Aphrodite - Phoenicia Rogerson

APHRODITE

PHOENICIA ROGERSON

*****

Be sure to check out my review of Phoenicia Rogerson's previous book: Herc.

'I’m a liar, to begin with.'

I wasn’t always a goddess, you see. My only real power was my beauty – you’ll have heard. It’s legendary. But that was never going to be enough for me.

It took a web of lies to convince the gods of Olympus I was one of them. But I did. I was that good. Zeus gave me a title and riches and loved me. And all he wanted in return was for me to love him back.

But of course, Zeus was a tyrant. (Not entirely surprising when you’re ninety per cent insecurities and ten per cent raw power.) I couldn’t live at someone’s mercy. Really, I had no choice. I had to take on the mightiest Olympian of all. And this bit’s not a lie… I intended to win.

MY REVIEW

*****

Phoenicia Rogerson’s previous book Herc was a Kindig Gem for me in 2023, so I was excited to read her latest book – Aphrodite.

If you have read Herc, then you will be familiar with the writing style of Aphrodite, as it is very similar. The chapters alternate between characters in the story as they tell events from their unique perspectives. The book feels really well researched, and I would love to read Phoenicia's commentary on each chapter and what her sources were, as the original myths are often contradictory or confusing. She gives a small taste of her method in her author’s notes, and it certainly left me wanting more.

As with Herc, I’d known a small amount about the Goddess of Love before I’d begun, but I’d only scratched the surface of the story. There’s a lot of fantastic tales to unwrap here, and it delves into the in-depth history of the Gods, from Cronus all the way through to the War of Troy. I do wonder whether Phoenicia has shot herself in the foot a little here by giving so much information about so many Gods, Titans and Mortals instead of saving them for another novel. If she’d like to pen another book about someone else I’d be happy to read it, but I would imagine she might want a break from all that research!

I think the narrative suffered a little when we got to the War of Troy, and weirdly I was less invested at this point which I believe is down to the amount of new characters suddenly thrown at us. On the whole I wasn’t quite as engaged as I was with Herc – a lot of Aphrodite’s story is so entangled in other people’s tales and so sprawling across the ages that I didn’t empathise with her as much as I did with Herc’s more linear story.

There are footnotes throughout that are asides from Aphrodite, mainly giving a little bit of backstory about minor characters that are referenced and whether they are relevant or not – a bit of snarky commentary, if you will. These were not hyperlinked in my ARC and so I had to flick ahead a few pages to find some of them. The timeline diagrams were also not readable on my Kindle version which is a shame as they are specifically mentioned in the forward. I’m sure these will all be fixed in the finished edit though.

Overall, Aphrodite is a great follow-up to Herc – another skilfully written and researched epic utilizing a well-executed and unusual narrative technique. Thank you to NetGalley & HQ Stories for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

LINKS TO BUY

Amazon UK

Waterstones