and comes back 6 days later engaged to a man she just met and now they have to move to Greece because he's headmaster to a school for descendants of the Greek Gods - I could not go along with the increasingly ridiculous and at times insulting plot. There are a couple of very funny moments, and some original images: ‘His words expanded like a party balloon, pushing out thoughts of anything else. I think Helen's friends especially were underdeveloped, and I honestly could not tell any of them apart. For starters, the students are all descendants of gods, while she is singled out as a kako aka bad blood. Helen is a typical teen, dealing with boys, schools and troublesome relations - only they just happen to be gods and goddesses.

I can talk about my inspirations for becoming an author, Greek mythology (particularly popular with this age range) or a subject of your choosing. This, along with some of the other young adult romance novels, could be used in a genre or theme study in the context of book club. The _ga cookie, installed by Google Analytics, calculates visitor, session and campaign data and also keeps track of site usage for the site's analytics report.Lastly, There needed to be more of Justin in the beginning of the book if they were going to bring him into other parts of the book, because it just seemed really random. Olympus, she discovers her new classmates are gods and mythological creatures are actually real—as if junior high isn’t hard enough! Oh My Gods centers around Helen Thomas, a 14 year old girl who is half British Jamaican and half Greek God who moves in with her father Zeus(Yes, King of the Gods) a couple of years after her mother's death when her grandmother is now too old to take care of her. The main characters often comment on bad Pagans and on the opposition they receive from fundamentalists. With this in mind, I’m not going to be reviewing it from the perspective of a critic, but from an enjoyability factor.

Oh My Gods is a contemporary retelling of some of the most popular myths by Philip Freeman, a noted classicist. My only gripes with the book are very minor, sometimes the pacing skips, and days/weeks etc seem very short, and some of the pop culture references seem more like they come from someone the authors age, than from a teenager in the present day.As the story progresses, you have interesting love interests begin, betrayal, and a twist I completely expected.

It doesn’t stop here either—when they’re getting to the island where they’ll be living in Greece, on the ferry ride, Damian (that’s hubby-hunk) explains that the school Phoebe is going to is populated by descendants of Greek gods. Even when she finds out that he was part of the most convoluted and non-sensical bet of all time (if the bet is to see if Griffin can make Phoebe fall in love with him, why encourage her to try and get him to like her? Almost out of the blue Griffin was talking about how conflicted he felt--it didn't feel real enough.I am glad that young Black girls now have a book that reflects them and brings their experiences to the forefront.

Now she has to figure out whether he really is a nice guy, or really a jerk, work her butt off to make the cross-country team that is full of descendants of Gods, and get to the truth about her father and his mysterious death. As I am of West Indian heritage as well, these two foods are always eaten in my family home and it was a nice touch by Sheppard, who is also half-Jamaican, to add these cultural elements in.

For me, the most moving part of the novel was Helen remembering her mother's cooking - it's such a simple, human and nuanced moment which made my heart shatter for Helen. This Aphrodite is occasionally spiteful, but a long way from the grim Aphrodite who in Iliad 3 coerces Helen to pleasure Paris post-duel.