Neon Gods Book Review
A SPICY GREEK GODS MYTHOLOGY RETELLING
This Neon God’s Greek Myth Inspired Book Review is all about Katee Robert and her new Dark Olympus series. With multiple books in the series, we get to follow the lives of modern-day Olympus rulers and their children.
Read about this new twist on Greek mythology with Hades and Persephone – love, lust, war, and the fight for freedom.
NEON GODS BY KATEE ROBERT
SUMMARY
This Greek Gods-inspired story follows Persephone and Hades as they navigate the intricate power dynamics of the most powerful families in Olympus.
Persephone is promised to Zeus, a man with a reputation for killing off his wives. Naturally, she isn’t happy when she finds out and she runs away as fast as she can… right into Hades’ arms.
Her goal is to leave Olympus forever, but love complicates things.
RATING OF NEON GODS
2.5/5
PLOT
Although this is an original Greek Myth inspired retelling, it is not a new concept as far as the plot goes. In fact, this story mimics many Mafia Romance troupes and even has scenes that seem to come almost directly from other stories.
For example, Hades had a traumatic childhood and has scars all over his chest, which he does not allow his submissive partners to see or touch. He is always in control. But when Persephone comes into his life, suddenly she is so much more different and interesting than everyone else and he feels comfortable enough to let her touch him. Sound familiar? It should… the exact same thing happened in Fifty Shades of Grey (and other romance stories).
I took off a star because of the lack of original story telling.
QUOTES
There are a lot of lines in this book that are very quote-able. Although the character’s personalities are not particularly interesting, the things that they say are often relatable or funny. These are a few of my favorites:
HADES
IF YOU BLEED ALL OVER MY FLOORS TRYING TO ESCAPE, ILL BE FORCED TO TRACK YOU DOWN AND HAUL YOU BACK HERE TO CLEAN THEM.
HADES
IF WE WERE DIFFERENT PEOPLE IN DIFFERENT CIRCUMSTANCES, I WOULD GET DOWN ON MY KNEES AND BEG YOU TO STAY AT THE END OF WINTER. I WOULD MOVE HEAVEN AND EARTH AND THE UNDERWORLD ITSELF TO KEEP YOU WITH ME.
PERSEPHONE
WE DIDN’T CHOOSE THIS LIFE. WE’RE JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE IT.
PERSEPHONE
IN THIS DRESS, I FEEL LIKE A DARK QUEEN. LIKE A DARK GODDESS.
HADES
THIS IS OUR KINGDOM, OUR THRONE, OURS.
CHARACTERS
A half point was deducted from my rating because of the characters.
It feels like the author wanted these characters to be more complex and deeper than what they appear to be, but they came across as boring and basic. There was not a single character trait that was surprising (except for the bisexuality of literally every single character).
Why are all of the characters bisexual or pansexual? Writing so many diverse characters created the effect of a lack of diversity. There was the subtle hint at an asexual character, but he was the only one that hadn’t clearly had MANY previous partners of all genders. I wish Katee Robert had written more about him. Maybe one day she will give that character his own story. It would be interesting to see an asexual main character in a romance novel!
The main characters, Hades and Persephone, fell in love within a couple of days of meeting one another. She played the damsel-in-distress and he saved her. But there was a moment when she stepped up and saved him. The average plot was made even more lackluster by these characters’ lack of growth, originality, or real complexity.
The best character was Hermes. She is sneaky, devilish, and plays by her own rules. She cares very little for others, yet shows her love for a select few in interesting ways (spoiler: she sneaks into people’s homes and eats their food.)
ADAPTABILITY
This book would be difficult to adapt due to the many adult scenes throughout it. However, if Fifty Shades of Gray can do it, then so can Neon Gods.
Half a point was deducted from my rating because there were several parts in this book that were almost exactly the same as Fifty Shades, so if it were adapted into a movie, those parts would need to be removed or retold.
However, this book could be really interesting as a modern-day Greek myth movie where the main characters are famous and struggle to play petty games in that world.
re-readability
As much as I enjoyed this book inspired by Greek mythology, half a star was removed from my rating because I do not think I would re-read this. However, I do want to finish the series.
THE GOOD
Here is a rundown of some of the best things about this book:
- The spicy romance between Hades and Persephone
- Modern-day Greek Myth re-telling
- Quotes
- Mafia vibes
- A story that tons of people will enjoy
THE COULD-HAVE-BEEN-BETTER
These are a few of the things that made this book a little lackluster and basic:
- Not super original plot
- Concepts heavily borrowed from other books
- Basic character personalities
NEON GODS THE TV SHOW ADAPTATION
A creative adaptation of this series could actually be very interesting. I would like to see a tv series that goes more into the lives of the Thirteen, how they rule, and how they fight. It could be something like Gossip Girl meets Percy Jackson meets Keeping Up With The Kardashians.
CONCLUSION
Although I did not give this book a full 5 stars, I do recommend that lovers of Romance, Greek Myth, and spicy YA books read this. It is a fun new book and series that everyone should get to enjoy at least once.
Katee Robert has been consistently coming out with new books and the book-loving community is raving about all of them!
Click HERE to get Neon Gods on Amazon now.