Gods Misbehaving Badly

Phillips, Marie. 2007. Gods Behaving Badly.

For those that can't get enough Greek gods and goddesses, Marie Phillips' gods behaving badly may be a fun treat. However, it's not a book for everyone. It's an adult book of an adult nature. In other words the gods and goddesses haven't changed much in all of the centuries. Not all of them, but most of them would classify as being immoral in addition to being immortal. Aphrodite, for example, is a phone sex operator. And it's got a tone that would definitely be irreverent to those of the Christian persuasion. (Believers be warned, in other words. Though chances are they couldn't stick with it long enough to get to those passages.)

Alice and Neil are two humans, two mortals, that are about to get up close and personal with the gods whether they want to or not. Alice is a cleaner. She's hired to clean. Not realizing that she's working for Artemis and family, she doesn't quite know the danger she's in. Eros, doing his mother's bidding of course, shoots an arrow at Apollo who then falls madly in love with Alice. This happens before she's hired by the way. Neil is Alice's almost-nearly boyfriend. Alice isn't really "into" Apollo, and when she turns him down....well, it isn't pretty.

Alice is just about to tell Neil what happened that frightened her so when she's struck by lightning. Yes, lightning. Could someone have been telling stories to Zeus??? You'll just have to read and see for yourself.

This book is fun. As I said, it's not for everyone. (I won't be recommending it to mom anytime soon.) But for plenty of readers, I'm sure, it will be a delightful and light-hearted read. Not a clean read, but a fun one.

First sentence: One morning, when Artemis was out walking the dogs, she saw a tree where no tree should be.

292 pages

NY Times review



© Becky Laney of Becky's Book Reviews