Monday, Dec 22, 2008

Book Review: Gods Behaving Badly

Aphrodite is Such a Naughty Minx!

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I have seen information on this book on a few other websites including Books on the Brain.  Lisa actually had a contest to win this book and I hoped, hoped, hoped that I would win.  I didn’t.  But, mysteriously… it appeared at my doorstep!  Thanks, Hachette!  Wooo-Whooooo.  So, I have like 15 books ahead of this one, but I just couldn’t say “no” to it.  I picked it up and finished it in just a couple of days’ time.  I liked it that much.  Rather than describe the premise of this book, here’s a movie of the author, Marie Phillips, describing it herself… check it out! 

The Review:

Title:  Gods Behaving Badly

Author:  Marie Phillips

Author’s Website:  Couldn’t find one.

Publisher:  Back Bay Books / Little, Brown & Co, a Division of Hachette Book Group

Publisher’s Website:  www.hachettebookgroup.com

Type:  Fiction

Number of Pages:  292 paperback

ISBN #: 978-0-316-06763-8

After seeing the 3 minute intro above, you can see that this is a book about Greek Gods and Goddesses in modern-day times, set in England.  And, most of them do behave quite badly.  Except for Artemis, Eros and Hermes.  Artemis is the strong woman lead in the story.  She is the goddess of the moon, chastity, and hunting.  I really don’t get what chastity has to do with the other two, but she’s quite the strong-willed lady who by and large is in charge of the townhome that the Gods and Goddesses share.  Aphrodite is just the most naughty, naughty little sex fiend I’ve ever heard of.  She’s constantly on the cellphone as a phone sex operator… well, that and having sex with Apollo and just about anybody else she desires.  Which leads us to Apollo.  He’s just a wreck.  He’s the God of the Sun and he is into playing his guitars and looking for fame.  He attempts to find fame as a television psychic, apparently he has some of those powers.

When Apollo is filming his television show, 3 unlikely people show up in the television audience.  One of them is Eros, son of Aphrodite, God of Love.  His mother somehow persuades him to shoot Apollo in the heart with the love arrows and I am assuming so that he would fall madly in love with Aphrodite who is sitting backstage watching his performance.  She is in plain view of Apollo and I think she was hoping he’d fall madly in love with her so that she could control his every desire.  Instead, Apollo’s love is affixed on Alice, a petite and mousy cleaning lady.  Alice had snuck into the studio audience with her boyfriend, Neil, who is described as looking like a rat and incredibly short.  Alice ends up losing her job at the studio when the studio heads catch site of her on the television show when aired.  On Neil’s suggestion, she goes door-to-door to look for work in the residential sector.  It is there that she arrives at the God’s townhome and eventually is hired by Artemis. 

In the interim, Apollo is crushed because his true love, Alice is nowhere to be found.  That is, until he sees Alice cleaning the house.  He follows her around like a lost puppy dog and only has eyes for her.  Aphrodite is completely “pissed off” and is engaging in crazy fights with Apollo.  From here, the story takes all sorts of turns and adventures, all a part of an incredibly creative maze that takes the readers on a vivid adventure.  Marie Phillips, folks, is a talented writer and paints such a colorful story in the minds of her readers.  I kept thinking to myself as I was reading the book, “how did she come up with this idea?”  In any event, I formed pictures of the characters and settings with ease and found this to be a very delightful book to pick up.  I highly recommend the book if you like creative fiction and are not much bothered by a bit of the naughty tossed in.

A couple of questions from the Reading Group Guide:

1.  Despite the waning of their powers, each of the gods has super-human abilities.  But, they also have specific responsibilities and spheres of influence.  Which of the gods would you most prefer being?  Which of them would you least like to be?

I would have to say that I would like to be Athena.  She is the brilliant, logical one with much depth and insight into the situations at hand.  I would least like to be Ares, God of War.  Just being in this god’s presence puts people into arguments.  I hate fighting and that would drive me mad!

2.  Alice’s experience of the underworld offers a somewhat chilling view of the eternity that awaits us after death.  If you could design your own fictional afterlife, what would it be like?

I can’t claim that I would be the best person at creating my own afterlife.  I think that God would do an immensely better job than my mind could ever create.  I have faith that he has created such a place and that I will be allowed entry.  I think that Marie Phillips did an excellent job coming up with a feasible underworld in which the reader gets a very clear understanding of how things work down there.  If I were to have a job in the underworld as described in the book, I would be a bartender down there!  There are a lot of souls to talk to and hear their tales of their lives. 

Sher’s “Out of Ten” Scale:

This was such a fun book.   As you can tell, I really liked it and would lend it out to a friend as a recommended book.  Phillips is as thorough of a writer as she is a creative one.  I can’t really compare this book to anything else that I’ve read of late, so I’m just putting this work into the “Fiction”  genre.   I am giving it a 9 out of 10.  Grab yourself a copy! 

On the Library Thing & Amazon.Com Rating:  ♥♥♥♥♥

Where To Buy The Book:

Click here to purchase this book for $11.19 at Amazon.Com

Much thanks to Valerie at Hachette Book Group!

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