Reviews

Neon Gods by Katee Robert

Only show reviews with written explanations

Chu chu all aboard the hype train! I'd heard of this author before due to her Disney erotica series (yup), and this latest book has been all over bookstagram/booktok. I love the story of Hades and Persephone so it piqued my interest.

Ok, so:
Worldbuilding- Barely present. The characters' names could easily have been find-and-replaced and this would have passed as a typical mafia romance, no gods needed. The characters' personalities didn't seem particularly tied to their inspiration (other than Zeus being a womanzing jerk). Demeter especially made no sense to me because she mourns for her daughter in the original myth but in this she just serves her up on a silver platter to Zeus like?? ok. I don't understand how Olympus works--why is it so hard to leave? Are these people literal gods, reincarnations, are the gods just code names? I learned nothing in the first book.

Romance- Gentle readers of my Goodreads feed, this is a maximum on the spicy pepper scale. Some aspects weren't for me. Also, Hades and Persephone go from being possibly enemies or at least uncertain of each other to banging to love pretty quickly and I didn't feel invested in the sacrifices they make for each other by the end.

idk- Despite the above, I found this to be a quick, easy read. I'll probably read the second one, because I love the Eros and Psyche myth but it will probably be barely related anyway. It didn't live up to the hype for me but still fairly enjoyable!

wannabeweerwolfqueen's review against another edition

Go to review page

3.75

Ik heb altijd een zwak gehad voor retellings van het verhaal van Hades en Persephone, en 'Neon Goden' was best vermakelijk. Het was leuk om te zien hoe in dit boek de goden en godinnen tot leven bracht in deze versie van een hedendaagse setting.

lostinherpages's review

Go to review page

adventurous mysterious fast-paced

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

1.0

beth_joey's review

Go to review page

dark fast-paced

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

2.5

It was just kinda meh. The quote on the front of this book promised an “unspeakably hot” book, but instead it was a lot of half-written smut and low tension politicking over something that I imagine was supposed to feel high stakes. To speak briefly on the smut - the story suggests this is going to be some kind of Dom/Sub relationship, but it is the furthest thing from that. There’s absolutely nothing kinky about this read, so if that’s what you’re looking for, you won’t find it here. As for the plot, it was simplistic and didn’t deviate much from the myth, although I did like the idea of all of the characters being descendants or elected versions of the gods, rather than the gods themselves. That was an approach to a retelling I hadn’t seen before. This book also did a lot of telling, rather than showing, which is why I don’t think I felt the stakes. Going from Our Violent Ends into this made the life and death of this story feel so boring in comparison, so maybe my reading order didn’t do it justice. I dunno… I’d love to have more to say about this book but the whole thing was just meh.

ewck's review

Go to review page

dark lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

lucymt92's review

Go to review page

adventurous dark fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character

3.5

Definitel one with more spice than plot. But J enjoyed this, I was a bit disappointed by the lack of world building or depth to the characters, and feel a little confused about the background. However, I am intrigued by it and will probably read more from ther series.

icedviennalatte's review

Go to review page

4.0

Update: changing my review to 4 stars because despite its weirdness I still think about this book a lot and want to read it again??

3.5 ⭐️ enjoyable, but weird. This isn’t really Greek mythology- there isn’t any element of fantasy or magic like I was expecting. The characters had “roles” and titles of Greek gods, but it was more about politics than anything, which made it less fun. The characters’ names and the power structure were the only things that related to Greek mythology. If Hades and Persephone had different names, it wouldn’t have affected the story much at all.

The setting was so confusing because I couldn’t tell if it was supposed to be modern or ancient. They had cell phones and gossip magazines, but they talked like they were in ancient Greece. Also, there’s something about Persephone planning on escaping Olympus to get a PhD at Berkely that is so out of place and hilarious to me.

But let’s be honest, you’re probably not going to be reading this for the plot lol