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A review by fruity_flavor
Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips
lighthearted
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
premise is the gods are living, of all places, in modern day london in a dingy flat. this book ends via elf, where everyone is filled with the xmas (godlike) spirit and all is safe
the book was okay! the pacing felt off, but i must admit that the twist halfway through had me GAGGED! i was so into after that! though when it was finally picking up speed, the book ended. the ending felt abrupt, rushed, and like it was cut off just like that. i did not find it satisfactory, because even though alice and neil were cute, we saw no romantic development through them at all. i feel that instead of forcing this world-ending conflict towards the end of the book, the author should have followed along the course of the conflicting moral values of gods vs. mortals, which was the most interesting parts of this book.
the rest of the gripes i have with this book is purely personal- how the gods were represented. artemis was written well, as was hermes imo. apollo was okay, this book examines his bad qualities in greek myths that are often overlooked, but the author also completely left out his good qualities as well which created a skewes and one dimensional character instead of one of the leading voices of this book. what really irritated me though, was the portrayal of aphrodite. the author completely reduced her to a sex goddess who sleeps with every god in the house. a sex positive woman was fine, but to make that her only personality trait is incredibly lazy, considering that she is the goddess of LOVE AND BEAUTY not just sex! the author reduced her to someone who only thought of sex, which while is a facet of her is not her only thing. SHE IS tHE GODDESS OF LOVE OMG. also making her obsessed with apollo (who was mediocre at best) when ares is RIGHT THERE was a swing and a miss. my other gripe is the overall straightness of the gods presented. apollo for example? only in love with women. all of his romantic attention is on women, even though he had plenty of male lovers as well in the mythos. the closest we got was hermes saying they boned once, it was just strange to read a story of fluid and ever changing gods only interested in the rigid conformities of what society views as "correct". idk man, without the queer it was just lowkey boring.
the book was okay! the pacing felt off, but i must admit that the twist halfway through had me GAGGED! i was so into after that! though when it was finally picking up speed, the book ended. the ending felt abrupt, rushed, and like it was cut off just like that. i did not find it satisfactory, because even though alice and neil were cute, we saw no romantic development through them at all. i feel that instead of forcing this world-ending conflict towards the end of the book, the author should have followed along the course of the conflicting moral values of gods vs. mortals, which was the most interesting parts of this book.
the rest of the gripes i have with this book is purely personal- how the gods were represented. artemis was written well, as was hermes imo. apollo was okay, this book examines his bad qualities in greek myths that are often overlooked, but the author also completely left out his good qualities as well which created a skewes and one dimensional character instead of one of the leading voices of this book. what really irritated me though, was the portrayal of aphrodite. the author completely reduced her to a sex goddess who sleeps with every god in the house. a sex positive woman was fine, but to make that her only personality trait is incredibly lazy, considering that she is the goddess of LOVE AND BEAUTY not just sex! the author reduced her to someone who only thought of sex, which while is a facet of her is not her only thing. SHE IS tHE GODDESS OF LOVE OMG. also making her obsessed with apollo (who was mediocre at best) when ares is RIGHT THERE was a swing and a miss. my other gripe is the overall straightness of the gods presented. apollo for example? only in love with women. all of his romantic attention is on women, even though he had plenty of male lovers as well in the mythos. the closest we got was hermes saying they boned once, it was just strange to read a story of fluid and ever changing gods only interested in the rigid conformities of what society views as "correct". idk man, without the queer it was just lowkey boring.