Beyond The Odyssey: well worth the wait, the pain and the TEARS!

Hello, I’m Steph and I’m a self confessed Maz Evans super fan. Her books are EXCEPTIONAL. Like… properly great. Who Let The Gods Out and Simply The Quest are some of my favourite books of recent years. I own 3 copies of STQ, for what reason? Who knows! I made all of my friends go on a massive hunt for sprayed edges STQ last year, and I am on HIGH ALERT for sprayed edges BTO this year. But anyway, we are not here to talk about my hunt for sprayed edges books… we are here to talk about Beyond The Odyssey…

Imagine the scene, I’m (impatiently) waiting for a Chicken House parcel. I’m still waiting. It’s been snowing, the postman hasn’t been for days (it’s like a post apocalyptic world) I’ve been off work with nothing to read (in reality there’s 700 books for me to read, but I want to read BTO). When I eventually go back to work, there is still no sign of the book. I start to think my postman is holding the book hostage (I feel Nyx would approve of my postman doing this)… I come in from a HORRIFIC day at work and to my sheer joy there is a parcel from the House of Chickens. IMAGINE MY DELIGHT… LOOK AT HOW CHUFFED I AM.

I have no shame. I was so excited.

(If you haven’t read Who Let The Gods Out/Simply The Quest, then get on it. THEY ARE SO GOOD OK? My reviews are here and here)

But anyway… onto my review…

“Elliot’s life is spiralling out of control and his mum’s health is worsening. The gods are determined to embark on the quest for the third chaos stone. But Elliot has heard of a mythical potion rumoured to cure all ills … could he save his mum, even if it means sacrificing the fate of the world?”

Beyond the Odyssey (let’s call it BTO from now on in this review, because that’s FAR FEWER letters for me to have to type, and you to have to read!) follows the life of our trusty protagonist Elliot, who is naturally struggling with lots of things. He does have his trusty Greek Gods by his side, and his ever faithful best friend Virgo to help him too. The battles he faces this time are MUCH BIGGER than in the 2 previous books. This time… there’s Titans on the loose, a hunt for a potion that could heal Josie-Mum and some pretty tough characters to face too. 

BTO introduces us to Elliot’s dad, Dave, who is around the farm, but things aren’t quite right. Josie-Mum is getting worse, she doesn’t seem to trust Dave and she wants to be nowhere near him. Elliot doesn’t think anything of this, just that Josie-Mum is getting used to change. Dave tries to keep out of the way as much as he can. 

It’s going to be so hard to write this review without it being spoilery. I will aim not to be spoilery. I’ll be a good book blogger. (LOL)

So Elliot has to combat dealing with Dave, people at school meddling in his business, trying to find another Chaos Stone and finding this magical potion he has heard of. There’s SO MUCH here for Elliot to deal with. He’s an amazing young man. I have grown properly attached to him. There are moments in BTO where I was like NO ELLIOT DON’T DO THAT MAN THAT’S SO STUPID, but he does everything with one thing in his mind: get his mum better. I know that if I were Elliot, I’d want my mam to be better too. 

Seriously though, how I write this review without just telling you what happens is hurting my brain.

I need you to know a few things: 

Elliot is a wonderful young man.

The gods have his best interests at heart. I absolutely love seeing how much their relationships have grown. The gods make these books even more special. Especially the good ones.

There’s obviously baddies. They make for deliciously wicked reading. There’s a MASSIVE twist towards the end and I GENUINELY gasped. SO SO GOOD. Maz is a wicked queen who wants us all to feel pain.

These books are hilarious. These books are so fast paced and wonderful. There’s some absolute comedic genius lines thrown in there. I genuinely chuckle SO HARD at these books. There’s an incredible line about kebabs that made me laugh for a good 10 minutes. The balance of BREAKING YOUR HEART to PROPER LAUGHTER is perfect. There’s scenes aboard disastrous planes in this book which just are wonderful. 

I’ve learned SO MUCH about Greek mythology through these books. I genuinely find myself spouting random things about Greek mythology having read these books. You don’t realise you’re learning, but you are. 

This is just a snippet of the messages I sent to Maz while I was reading. Seriously. There’s a WHOLE TON of others, but they’re spoilery. SO MUCH HELP NEEDED. I finished BTO and was like “what have I just read? what just happened?” but in that exquisite, brilliant, book hangover kind of way. You know when you read a book that is just SO GOOD your brain doesn’t quite know how to process what happened?

My goodreads review is far fewer words, with the same message:

Can I give this book more than 5 stars? 
Gods it’s brilliant. More emotions than I can list. The exceptional humour of the past two, more twists and turns than you can count, a massive dollop of sadness, some more exceptional Greek mythology. New characters, old favourites, new places, old haunts. I just… yes. Maz is exceptional

This review so far has just been a lot of ramble. Trust me when I say it is EXCEPTIONAL. I am SO READY (but so NOT ready) for book 4. I am GENUINELY terrified about what it holds for us. I am team purple cover though (for book 4). 

Have you read any of this series yet?
Are you a fan of mythology in stories?
Are you also team purple cover?

Please come and talk to me about this book, this series, what is to come, because I need to talk about it more. I am yet to think coherent thoughts about this book. I loved it and would absolute recommend EVERYONE reads it. Leave me a comment, send me a tweet, a carrier god, whatever!

S x