Book review - Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips

Blurb (from Goodreads):


 "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?"

I love ancient myths and religions. I love reading about it, the originals and the modern versions of them. So when I went at a book store about 6 months ago and saw Gods Behaving Badly I as very curious about it and I bought it.

The book was interesting. It's about how the ancient Greek gods are struggling to survive and keep the planet from disappearing in nowadays London.


In the middle of all the problems that the gods have stumbles Alice, their cleaner. Alice is not a people person. She's very shy and introverted, hence her job. She's in love with Neil but she's scared of revealing her feelings for him. Alice is quite smart, she won various awards playing Scrabble. But when it comes to social skills, she lacks most of them, if not entirely.

Neil isn't what I might call a hero. He's just your average man, a so-called beta. He's afraid of scaring Alice if he tells her he's in love with her, but he tries to act like her friend and helps her when she needs him. At the end of the book though, I realized that he might actually be a hero, an unusual way. Somewhat like an unpolished diamond. He just needs a little push and Artemis gives it.

The book is funny, easy to read. But it's not what I expected. I kept wishing for Alice to overcome her shyness or for Neil to grab the girl he loves and make her his.

I liked how the gods were depicted. It's different from what I expected but in a good way. My...you could call it obsession with a certain series has colored the view I had about the Greek gods. So when I saw how arrogant Apollo was, how unable was Athena to make herself understood, or how offended Artemis was when something sexual was going on around her it was a good surprise. Also, I think it was a good interpretation, because if you would be a god, you'd definitely be arrogant and act like the world was yours.

All in all, it was a fun read and entertaining.

>