Reviews tagging 'Incest'

Mythos by Stephen Fry

62 reviews

ebp's review against another edition

informative lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Ableism, Animal death, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual violence, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Cannibalism, Suicide attempt, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and Classism

graciejlc's review against another edition

funny informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Enjoyable, funny and witty, the audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry was a nice touch for my commute.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Infidelity, Sexual content, Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

tess_gee's review against another edition

funny informative relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Audiobook was a fantastic read through out my day at work. Familiar Greek myths with a new interesting take on that matter. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, and War

Minor: Child abuse and Child death

annakh16's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? N/A
• Strong character development? N/A
• Loveable characters? N/A
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.25

I mean, this was just great. Fun (albeit disturbing at times, as myths tend to be), well-told and very informative. This is an accessible book for anyone who wants to get into Greek myths or already loves them. Also, if I ever need to win an alliteration contest, I know where to go for inspiration. 

Part of what makes this so informative is Fry‘s attention to detail, always citing his sources when there are divergent versions of a myth, among other things. I also really appreciated his many references to the etymology of everyday words and their links to Greek myths, as well to the reception of some stories in classic and modern literature. It really helps bring the stories to the present. 

The characters are vivid and memorable, and the audio narration (which was great,  as expected) enhanced this, too.

I do think some of the very short stories could’ve been cut (especially in the Metamorphosis part). It all became a bit too fast paced and confusing for me then. 

Overall however I loved this, would definitely recommend, and will definitely read the next book in the series!

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Adult/minor relationship, Death, Incest, Rape, Sexual content, Violence, and Pregnancy

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Infidelity, Kidnapping, and Cannibalism

majestictrilobite's review against another edition

adventurous challenging funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted reflective sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal death, Death, Incest, Infertility, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Self harm, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Suicidal thoughts, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Kidnapping, Cannibalism, Stalking, Abortion, Suicide attempt, Sexual harassment, War, and Pandemic/Epidemic

gen_wolfhailstorm's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

 The Details:
Narrated by author
Unabridged 

What a great retelling of the origins of Greek Mythology. Fantastic storytelling with a background on more than just big players, which I really appreciated.

Fry enraptured with his storytelling and captured the legends perfectly for new learners to myth, and old.

Looking forward to continuing on with this series.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Adult/minor relationship, Alcoholism, Animal cruelty, Body horror, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Confinement, Cursing, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Incest, Infidelity, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Physical abuse, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicidal thoughts, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Cannibalism, Stalking, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, Gaslighting, Alcohol, Sexual harassment, War, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism

ssellwood's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted mysterious fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

Stephen Fry has captured the chaos and wonder of Greek mythology, with tales that are accessible to new and old readers of the classic myths. I feel the humorous tone was especially visible through Fry's own narration, and loved the pieces of etymology and poetic references he threw in, creating more than a simple retelling. While unsurprisingly dark at times, Mythos is full of great stories of love, discovery and loss.

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Content Warnings

Minor: Incest, Rape, Suicide, Torture, and Murder

richardw2024's review against another edition

adventurous informative lighthearted mysterious reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? No
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

This was brilliant! A great introduction to Greek mythology, well written and very easy to read. I loved how the book showed how Greek mythology has influenced our language and literature. 

The first quarter was essentially a genealogy of the ancient God's, setting up the Titans and Olympians. It was necessary but definitely slower and read more like a presentation of facts rather than story. 

I found that it got much better after the first quarter.

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Rape, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Toxic relationship, Violence, Grief, Toxic friendship, and War

idkwhosara's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? N/A
• Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A

4.5

I chose to listen to the audiobook narrated by Stephen Fry. 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Animal cruelty, Incest, Infidelity, Physical abuse, Sexual assault, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Violence, Blood, Murder, Sexual harassment, and War

bookedbymadeline's review against another edition

informative slow-paced

3.0

I’ll start off by saying Mythos was an interesting read but kind of overwhelming or annoying at times.

The first part was the worst as I had trouble wanting to read it with the overwhelm of facts. As another reviewer put it, and I can’t word it any better myself, it was like reading a Wikipedia entry!! It’s so much information being thrown at you in a straightforward way (which is fine), but it got tedious and boring at times. I had to set it aside multiple times and focused on other books instead. And when it’s not info overload, Fry uses so much alliteration I began skimming. It was like he was trying to reach the word count by adding in as many adjectives possible 😬

This book is categorized as fiction so I think I was expecting more depth and better story flow. But it’s a lot of who’s who and who hated who without a real story/long lasting impact. But then when it was more of the storytelling writing I was looking for, the irritating amount of adjectives came in (Stephen I don’t need a run on sentence giving all the synonyms for sad) 🙈

Writing especially the dialogue can be a bit much-I will just never understand British humor 🙈 I cringed at the parts that I think were meant to be funny?

The last two parts were much better! Part one did have new info that I didn’t know about so I did appreciate that. The writing was just so dry and mainly an info dump. Once we get to parts 2 and 3 with the “lesser” gods and mortals (Persephone, Eros and Psyche, etc) it flowed much better and was an easier/more enjoyable read for the most part!

I own the other two books in the trilogy already and loved hearing Stephen Fry do a reading for Troy so I pushed myself through. Partially glad that I did but by the end I was so over it 😂 I’m hoping what I’ve seen from other reviewers is correct in that Heroes is way better than Mythos! 🙈

If you know nothing or very little about Greek myths then I’d recommend this for the pure amount of info you’ll get on the gods and background stories. You may enjoy this if you love Greek mythology too, I love the topic but sadly this one didn’t do it for me but I know others enjoyed it. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Incest, Infidelity, Rape, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Child death, Death, and Suicide