Gods Behaving Badly

A Novel

By: Marie Phillips

Narrated by: Tom Sellwood

In this “witty and entertaining” twist on Greek mythology (James Urquhart), the once all-powerful gods find themselves scraping by in a run-down London townhouse as they learn how to be human—and try not to destroy the world in the process.

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?

Good, but could be better.

I enjoyed it, but felt that there was a great deal of comedy left untapped.

Love this story

The story is great. A reread was necessary. The performance was fine character voices were a bit odd. But they were easy to separate each from the other.

A predictable collection of tropes

This is a perfect story for mid-level readers entering high school, where you’d like to introduce them to the concepts of Greek Gods in a pop framework.