I liked this book but also it’s infuriating and I cannot in good conscience give it a higher rating. I mean, I did stay up late finishing it, and kept reading it in small snippets while out getting dinner (e.g., while waiting for my friend to go to the bathroom) so it’s definitely readable in that sort of omg I can’t put it down sort of way. It’s almost as if it’s got a desire compulsion built into it, so that everyone has to finish…
And if anyone else has the same question I do: it is a standalone, but with way enough threads to have a follow up.
I read McGee’s American Royals series (about an alternate universe in which George Washington does become King of America) and found the first two books similar to this one before the last two surprised me with their stakes and maturity. On that 50/50 chance I was willing to also read this one, recommended by Aileen as “not literature but that’s not why we’re reading it.” I don’t particularly care about reading Literature, a lot of it is boring. Most of it. And most of it is about dudes dressed in black gossiping about feelings or whatever. But I do care about logical consistency, and that’s why this book made me mad.
Our plot is thus: Julia Dodds is aimlessly wandering through life except that she has a hunky boyfriend who loves her, Harry Adams. Except Harry is actually Harry Ellesme, one of the heirs of this multibillion dollar conglomerate of everything (like a chaebol, but Greek) and, oh, also Ares the god of war. The worldbuilding is a bit handwave-y, but basically the Greek gods are real, their powers can determine the literal fate of the world (e.g., once a year they get together to determine the outcomes of elections, what to do about climate change, the winners of the World Cup), and they spend their days being, well, super petty and involved in the minutiae of day to day life. Julia arrives, the first mortal +1 in eons, and everyone is aflutter because Ares wants to elevate her to being one of the twelve gods in the Pantheon, which hasn’t been done since Aphrodite was elevated ~1,000(?) years ago (displacing Hestia). Also Aphrodite and Ares got caught in bed together by Aphrodite’s husband/Ares’ brother Hephaestus, causing Ares to run away for a few years and all sorts of strife. Aphrodite stayed behind and has struggled with what she did to her solid, loving husband AND worries that she’ll be kicked out of the Pantheon to make way for Julia because she’s always been an outsider (at her voting-in ceremony, all the goddesses voted against her except for Hera, who voted yes because she loved her son and wanted him to have what she wanted).
As any good Greek god retelling should be, it’s exceedingly soap opera-y and full of messy characters. Since that’s Greek gods in a nutshell, I have no notes. But I have LOTS of notes about:
– Climbing: one pivotal scene that makes Julia go huh something is weird about this fiance of mine is when they’re top rope climbing, are climbing down (!) and her belayer gets so distracted by how sexy Ares looks that she lets go of the rope (!) such that Julia starts freefalling. Ares leaps up 20 feet to save her, holding onto her and the wall with superhuman strength, but of course everyone assumes that’s not what happened.
THIS MAKES NO EFFING SENSE. You don’t climb down a top rope wall–you belay down, and so your partner would be aware that you were about to belay down and be paying attention. Also everyone uses a grigri these days, especially in a hipster climbing wall in Brooklyn, so unless her belayer literally unclipped her (????) there’s no way to ‘fall.’ And there are TONS of people watching at all times in a gym, so if Ares really did vault up a wall to grab her everyone would have seen? And someone might have caught it on tape as well??
– How long Aphrodite is a god: the Greek gods are, like, REALLY old. We’re introduced to Aphrodite when she’s a babely mortal maiden, washing clothes in a river, and Hephaestus shows up. She already knows that he’s immortal because she can just ~tell~ which leads me to think that she’s from an era that still knows Greek gods? Or godly manifestations? But that’s like, thousandS of years ago, not just a thousand, and if so Aphrodite has been a god for way longer than she’s given credit for. Which also means she’s not going to still have imposter syndrome when around normal humans, because she’s been immortal and fabulously wealthy for thousandS of years.
– this whole being deified thing: why is Aphrodite so worried about being kicked out of the Pantheon, when it’s clear that Julia is more like Athena in being clever? What determines Pantheon status? Does having powers really matter that much to any of these characters, why not just be a Hestia and get some magic, immortality, and lots of money? Why can’t a mortal be made immortal via like, normal deification, like they become a minor god of something or another?
– the incredibly complicated consequences of the gods being responsible for the outcomes of wars, climate change, sporting matches, elections: so that means these people are responsible for all these terrible things? like, literally 1:1 responsible? Ares is the god of war, and he’s given this little plot point about trying to get teenage boys to not be sent into pits to mine for rare earth minerals (?) but also he flippantly says that after his whole cheating scandal “I went to the Middle East to do what I do best, war” WHAT
Right to recap I did enjoy this book in a sense but ymmv. I think the next one will be about Penelope and Hades (always a classic).
