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.