Reviews tagging 'Death of parent'

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson

14 reviews

echolliot's review against another edition

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Ableism, Bullying, Child abuse, Child death, Death, Domestic abuse, Emotional abuse, Gore, Sexual violence, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Injury/Injury detail

clovetra's review against another edition

adventurous funny informative lighthearted fast-paced

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

4.0

ok i think i can say i am a self-proclaimed greek mythology retelling lover. do they probably water down & bastardise the original myths? probably! do i care? nope!

look i’ve tried to read the actual works (looks at the odyssey with a glare) and i fucking hated it the whole time. but when they’re rewritten in the 21st century??? ohhhh ill never get enough of them.

this book was so quippy. bro there were so many fire one-liners. the story was incredibly lighthearted (which i needed!) yet entertaining. every character’s personality oozes through the pages, and you are sitting there rooting for everyone (except hercules he can get fucked).

i liked how this explained everything for my goo goo ga ga brain. i don’t know shit about greek mythology but boy did i love this! i loved how a big focus was on the women in his life, but also largely focused on what a dick hercules was. yeah he did some good things but bro if this story doesn’t have fictionalised aspects…… yeah he deserved what he got in the end. 

i’ll be real i didn’t know shit about hercules except he’s strong before this. i’m so happy this book simultaneously educated and entertained me, which honestly i find it hard to find a book able to do this.

i’ll be real tho and say that keeping track of everyone’s names is so hard. yeah that’s the point & the author literally references how everyone has the same name (iole, iolanus, and the other one who i forget). but i can’t say it didn’t confuse the shit out of me. i think my baby brain needed a biiiiiit more context going in to make this a 5-star ranking. but honestly for me i think that is all that is holding the book back, and it isn’t even the book’s fault!!!! it’s just cuz im uneducated regarding greek mythology!!!!!!!

anyways i fuck with meg from disney’s hercules even more now. SHE DESERVED BETTER!

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Infidelity, Slavery, Toxic relationship, Violence, Murder, Alcohol, and War

Moderate: Animal death, Child death, Cursing, Sexual content, and Death of parent

aseel_reads's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark medium-paced

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

3.75

This definitely gave a pretty comprehensive overview of Hercules and all of the people who interacted or were affected by him. It's definitely a sad story and the 1997 animation of Hercules doesn't touch the darkness at all. It was quite an easy read and I liked the structure of the stories and how they were weaved together. It was pretty easy to keep most of the names and stories straight but a few times, the I names were hard to keep track 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Infidelity, Misogyny, Rape, Sexism, Sexual assault, Slavery, Medical content, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Pregnancy, Alcohol, and War

Minor: Pandemic/Epidemic

kmoz's review against another edition

sad tense 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

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Gore, Violence, and Murder

Minor: Child death, Infidelity, Slavery, and Death of parent

hawkes's review against another edition

dark emotional funny fast-paced

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

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Alcoholism, Death, Gore, Infidelity, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Alcohol

meg_thebrave's review against another edition

adventurous emotional reflective fast-paced

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

3.5

Rogerson put so much care into this book, which is a big strength. It wasn’t my cup of tea, only because I am not the biggest Greek mythology fan. I’m impressed with how Rogerson handled so many characters so smoothly, and how she wove together a really coherent story. Definitely a fun read if you’re into Hercules mythos. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Blood, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Sexual content, Sexual violence, and War

mzlac134's review against another edition

emotional funny medium-paced

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

4.25

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Infidelity, Mental illness, Sexual content, Blood, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Abandonment, and Alcohol

alyxinthestars's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional slow-paced

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

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child abuse, Child death, Sexism, Sexual assault, Violence, and Murder

Moderate: Alcoholism, Infidelity, Death of parent, and Alcohol

danny_fox's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny informative sad tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• 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

Honestly... this book can just be described as a rollercoaster.

It was crazy funny at times when you would have characters talk in more modern ways than they are supposed to.

It would be absolutely shocking when you would have some dark scenes be described in such a way that left me actually, properly speechless.

And Herc or Herakles/Hercules as a character is just... a rollercoaster. And yet he is so amazingly written, and the fact that you never see his perspective makes the book all the more better.

Instead, you get to see how all other characters saw him, and how their perspectives are different from one another, where some see him in a more positive light and some see him as a monster. And hence there are times when you hate him, and yet when you also feel bad for him.

This book is a perfect mix of depression and happiness and joy and sadness and characters who you will love one moment and then hate (in a good way) next.

It's one of the most unique books I read about Greek mythology, and definitely one of my favorites. I had way too much reading it.

And goddamn it, it almost actually made me cry on a couple of occasions.

I'm looking forward to reading more stuff from the author, as their writing style is so unique and genuinely so nice.

I highly recommend it, but do be aware of trigger warnings, as there are some rather uncomfortable scenes.

Also, I wished there was more Hylas content (especially at the end) cause he was my favorite character, but that's just personal opinion. :(

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Gore, Misogyny, Physical abuse, Violence, Grief, Murder, and Alcohol

Moderate: Animal cruelty, Animal death, Child death, Toxic relationship, Blood, Death of parent, Toxic friendship, and Sexual harassment

Minor: Cursing and War

llyrian's review against another edition

adventurous dark emotional funny reflective sad tense slow-paced

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

4.75

What a wild ride.
I have a lot of feelings after reading this, and although it's in a very unique form for a greek mythology retelling it was one of the best ones I've read so far!
The main way of storytelling in this book, which is the shades of Herc's family, friends and lovers remembering him in a wild mix of ancient and modern language, was fascinating, and after about the halfway point the subtitle on the title page kept running in my mind because it's the entire point of the book:
Hero.
Husband.
Father.
Villain.
Monster.

Highly recommend this book!
Can't wait for Phoenicia's future work, too! 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Alcoholism, Child abuse, Child death, Cursing, Death, Mental illness, Violence, Grief, and Murder

Moderate: Addiction, Bullying, Death of parent, and Abandonment