods getting up to trouble in modern London (and who can blame her?) but that she had not put much thought into how she might conclude the plot. Hence the implausible ending that left me feeling cheated.
Though this ending felt like a disappointment after the high quality of the rest of the novel, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. Though the novel is hilarious, it also addresses deeper issues such as consent, trauma, grief, and guilt.
'She swept out of the room in a manner that was supposed to be imperious, but spoilt it somewhat by smacking Apollo’s lolling head into the doorframe.'
Would I read again? Definitely the first half of it.
Would I read more from this author? Yes.
Greek mythology is one of my favourite things to read about, so when I saw the title for Marie Phillips’ book, I decided to read the first couple of pages. A book has never made me laugh so much and so quickly before, and after only three pages I decided to buy it. The dialogue and internal thoughts of all the characters are hilarious and true to the characters’ personalities. From Artemis’ discussion with a tree called Kate who works at Goldman Sachs in the first chapter to Aphrodite accusing her son Eros of betraying his family by becoming a Christian, the dialogue in this novel is the best that I have ever read.
Not only is it laugh-out-loud funny, but it reads like actual dialogue; many of the conversations sound like any conversation you might overhear in public and the natural delivery attests to Phillips’ skill as a writer. The novel is not merely a comedy though. Phillips uses the characters to address deeper issues such as consent, trauma, mental health and guilt as the gods learn to live is as humans.
'‘I’m the goddess of hunting and chastity,’ said Artemis.
Another silence. Then the tree said, ‘I’m Kate. I work in mergers and acquisitions for Goldman Sachs.’'
Nearly all of the characters are three-dimensional and believable, despite being outrageous exaggerations of themselves as portrayed in mythology. The goddess of chastity, Artemis, can’t stand to look at scantily clad women and blushes at the mere mention of sex. Unfortunately, she lives with Aphrodite, the goddess of sexual love, who is sleeping with almost every god in the house and works as a phone sex operator. Meanwhile Athena, goddess of knowledge and war, forces the others to listen to her lengthy presentations which none of them can understand because of the language she uses; Ares, god of war, need only be in the room with any two people for them to start fighting and insulting each other; and Apollo, god of music and prophecy, is a television psychic who’s arrogance surpasses all others.
The novel features an endless cast of memorable characters who are flawed and somehow relatable, despite being gods who have lived for thousands of years. However, I found myself disappointed with the characters of Persephone and Hades, who I felt were hurriedly included at the end of the novel and came across as flat. This may be an issue personal to me though, given that these are two of my favourite gods in mythology and I was so excited for them to be included.
'‘What are you up to?’ said Apollo. He didn’t really care. He just wanted Eros to tell him quickly and then ask him what he was up to, so that he could say ‘Nothing,’ in a mournful voice.'
The ending of the novel is the only thing that stops me from giving this book a full five stars. The ending that the author chose was only possible due to a massive plot hole that felt jarring when I reached the end, giving the impression that the ending was rushed. I couldn’t help but feel that Phillips wanted to write about gods getting up to trouble in modern London (and who can blame her?) but that she had not put much thought into how she might conclude the plot. Hence the implausible ending that left me feeling cheated.
Though this ending felt like a disappointment after the high quality of the rest of the novel, I still thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone. Though the novel is hilarious, it also addresses deeper issues such as consent, trauma, grief, and guilt.
'She swept out of the room in a manner that was supposed to be imperious, but spoilt it somewhat by smacking Apollo’s lolling head into the doorframe.'
Would I read again? Definitely the first half of it.
Would I read more from this author? Yes.
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
N/A
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
A fun imagination of how the Greek Gods would act in today’s world and what impacts today’s world would have on them.
The dialogue’s good. I quite dislike Apollo. It’s not the best written book ever but is short and was genuinely fun to read and that’s really what matters
The dialogue’s good. I quite dislike Apollo. It’s not the best written book ever but is short and was genuinely fun to read and that’s really what matters
adventurous
funny
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Its interesting in the first half, but I'm not for so much cringe comedy and the rest was kind of meh.
