Gods Behaving Badly (original 2007; edition 2008)

by Marie Phillips

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Member:	zoefruitcake
Title:	Gods Behaving Badly
Authors:	Marie Phillips
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Gods Behaving Badly by Marie Phillips (2007)

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American Gods by Neil Gaiman (andejons)
andejons: Both are about ancient gods trying to make do in the modern world, living quite undignified lives and longing for something better. Phillip's book is more lighthearted, but also more coherent.
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infiniteletters: One section of Summon the Keeper matches Gods Behaving Badly.
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Staramber: A bit more surreal but the same pace and sense of the absurd.
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English (150) French (1) Danish (1) Dutch (1) Swedish (1) All languages (154)

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I usually love the concept of Gods in modern times (in this case, Greek). Philips has that dry, quirky British-ish writing style (a la Douglas Adams), but all of her characters are terribly unlovable. While I wasn't crazy about the book, it was pretty solid and engrossing.

bianca.sayan | May 13, 2013 |

Gods Behaving Badly is an imperfect but sort-of entertaining diversion for those seeking a light (and a bit smutty) fantasy read. (

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BookishJoJo | Apr 5, 2013 |

Need a break from all bad news all the time? Want your froth with a large soupcon of Greek myth on top? This is your book. (

)

olevia | Apr 5, 2013 |

3... maybe 3 1/4... It was a cute book, but there was just too much language and general crudeness for my taste.

I dunno, like the story was all right, but there was so much potential for the book to be really great—the premise was really fun: all the ancient Greek gods living in modern-day London and being freaking bored out of their minds... with their power SEVERELY diminished because of the lack of people's believing in them.... And I liked the Alice/Neil part of the story (they were definitely my favorite characters...) But it was just lacking something for me. I dunno.... *shrugs*

But it was an overall cute book. I liked that Neil wasn't the stereotypical "hero" of a book... SUCH a nerd... ;) That was really fun... (

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saraferrell | Apr 3, 2013 |

Let's just say that this is no [book:American Gods]. However, it's a nice little bonbon if you have a free afternoon. (

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JenneB | Apr 2, 2013 |

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Author name	Role	Type of author	Work?	Status
Marie Phillips	—	primary author	all editions	confirmed
Bennett, Nneka	Cover designer	secondary author	some editions	confirmed
Schuurman, Titia	Translator	secondary author	some editions	confirmed

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Canonical title

Gods Behaving Badly

Original title

Gods Behaving Badly

Alternative titles

Original publication date

People/Characters

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Important events

Related movies

Gods Behaving Badly (2012 ∙ IMDb)

Awards and honors

Desmond Elliott Prize Longlist (2008)

Epigraph

Dedication

For MY PARENTS

First words

One morning, when Artemis was out walking the dogs, she saw a tree where no tree should be.

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(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)

Disambiguation notice

Publisher's editors

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Jacobs, Alexandra

Charles, Ron

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Wikipedia in English (2)

Gods Behaving Badly

Marie Phillips

▾LibraryThing members' description

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0316067628, Hardcover)

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?

(retrieved from Amazon Thu, 14 Apr 2011 11:21:17 -0400)

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▾Library descriptions

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. Even more disturbingly, their powers are waning.... [and] 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? --From publisher description.… (more)

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