I wasn't sure what to expect from this book but I absolutely loved it. I loved the concept and Greek mythology and most of all, I loved Poseidon. I thought he was so hilarious and he reminded me of Deadpool with his sass and snark.
I haven't read a lot of books in verse so I can't confidently say this book is really well written but I personally thought it was great.
The humor in this book is more on the dark side so if you're not into that, you might not enjoy this book as much as I did.
Overall, I loved this book and read it in one sitting. I laughed a lot and I loved the modernization of Greek mythology.

“Lightning flashes. Thunder rumbles. That’s the way the cookie crumbles.”

This book proves that not everyone can effectively tell a story in poetry/verse. LOVE the idea. Hate the execution. The poetry itself is cheesy and cringe-enducing. If you can get past the writing, then it’s a very original modernization of the classic Greek myth of King Minos and his minotaur son Asterion. I just couldn’t get past the writing.



Positives & Negatives:
+ I grew to love Poseidon and that is what kept me from completely abandoning this book. Poseidon reminds me of Hades from the Disney Hercules movie: he’s brash and flamboyant and constantly breaks the fourth wall to make commentary.
+ I love the way the myths are revealed with the more unsavory bits being teased at and not completely erased. It felt like one of the most honest retellings of how gruesome things could be in Greek myths with incest and curses and deaths not detailed, but definitely referred to.
+ The foreshadowing is cheeky.


- The poetry is just bad. The line breaks are weird and seem unintentional. The rhyming seems overly forced in places so it just comes across like it’s trying too hard. The author clearly dos not know how to use poetry/verse very well.
- Some of the rhymes were son/done, glory/story, it/shit, king/nothing, win/javelin, fuss/Icarus, ghost/utmost….
- The language is inconsistent? The tone feels really cheesy and goofy but the author also includes inappropriate language and some of the more vulgar events of mythology (but, I mean… it’s Greek mythology, there’s only so much you can censor), so it’s hard to tell who the target audience is.

This is a phenomenal book and should be included in public and university libraries. It should also be purchased for school libraries with the knowledge that this retelling of the Greek myth incorporates language of today's youth (no matter how much we wish to think everyone has a clean mouth). Some will be offended by the language, but the verse wouldn't flow or have the impact without those most obvious of profane words.

This is an immensely creative retelling of the Minotaur story. Told through each characters different view and written in different poetic form for each character this story is a wonderfully updated version of the story. I could see a lot of high schoolers liking this story, although the language might be off-putting to various schools.

I received this book as an advance readers copy (ARC) in exchange for my review. I will start by saying that this book is very unique. It retells the story of the minotaur in poetic form, featuring Posieden as the narrator who outlines the causes of the myth, as well as the in-between parts of the tale.

At first I wasn’t too sure about this book. I expected it to have a far more serious tone than it ended up having. It has a very irreverent way of retelling this myth, casting Poseidon as the crass, sailor-esque causer of destruction that laughs at the futility of it all. The other characters are just as flawed, which is a refreshing aspect to have. The only character I was fully supportive of throughout the novel was Asterion. I enjoyed that Elliott showed a more favorable side to the story.

As far as Elliott’s choice of storytelling I was a bit put off by the poetry. However after reading the author notes at the end of the book and seeing how Elliott had decided to format each character’s voice I had a new respect for his authorial choices. I found that his attention to style enriched the book for me, as it gave much more purpose to the writing.

Bull is defiantly a tragic comedy. There were several parts that made me laugh (looking at you Poseidon), and many more that were more painful. It’s dark humor and ridiculous prose adds a new layer to the original myth, without the headache of reading translations. This is not a difficult book by any means, but it’s subject can be more serious than the tone suggests. All in all, it was a nice read to get me through work.

Thank you so much for approving me for this title, sadly I am unable to open protected PDF and most of my work is done on my kindle. I look forward to purchasing this book when it becomes available on a mass market.

OMG. One of my favorites this year! I think this is an ingenious retelling of the Minotaur mythology tale. The different voices are written in various poetic forms, which is fantastic for the classroom. I laughed and gasped and felt something for the characters you just don't get through other tellings.
As a former classroom English teacher, I would have LOVED to use this to teach mythology and poetry. The strong language aside, it is a fantastic teaching tool. I can see this being used at the high school and college level Literature classes.
Be sure to read the information at the end of the book provided by the author.

A laugh out loud modernization of the myth of the minotaur. It's a nice quick read told through verse. Poseidon is literally the king of sass in this which just makes everything even better than it already is.