The concept of this book was intriguing and fun - Greek gods weakened by the lack of mortal belief are living together in dilapidated messy London brownstone. Apollo is a reality tv show host, Artemis walks dogs and talks to the trees that Apollo has made out if spurned lovers. Aphrodite is a phone sex worker. Zeus has Alzheimer's. Inventive yes. Sadly the main construct of a mortal house cleaner Alice and her boyfriend the nerdy Neil disrupting the complacent gods is so silly that it quickly begins to fall apart. Could have been enchanting and I read all the way to the end expecting some great pay off. Disappointing.
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
hopeful
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
I had such high hopes for this book. With a premise that promises to show the reader how the Greek gods are getting along in the modern world, you’d think it would be difficult to mess it up. Marie Phillips, however, manages to do it.
I’m not saying the writing is bad because it was actually pretty well written, and it does include a couple of smirk worthy moments. It’s just not what the story synopsis had promised.
What I disliked was her treatment of the characters. The gods that I was so looking forward to exploring where cartoons of their stereotypes, one dimensional beings whose only purpose seemed to be stepping stones for plot development.
The real main characters are two mortals who find themselves embroiled in the god’s boredom-born plans for entertainment even though they are non-believers to the core. Again, what could have been an interesting plot twist got turned into story fodder.
Overall, not the worst mythology based book I’ve ever read, but definitely not one I’d recommend.
I’m not saying the writing is bad because it was actually pretty well written, and it does include a couple of smirk worthy moments. It’s just not what the story synopsis had promised.
What I disliked was her treatment of the characters. The gods that I was so looking forward to exploring where cartoons of their stereotypes, one dimensional beings whose only purpose seemed to be stepping stones for plot development.
The real main characters are two mortals who find themselves embroiled in the god’s boredom-born plans for entertainment even though they are non-believers to the core. Again, what could have been an interesting plot twist got turned into story fodder.
Overall, not the worst mythology based book I’ve ever read, but definitely not one I’d recommend.
3.5 stars. An enjoyable mythological romp with Suburban AU Greek gods - and who doesn't want those? Too many characters with too many stereotypes, and too much of a distant third-person British sort of style, for real emotional immersion, but still, enjoyable. Greek god clichés are still usually fun. (Eros was delightful, though, and I'm wondering if his Christian conversion was any kind of shoutout to Till We Have Faces. But that's just me being a bit obsessive about TWHF.)
It's an adult book and it deals with Greek gods, so of course sex is involved, more so in the first half than the latter. A little distasteful for me, personally. But to counterbalance that, we have Artemis sharing a sizable portion of the narration, and who doesn't love Artemis? Not to mention she's essentially the patron saint of asexuality, and it's nice to see Artemis's, say, carnal repulsion dealt with in a way that doesn't make her out to be weird. The whole scene with her talking about it with Neil, and Neil being very understanding, was one of my favorites. I'm hugely biased that way, I guess.
Nothing groundbreaking here, really, but still a lot of fun. If you ever feel the need for Suburban AU with your Greek myth retellings, and you don't too terribly mind liberal use of The F-Bomb and snippets from Aphrodite's phone sex hotline, this is a good pick.
It's an adult book and it deals with Greek gods, so of course sex is involved, more so in the first half than the latter. A little distasteful for me, personally. But to counterbalance that, we have Artemis sharing a sizable portion of the narration, and who doesn't love Artemis? Not to mention she's essentially the patron saint of asexuality, and it's nice to see Artemis's, say, carnal repulsion dealt with in a way that doesn't make her out to be weird. The whole scene with her talking about it with Neil, and Neil being very understanding, was one of my favorites. I'm hugely biased that way, I guess.
Nothing groundbreaking here, really, but still a lot of fun. If you ever feel the need for Suburban AU with your Greek myth retellings, and you don't too terribly mind liberal use of The F-Bomb and snippets from Aphrodite's phone sex hotline, this is a good pick.
A strangely heartwarming romp through modern London with ancient gods. Funny and thought provoking.