Sounds just like American Gods

[Penny]

This sounds so similar to Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". Has anyone read both stories?

[Caroline]

I'm about 100 pages in and while it's similar to American Gods, it's definitely not the same book all over again. This is more of a light-hearted comedy, whereas American Gods dealt with a lot of heavy-handed ideas and the gods were all quite serious about themselves. The gods in here are all caricatures of the Greek myths--really exaggerated and hilarious. Gods Behaving Badly is very "fluffy" and a lot less literary than American Gods, but it's so far been pretty fun.

[Penny]

thanks for the update - Glad to know it's not a "knock-off" - I'll have to pick this one up :)

[Casi]

I've read them both as well. This one is very much pomo mythology as written by a chick lit writer, whereas "American Gods" is serious delving into pomo myth. Basically, this was cute.. very cute, but not terribly substantive or exciting.

[Susabelle]

Penny wrote: "This sounds so similar to Neil Gaiman's "American Gods". Has anyone read both stories? "

Have read both. Neil Gaiman has no comparison, EVER. Gods Behaving Badly was cute and sweet but unsubstantive. Getting ready to write a review now.

[Sarah]

I tried this book but couldn't get beyond about 50 pages in. The idea is excellent but one-note and I felt the writing simply wasn't good enough to back up the book's premise. More than once the dreaded phrase 'chick lit' floated about in my mind, just dressed up as a more contemporary comedic novel. Still, it remains on my 'persevere' pile so maybe I'll get back to it.

[Susabelle]

It's a quick read, but I found that I didn't like any of the characters, except for the lame love story sub-plot between Alice and Neil. Not impressed.

[Miriam]

I agree that Gods Behaving Badly is much fluffier than American Gods. It is almost a farce! Also, it is just the Greek gods and their powers are far more limited than in American gods. Very little of the supernatural-bleeding-into-the-quotidian that Gaiman does so well.

[Emily]

I've read both, and thought that this was a quick, fun light read. AG is not quite as light. I thought both were good.

[Emily Iliani]

Susabelle wrote: "It's a quick read, but I found that I didn't like any of the characters, except for the lame love story sub-plot between Alice and Neil. Not impressed.

"

Concur! I think I might pick up Neil G's just to wash off the bad taste from this book.

[Rachel]

I've read both and this is nothing like American Gods. AG has more depth. This is just a fun read. I also recommend Fated if you liked this book. Same kind of concept but uses different ways to express that concept. I thought Fated was funnier than this book.

[Sara]

They start with a somewhat similar idea but go off in VERY different directions, as many here have said. This book is definitely more light-hearted and, to my mind, not as well-written as Gaiman's. I agree with other perspectives on the fact that this is a very poor substitute overall for reading Gaiman's book. This one falls firmly in the category of "Eh. It's not bad."