Who Let the Gods Out?

This is a cute story with fun characters. It has a sense of humor kids will enjoy.

This series is truly excellent. Maz Evans is a formidable talent and extremely funny to boot. My nine year old son has read this series several times, and laughs pretty much continuously as he reads. A pleasure to read aloud as well. Strongly recommend!

it was an experience in which I entered another world. Elliott's world of the gods of olympus andhis story of strength. I loved this book and recommend it for anyone who liked the myth o mania series.

If there's one genre of books I always use more of, it's books featuring clever young heroes/heroines, paired together with the modern equivalent of Greek gods. In Who Let the Gods Out? Evans mixes some Lemony Snicket-esque sensibilities, with the fun of Rick Riordan, in new modern take on many familiar faces. There is a human boy, an immortal girl and a Big Bad (a la Buffy), and it's up to the pair to do their best and figure out how to make sure that the Big Bad doesn't interfere with the Greeks, who have been living amongst the mortals for some time. While the comparisons to Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson series are inevitable, Who Let the Gods Out? is so delightful, it absolutely stands on its own. Evans has a winner of a hero in Elliot, and you can't help but admire his tenacity, even when he's struggling between wanting to focus on survival - something he's been doing a lot of, since his mother hasn't exactly been right. Evans is also a deft hand at modernizing the gods; she makes them fit in exceedingly well in modern Britain, and readers will appreciate the distinctive (and humorous!) personalities that she draws for them, especially when contrasting with books like Riordan's. The story also presents a good look at the Greek landscape, and readers will appreciate the depth both for Evans's writing, and for the sheer information that it can bring to those who are looking to study up on the Greeks for the first time. Bottom line: highly recommend, and looking forward to a sequel.

My daughter loved this book. We also read the sequel, Simply the Quest. We need to find out what happens next! Hope another book comes soon.

This book is an easy, humorous introduction to a pantheon of Greek gods. In order to make it palatable for children, Mr. Evans has left out some of their more unsavory habits and aspects. There’s no mention of Hera, Zeus’s wife and sister. Zeus’s continual infidelities and/or rapes are here reimagined as a serial marrying man (who occasionally double-books his weddings). Athena’s harshness towards bragging mortals and impatience with domestic women is toned down so that she comes off as being a somewhat stern librarian type. Aphrodite is a giggling flirt and the ever-treacherous, sly, multi-tasking yet charming Hermes is a messenger with a rather trendy style and quirky dialogue. Apollo, with his long string of bitterly tragic affairs, is also conspicuous by his absence. They all get mixed up in mortal affairs when the foolish but eager Virgo runs into the mortal boy Elliot Hooper. Elliot is so desperate to save his mother and his farm that he makes a really bad mistake. I’m talking world-ending, apocalyptic mistake, one involving the personification of death Thanatos (here named as a daemon rather than a god). Yikes. The book mixes its re-vamped Greek deities with chic dialogue, modern-day England, a meddling grasping neighbor, vicious history teacher with an inexplicable hatred towards Elliot and a queen who barely raises an eyebrow when confronted with a constellation and human boy atop of flying horse. You gotta hand it to the English—they are unflappable. They do not flap. The story is moderately amusing but subtle it’s not. Elliot’s obvious love for his ailing mother lessens any annoyance you might feel as he falls for Thanatos’s blandishments and offers. After all, he’s just a small boy dealing with a terrible situation—well, two terrible situations. While adults may find it only tolerable, young readers may get a kick out of its rambunctious antics and hip flair.

I was all up for the next gods book after everybody has read Riordan. She's funny, she's clever, she knows her Greek mythology and translates it well to a modern ear. Will never read it again and will hesitate to recommend it for the unnecessary and cruel fat shaming. By page 3, for crying out loud. The bad, stupid character has "fat eyes" and the MC is counting the character's chins. Too bad. The book had promise.