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clovetra's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
informative
lighthearted
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
ok i think i can say i am a self-proclaimed greek mythology retelling lover. do they probably water down & bastardise the original myths? probably! do i care? nope!
look i’ve tried to read the actual works (looks at the odyssey with a glare) and i fucking hated it the whole time. but when they’re rewritten in the 21st century??? ohhhh ill never get enough of them.
this book was so quippy. bro there were so many fire one-liners. the story was incredibly lighthearted (which i needed!) yet entertaining. every character’s personality oozes through the pages, and you are sitting there rooting for everyone (except hercules he can get fucked).
i liked how this explained everything for my goo goo ga ga brain. i don’t know shit about greek mythology but boy did i love this! i loved how a big focus was on the women in his life, but also largely focused on what a dick hercules was. yeah he did some good things but bro if this story doesn’t have fictionalised aspects…… yeah he deserved what he got in the end.
i’ll be real i didn’t know shit about hercules except he’s strong before this. i’m so happy this book simultaneously educated and entertained me, which honestly i find it hard to find a book able to do this.
i’ll be real tho and say that keeping track of everyone’s names is so hard. yeah that’s the point & the author literally references how everyone has the same name (iole, iolanus, and the other one who i forget). but i can’t say it didn’t confuse the shit out of me. i think my baby brain needed a biiiiiit more context going in to make this a 5-star ranking. but honestly for me i think that is all that is holding the book back, and it isn’t even the book’s fault!!!! it’s just cuz im uneducated regarding greek mythology!!!!!!!
anyways i fuck with meg from disney’s hercules even more now. SHE DESERVED BETTER!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Murder, Infidelity, War, Toxic relationship, Alcohol, Violence, and Slavery
Moderate: Child death, Sexual content, Cursing, Animal death, and Death of parent
erikariehigano22's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
funny
informative
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
What a retelling! I salute Rogerson in their attempt to collate and portray the various branches of Greek Mythology stories where Heracles was the centre of it. Just as their author's notes said, Heracles is "right there in the middle of it." This is an exemplary exhibit of exploring the development of a protagonist through the perspective of another character. And unlike other retellings, it involved various characters my fingers and toes could not count. Not even once did Heracles had his own chapter in his own point of view and this was the charm of this book that was unique and extraordinary despite how simple it sounded.
I also cannot believe this was my first exposure into Heracles' death LOL. Like I didn't think his death would be so.... anti-climatic? For all his glory and ambitious feats of victory, as well as the wrath and violence he had displayed, it was a curse no less casted by a centaur and administered by his own wife that finally cut the threads of his mortal life.
I had not expected for his twin brother Iphicles to pass away in battle. But I think that was the foreshadowing in Laonome's last chapter. Anyhow, I liked how this became the catalyst of their conclusion, the beginning of the end.
I would have finished this sooner if only life and adulting issues had not happen, as well as falling down from grace in uni coursework lol....
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to my friend Nathan for giving this to me on my birthday earlier this year. Although the language had some modern slang that took me off sometimes in the immersion, it was not worse and Rogerson's prose still captivated me and brought me back to the ancient world where Heracles was the centre of everyone's stories throughout ancient Greece.
I also cannot believe this was my first exposure into Heracles' death LOL. Like I didn't think his death would be so.... anti-climatic? For all his glory and ambitious feats of victory, as well as the wrath and violence he had displayed, it was a curse no less casted by a centaur and administered by his own wife that finally cut the threads of his mortal life.
I had not expected for his twin brother Iphicles to pass away in battle. But I think that was the foreshadowing in Laonome's last chapter. Anyhow, I liked how this became the catalyst of their conclusion, the beginning of the end.
