Review: Gods Behaving Badly

Title: Gods Behaving Badly

Series: N/A

Author: Marie Phillips

Pages: 292

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company

Published Date: December 10th, 2007

ISBN 13: 9780316067621

Rating: 4/5

Being a Greek god is not all it once was. Yes, the twelve gods of Olympus are alive and well in the twenty-first century, but they are crammed together in a London townhouse-and none too happy about it. And they've had to get day jobs: Artemis as a dog-walker, Apollo as a TV psychic, Aphrodite as a phone sex operator, Dionysus as a DJ.

Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning, and even turning mortals into trees—a favorite pastime of Apollo's—is sapping their vital reserves of strength.

Soon, what begins as a minor squabble between Aphrodite and Apollo escalates into an epic battle of wills. Two perplexed humans, Alice and Neil, who are caught in the crossfire, must fear not only for their own lives, but for the survival of humankind. Nothing less than a true act of heroism is needed-but can these two decidedly ordinary people replicate the feats of the mythical heroes and save the world?

Review:

I have to say, when I found this little gem on Goodreads, I was pleasantly surprised. I've always held a certain fascination for Greek Mythology, so I was really looking forward to reading this fictional, supposedly humorous tale about the twelve gods. 

This book did not disappoint me. 

It was a fast, easy read with a nice flow, and had some witty one-liners that forced me to put the book down until I stopped laughing. Each character had a different, unique personality type, which kept them from blurring together in my eyes. I never had any trouble remembering who was who, and I felt that the character interaction was entertaining and believable. 

Some people might find themselves deterred by the sheer amount of profanity used, for this book can be downright vulgar in some places. Most of this can just be contributed to Apollo's foul mouth and detailed sexual exploits. For the most part, I really overlooked the raunchiness, seeing as how I've read most of Laurell K. Hamilton's books (the Queen of Raunchiness).

That aside, I truly enjoyed the way Phillips portrayed each god. She kept them very close to the way history portrayed them to be (Artemis never having sex, therefore being very chaste with everyone), but gave them certain qualities that made them fit very well into the modern world.  

The only real discrepancy I had was that I had the misfortune of receiving one of the unedited drafts of the book. As such, there were many spelling errors that would later be edited out during the publishing process. I also have a feeling that some of the scenes were cut from the book for either being irrelevant or sloppy. 

I don't like to go much more in-depth with a book, lest I give everything away. Overall, I give it 4 out of 5 stars. The only way it could've been better was if it was a bit longer.