Welcome back to Ace Of Bens, friends! I’m here with a post that’s not for 30 Days of Pride, but is still pride-themed because it’s still June for about a week longer. So why am I doing this seemingly random Greek Mythology book tag and not a pride themed one? Well, I searched for one, but I could only find one other and I wasn’t a fan of its questions. Somehow, though, this tag came up in my WordPress search for “pride tag” and I thought, “Well, Ancient Greece was pretty gay.” And now here I am doing this tag with a twist. I’m only going to use books with queer rep for the answers!
Zeus: God of the Sky and Thunder, King of the Gods
Favorite Book
The Disasters by M.K. England; I read it in December shortly after it released and I absolutely fell in LOVE with this story. I love it so much that I’m currently rereading it for pride month and also to hopefully make the wait for Spellhacker a bit less painful.
Poseidon: God of the Sea and Earthquakes
A Book That Drowned You in Feels
I read Like Water by Rebecca Podos over a year ago, but I still think about it regularly, because damn. This book was so emotional. There was so much going on in the story and I’m so glad I picked it up. It’s a story about love, loss, family, self-discovery, figuring out what the hell you’re doing after you graduate, coming to terms with the fact your body might betray you, the fear of bad health, and so much more. Plus, the audiobook is narrated by Kyla Garcia, so that’s an automatic pick up.
Hades: God of the Underworld
Favorite Book with a Dark/Ominous Plot
I’m only about a fourth of the way through this, but Girls of Paper and Fire by Natasha Ngan is a pretty dark book? Who knew? Everyone knew, Ben, you just didn’t read the synopsis and got caught up in the hype. I’m just glad there is a balance so far! I’m enjoying it and don’t want to put it down, but also, mental health, y’know?
Hera: Goddess of Marriage and Family
Cutest Fictional Couple
Blanca & Roja by Anna-Marie McLemore – BLANCA DEL CISNE AND PAGE ASHBY ARE ADORABLE AND DESERVE THE WORLD. Ahem. Anyway, I love them both individually and together.
Athena: Goddess of Wisdom, Handicraft, and Strategic Warfare
Favorite Intelligent Heroine
Can I put, like, the whole cast of On A Sunbeam by Tillie Walden? (Minus Ell, kind of, because they’re intelligent, but they’re not a girl). Mia, Grace, Jules, Char, Alma—they’re all hella intelligent in their own ways and I adore each of them.
Gaea: Mother Earth
Favorite World-Building Book
The world-building in Tehlor Kay Mejia’s We Set the Dark on Fire is lowkey amazing. It’s definitely one of my favorite reads of 2019 and I have a feeling it’s going to stay high on that list. I had trouble putting it down when I read it, because I was so immersed in the world and anxious to see what was going to happen next.
Aphrodite: Goddess of Love and Beauty
Most Gorgeous Cover
The most gorgeous cover? This is highly unfair. So I’m going to give you three: Summer Bird Blue by Akemi Dawn Bowman, Full Disclosure by Carmyn Garrett, and The Fever King by Victoria Lee. And of course they’re all blue covers 😅
Ares: God of War and Bloodshed
Most Violent Book You’ve Read
The most violent books I’ve read with queer rep are the Shades of Magic series by V.E. Schwab. It’s pretty on par with other fantasy books, so if you haven’t read it, don’t let my answer here worry you. I just don’t read many violent books!
Hephastus: God of Blacksmiths and Fire
Hottest Book You’ve Ever Read
I’m putting Brooklyn Burning by Steve Brezenoff, because it’s punny. I’m not sure what the tag author means by this prompt, and maybe it’s up to interpretation. But the book, as you can kind of get from its title, is a story about two summers and the mystery of a burning building in Brooklyn. Of course, it’s much more than that. It follows Kid, who’s a gender nonconforming 16 year old, and their connection to the building that burnt down last summer.
Apollo: God of Light and Healing
A Book That’s an Exception to a Genre You Don’t Usually Like
I very rarely read thrillers. It’s certainly not my favorite genre, probably won’t ever be one of “my genres”. So I have to be really interested in a thriller to read it. This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is one of the few exceptions to this!
Hermes: Messenger God of Thieves and Commerce
A Book that Stole Your Heart
This book, without a doubt, stole my heart, squeezed it, broke it in pieces, and put it back together again in just 400 pages. I’ve screamed about it before, and I’ll likely scream about it again, but Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston is a gem.
Hestia: Goddess of the Heart and Home
A Book You Go Back to for Comfort
I’m pretty sure I’ve read Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg three, maybe four times now? I come back to it often not because it’s necessarily the happiest story. There’s a lot of heartbreak in it, yes, but it was the first book with queer rep in it that I’ve ever read. It’s familiar. And as cheesy as it sounds, it takes me back to simpler times, before I was
Demeter: Goddess of Fertility and Agriculture
Favorite Bookish Setting
Dionysus: God of Wine and Celebration
Book You are Most Anticipating in the Next Year
I have a few!! Two that I’m really excited to read and have ARCs of are The Gravity of Us by Phil Stamper and Reverie by Ryan La Sala. And two more that I don’t have ARCs of (which is highkey unfortunate) are Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore and Spellhacker by M.K. England, which doesn’t have a cover yet.
Hecate: Goddess of Witchcraft, Magic, and Ghosts
Favorite Magical Book
I’m reading Mooncakes by Wendy Xu and Suzanne Walker right now and it’s a magical mystery book with a romance between a hard of hearing witch and a nonbinary werewolf. So like, what more could you want?
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