Books like Gods Behaving Badly — picked by fans

I love the way Miller treats mythic figures as sharing reality with humans.

Who can forget blue-green Thetis coming out dripping from the sea to meet her son, the hero Achilles? This is how the ancients wrote about the gods, and it's terrific to see it making a comeback after a hundred years or so when myth was treated as a source for psychoanalysis.

I was not so much inspired by this book (it came late) as encouraged and confirmed in my own treatment of otherworldly figures. They are there, for those with the eyes or imagination to see.

This is such a classic book to start learning about Greek Mythology. I read the translated Korean version when I was researching my book in the past.

Even though I was familiar with most characters, I still learned about new stories while reading it. I'm glad I started with this book and then branched out with other novels and picture books.

Over the years, I’ve read hundreds, maybe thousands of books. Many of them have moved, stretched, and entertained me, but there are only a few I wandered into and realized early on that I would not get out of this one unchanged.

The author's inventiveness is astonishing, managing to create not one new world we inhabit but three, all deftly interconnected by the unlikely thread of a simple fable passed from generation to generation. Perhaps most striking to me is the sheer power of the book, its capacity to take us places and share lives we would otherwise never dreamed of.

While the mysterious document—itself a fascinating story within a story—wends its way through a narrative that spans a thousand years, its message is less important than the lives it touches.

And what lives. Each character is drawn so vividly and infused with such essential, defining human traits that we… show more.

Is there any family more dysfunctional than the Greek gods? In this modern-day saga, author Stacey Swann skillfully reimagines our favorite gods as regular people caught up in the very human drama of lust, jealousy, secrets, and even murder. The author slyly crafts multiple myth-inspired vignettes, then fits them together like puzzle pieces. The central conflict is a clever spin on Aphrodite’s affair with her ho-hum hubby Hephaestus’s fiery brother Ares (the unholy union that created Cupid!). What I love most about Swann’s storytelling is her snappy dialogue – these characters don’t pull any punches! Even though we don’t really want to root for them, we can’t help ourselves. Why? Maybe they remind us of ourselves.

This is a deep dive into the mad world of the Greek myths but FUN. Who knew that Zeus was the proud inventor of the first golden shower? (Is anyone surprised?)

This book made me laugh a lot and taught me much about the sexist madness that are the Greek myths in general, and poor old Zeus in particular.

Apollo is a god who refuses to take his position as god of the sun.

Until his father forces him to either ascend immediately, or spend the year being mentored under the obnoxious Prince Hyacinth. Forced together, Apollo and Hyacinth grapple with their mutual disdain for each other, but eventually irritation turns into love.

Apollo and Hyacinth are the sweetest opposites attract couple. One is an uptight responsible prince, the other is a rebel demi-god. They get together, they give the other what they’ve lacked, and make each other better.

These are two good-natured characters who love humanity and work hard to make life better, while in the process falling in love.

This is for me and for anyone who loves to see a pure, natural, slow-burn attraction.

I loved this book from the first page… a purely delicious novel, of a rendezvous beyond the limits of time and the power of human love. The intersection of time/space/lives/dimensions within this narrative gave me hope for humanity. I also found myself reconsidering the concepts of the pantheons of old. Have we too easily dismissed the possibilities of their existence within modern-day life? Regardless, this book is a really fun beach read. :~)

My love of ancient Greek heroes began with the old stop footage films of the 70s and early 80s.

The bravery, the adventure, and the mystery had me hooked at a young age. So, it was a delight to find a book that dealt with the heroes of the ancient Greeks in such an easy-to-read way. This book is not just a rehash of those much-loved tales such as Jason and the Argonauts or Odysseus, Stephen Fry has brought a more modern language to the stories making them relatable and relevant for today.

This is an all-time favourite of mine.

I can’t write a list of Helen of Troy's many faces without including the most famous source material. Though it’s marketed for children, it’s one of the most faithful and accessible adaptations of the Iliad that I’ve ever read.

I loved the illustrations and how the scenes stayed faithful to those written many centuries ago while still packing an emotional punch to a modern-day reader. The ancient classics that spread orally are all translated retellings, so while there’s definitely value in reading the more academic versions, those aren’t any more or less valid than an accessible text with modern language that pulls you into the story.

I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to know the ins and outs of the original to better appreciate retellings. 

This is the best collection of the Greek Myths I believe, and of course covers the Orpheus and Eurydice myth, the direct inspiration for my book. In the classical myth the poet and musician Orpheus loses his love, Eurydice, and sings his way into Hades, overcoming all opposition, until even Hades agrees to let him have Eurydice back in the living world, so long as he does not look back at her until returned there. Once in daylight he does look back, and loses her forever as she hasn't stepped into daylight too. However, unlike Orpheus my young hero succeeds.