Reviews tagging 'Violence'

Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold by Stephen Fry

53 reviews

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

annick's review against another edition

adventurous informative lighthearted medium-paced

4.0

I would recommend this as a book and as audiobook. fry has a great pace and style with reading his stories. 

I think it’s best read in small parts. I finished the last third over a few days and I lost interest in the work. Because of this binging. 

I also like how fry highlights the homoerotic and trans representation in the ancient myths. I wish he’d picked up the systemic misogyny and racism
 Laced into the cultures and myths. I recommend Natalie Haynes for addressing the sexism and misogyny in Greek myths. 

I don’t plan to re read this book and there are some things I’d want to change - this is why it’s only four stars.  

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Death, Infidelity, Sexism, Sexual violence, Suicide, Violence, Kidnapping, and Murder

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

katkake1's review against another edition

adventurous challenging emotional funny hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious reflective relaxing fast-paced

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

5.0

Best as an audio book narrated by the author 

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Content Warnings

Minor: Misogyny, Sexism, Torture, Violence, and Sexual harassment

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

maidinnah's review

adventurous funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

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

5.0

An absolute delight. Stephen Fry's wit and eloquence capture the allure, majesty, and absurdity of the most renown Greek myths in a fresh way. My favorite parts of the book were the footnotes, which delve into fun facts that connect these myths to the present, such as how Greek myth influenced English etymology. I'll have to give the audiobook a shot since it seems to stand heads and shoulders above the (already) wonderful book, thanks to Fry's charm!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Rape, Sexual assault, Violence, Sexual harassment, 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

farah24's review against another edition

adventurous dark funny informative lighthearted reflective medium-paced

5.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Rape, Sexual assault, Suicide, and Violence

corallig's review against another edition

adventurous emotional hopeful informative inspiring lighthearted mysterious medium-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

4.75

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Content Warnings

Minor: Rape, Suicide, Toxic relationship, Violence, Stalking, 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