Gods behaving badly

Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips is a peculiar book, much different than I expected and most certainly followed the hero cycle. The book described several of the Olympian gods who become entangled with two young mortals’ (Alice and Neil) lives. The book is full of witty banter and cute sub-plots until Zeus murders one of the mortals, under Appolo’s command because she would not love him. Then, Appolo (god of the sun) falls into a coma, bringing the world into a life with no sun. The rest of the book contains Neil and Artemis (Goddes of hunting)’s journey to the underworld to bring Alice back, and to reason with a river (yes, a river) to return the sun. The book ends in an extremely cheesy gathering of Alice’s friends and family, representing the “Resurection” part of the hero cycle, for they quite litterally are resurrecting Alice. For the “Return with the Elixir”, Alice discovers that it is the lack of belief in the Gods that is diminishing their power. Overall, Gods Behaving Badly was unexpectedly an adventure tale, following the hero cycle precisely.

Nightlight

Nightlight, a parody of Twilight written by the Harvard Lampoon, is a hysterical book and added much-needed insight to Stephanie Meyer’s overly popular series. The short book gave a detailed summary of the vampire love story, while adding a twist on the plot, making the reader aware of just how silly certain parts of Twilight are. The writers not only revealed Twilight for what it really is, but revealed the true nature of the book’s zany characters. For example, Belle Goose (based off of Bella Swan) was given an exaggeration version of her qualities, like her neediness, whininess, and vanity. The distorted version of Twilight provided a much needed wake-up call to those die-hard twitards.

The Art of Racing in the Rain

The Art of Racing in the Rain, by Garth Stein is a unique look at life through a dog's perspective. Although I expected the typical dog book, expressing the narrator's need to chase squirrels and such, this book took a look at the lives of those around the dog, Enzo. What makes the story truly different is Enzo's desire to become a man, for he is discontent with his inability to have a larger impact on his master's life. Enzo told a fairly unbiased description of the dramatic events that Denny, his master, faces. However, the one abstract element of the book was Enzo's conflict with a stuffed zebra that belongs to Denny's daughter, Zoe. The zebra taunts him; it causes him to act like a dog, and not like a human. The zebra is essentially Enzo's id, his animal instincts which he tries so hard to overcome. When Enzo tears the toy up, he is scolded--he cannot deny the dog inside of him, despite his efforts, and when he does, there are consequences. The book was mostly a "Voyage and Return" story, although it had bits of both comedy, tragedy and rebirth in it. I found this book to be an interesting read, for it included many plot lines, that just happened to be told by a dog.