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HAVE A HOT TIME, HADES! by Kate McMullan

HAVE A HOT TIME, HADES!

by Kate McMullan & illustrated by David LaFleur

Pub Date: Aug. 1st, 2002
ISBN: 0-7868-0857-8
Publisher: Hyperion

“Mythology” becomes “Mirthology” in this hilariously revisionist account of the war between the Greek gods and the Titans. Outraged by the version of events promulgated by his boastful little brother Zeus in The Big Fat Book of Greek Myths, Hades enlists a (what else?) ghost writer to help set the record straight. True, Sky Daddy Cronus did eat his children Hades, Hera, Demeter, and Poseidon, but it was their mother Rhea, not Zeus, who supplied the herbs that made Cronus finally barf them up. Similarly, when the gods needed help against Team Titan in the Olympic Games’ climactic kickstone match, it was Hades who not only sprung allies from an underworld jail, but saved the day again when mighty Typhon attacked. And how did Zeus repay the debt? By cheating Hades out of Rulership of the Universe in a crooked poker game. Is it any wonder that Hades took a gig in the Underworld—“It’s my job to make sure that the ghosts of those who were good in life get to go to an eternal rock concert. . . . The ghosts of the not so good? They have to wander around, trying to memorize an endless list of really hard spelling words. And the ghosts of the wicked? You don’t want to know”—to escape all of his squabbling sibs? The disgruntled deity promises more exposés (“ ‘I think I’ll call it Phone Home, Persephone!’ ”) to come. The sooner the better. (Fiction. 10-13)