Reviews with content warning for Toxic relationship - Herc

Reviews tagging 'Toxic relationship'

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson

6 reviews

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!

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courtstrauch13's review against another edition

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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!

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danny_fox's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny informative sad tense 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

4.5

Honestly... this book can just be described as a rollercoaster.

It was crazy funny at times when you would have characters talk in more modern ways than they are supposed to.

It would be absolutely shocking when you would have some dark scenes be described in such a way that left me actually, properly speechless.

And Herc or Herakles/Hercules as a character is just... a rollercoaster. And yet he is so amazingly written, and the fact that you never see his perspective makes the book all the more better.

Instead, you get to see how all other characters saw him, and how their perspectives are different from one another, where some see him in a more positive light and some see him as a monster. And hence there are times when you hate him, and yet when you also feel bad for him.

This book is a perfect mix of depression and happiness and joy and sadness and characters who you will love one moment and then hate (in a good way) next.

It's one of the most unique books I read about Greek mythology, and definitely one of my favorites. I had way too much reading it.

And goddamn it, it almost actually made me cry on a couple of occasions.

I'm looking forward to reading more stuff from the author, as their writing style is so unique and genuinely so nice.

I highly recommend it, but do be aware of trigger warnings, as there are some rather uncomfortable scenes.

Also, I wished there was more Hylas content (especially at the end) cause he was my favorite character, but that's just personal opinion. :(

Content Warnings