I highly recommend this book. Thank you to my friend Nathan for giving this to me on my birthday earlier this year. Although the language had some modern slang that took me off sometimes in the immersion, it was not worse and Rogerson's prose still captivated me and brought me back to the ancient world where Heracles was the centre of everyone's stories throughout ancient Greece.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Addiction, Cannibalism, Death, Gore, Animal death, Blood, Sexism, Slavery, Alcoholism, Grief, Infidelity, Alcohol, Abandonment, Cursing, Misogyny, Child death, and War
aseel_reads's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This definitely gave a pretty comprehensive overview of Hercules and all of the people who interacted or were affected by him. It's definitely a sad story and the 1997 animation of Hercules doesn't touch the darkness at all. It was quite an easy read and I liked the structure of the stories and how they were weaved together. It was pretty easy to keep most of the names and stories straight but a few times, the I names were hard to keep track
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Death, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Infidelity, Sexual assault, War, Sexism, Child death, Alcohol, Death of parent, Kidnapping, Medical content, Animal death, Slavery, Misogyny, Pregnancy, Rape, Grief, and Alcoholism
Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic
hawkes's review against another edition
dark
emotional
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Murder, Alcoholism, Death, Death of parent, Grief, Gore, Infidelity, and Alcohol
megjwilde's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
Content Warnings
Graphic: Child death, Violence, Death, and War
bookish_hollyx's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
sad
tense
medium-paced
3.5
Content Warnings
Moderate: Blood, Violence, Child death, Animal death, Death, and Murder
nmf16's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
informative
lighthearted
sad
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.0
Gahhhh I wanted to love this book so much!! But I’m afraid I very nearly decided not to continue reading it.
It was only because I wanted to learn more about the story of Hercules that I actually kept reading, and it genuinely felt like a slog!
Jumping from one chapter to the next, each chapter a different character, and every character felt like it had the same voice and spoke in the same way. They didn’t feel like individuals and I genuinely felt like I was reading this book the entire time, as opposed to being immersed in the story and the world that was created.
Was also NOT a fan of the way the author tried to modernise it with the language used…. Slang like “Hey cuz” or “‘sup bro” just didn’t work for me in a Greek Mythological retelling!
This one really disappointed me…. and I hate that!
The only reason it gets two stars is because of the fact I did actually learn more about Hercules than I originally knew
It was only because I wanted to learn more about the story of Hercules that I actually kept reading, and it genuinely felt like a slog!
Jumping from one chapter to the next, each chapter a different character, and every character felt like it had the same voice and spoke in the same way. They didn’t feel like individuals and I genuinely felt like I was reading this book the entire time, as opposed to being immersed in the story and the world that was created.
Was also NOT a fan of the way the author tried to modernise it with the language used…. Slang like “Hey cuz” or “‘sup bro” just didn’t work for me in a Greek Mythological retelling!
This one really disappointed me…. and I hate that!
The only reason it gets two stars is because of the fact I did actually learn more about Hercules than I originally knew
Content Warnings
Moderate: Alcohol, Incest, Abandonment, Animal death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Death, and Grief
shaunashares's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Murder, Gore, Child death, and Death
Moderate: War and Sexual assault
mzlac134's review against another edition
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
Content Warnings
Graphic: Infidelity, Alcohol, Child death, Death of parent, Grief, Mental illness, Sexual content, Murder, Death, Abandonment, and Blood
courtstrauch13's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.75
This book was very different than I anticipated, but I truly enjoyed it in the end. There’s a lot to say about the character of Hercules, who is the center of this book, but what I came to love about it was the human reactions to him, his nephew who admired him, his cousin who hated him, they gave a really different perspective of who Hercules was and how he acted. The characters/narrators were very human, especially in comparison to a demigod (I apologize for the joke), but their emotions were not straight forward, and their love or hatred was layered, and justified. There were point of the book that dragged a bit, and parts I found confusing, but overall enjoyed!
Content Warnings
Minor: Murder, Toxic relationship, Drug use, Death, Slavery, Child death, Violence, Drug abuse, Bullying, Alcoholism, Alcohol, and Abandonment