Gods Behaving Badly

Gods Behaving Badly

Marie Phillips

2007

292 pages

Greek gods seem to pop up frequently in books these days (Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark Hunter series and Neil Gaiman's American Gods are just two examples that pop into my brain). In Gods Behaving Badly the gods are living in a dilapidated house in London, squabbling and well, behaving badly.

This is a fun, quick read. Despite their sometimes despicable behavior (and their disgusting housekeeping), the gods are amusing. Aphrodite is working as a phone sex operator, Eros has found Jesus, Dionysus owns a dive bar, Apollo is in love with himself, and expects everyone else to be, too...basically, they are still their stereotypical selves. And they have way too much time on their hands. After Apollo turns yet another woman into a tree, Aphrodite and Artemis force him to take a pledge not to harm mortals for 10 years. Then Aphrodite decides to mix it up a bit and makes Apollo fall in love with a mortal who will not love him back. And since he can't have her but can't harm her, more scheming occurs.

In the end, things turn out well for both the mortals and the gods. In fact, life couldn't be better. Everything is tied up neatly in the end, but I wouldn't have expected otherwise in this cute, light, but still highly entertaining read.