This was a bit of a challenge to read, and I'm not sure why. I haven't ready any of Pulley's other work, but have read innumerable modern takes on myths and at times I felt my brain getting scrambled with some of the sentence structure. However, the characters were more than enough to keep me going on this journey. I was never entirely sure where things were going and I enjoyed where it landed us immensely.

I want to love this book so much more than I do because Phaidros and Dionysus are excellent characters with amazing chemistry. Genuinely, that aspect of the book was incredible and very well done. I loved watching their relationship develop and really do think this is one of my favorite depictions of Dionysus. Honestly, I think it is actually a compliment just how much I love these two and feel invested in them despite finding the rest of the book a little lacking.

Which…yeah. I think advertising it to fans of Song of Achilles and Elektra is really shooting the book in the foot. Those books are retellings of the mythology that inspired them, whereas this book is just…loosely inspired by Greek mythology as a whole picking out bits and pieces. If you go in expecting an experience like Song of Achilles or Elektra, you’re going to be disappointing. What’s all the more disappointing to me is that I don’t even feel like the book itself knows what it wants to be. I genuinely can’t tell if Natasha Pulley went into this wanting to write a fantasy world loosely based in Greek Mythology or write a book based in Greek Mythology like the previous two mentioned. It almost feels like she’s trying to do both and it just doesn’t work because it means she pulls neither off successfully. Adding onto that, the way in which she writes her characters just doesn’t fit in with the setting she’s trying to create. They all come off as whimsical modern English people and feel just wildly out of place in their own book.

Last point, and I’m usually not one to say this, but this book is probably 100 pages too long. There was not enough relevant plot to justify over 400 pages. I feel like a lot could have been trimmed off in editing and the book would have stayed functionally the same.

⅘ ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
The Hymn to Dionysus
Author: Natasha Pulley

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for this ARC! This releases on 3/18/25! This was a wild ride. The focus centers on a knight named Phaidros, who discovers a baby boy in a fire that he is instructed to abandon at a temple.. and then years later he starts training a battalion and they all become at risk of going mad. In addition to this, he becomes tasked with finding the prince who has ran away from his arranged marriage. During this search, he runs into a witch named Dionysus and once this happens the book becomes borderline an acid trip you are riding and don’t know how to come off. But not in a bad way? Also, it’s fitting as Dionysus is the god of mayhem, wine making, insanity, and theater? That’s exactly what reading this book felt like. It was a bit chaotic and confusing at times, but overall it was really beautifully written and I loved the Greek mythology? I think lovers of Greek mythology need to give this a try. Just be prepared for a mind F**k!

The Hymn to Dionysus is a captivating portrayal of one of Greek mythology’s most complex gods. The depiction of Dionysus is thoughtful and multi-faceted, perfectly capturing the contradictions that make the Greek gods so fascinating. The hymn explores his power, joy, and wrath in a way that feels true to the mythological tradition. It’s refreshing to see Dionysus presented with such depth and nuance, highlighting both his divine nature and his human-like flaws. Overall, it’s a compelling and engaging read for anyone interested in the richness of Greek mythology.

Greek retellings are becoming almost commonplace these days but in Pulley’s hands the story is anything but common. I can trust her to be strong on both plot and character. Here she reimagines the story of Dionysus in a way that feels impressively ancient and thoroughly contemporary.

2.5 stars rounded up

I want to YELL. The Hymn to Dionysus has SO MUCH GOING FOR IT and then SO MUCH THAT'S JUST BAD. Natasha Pulley, fire your marketing team. Whoever marketed this as a book for fans of Song of Achilles was WAY off the mark and I think you're gonna end up with a lot of people like me, very confused as to why there's essentially no romance until the last third of the book. This book has been a roller-coaster and I'm like...pretty sure I like it but it's hard to pin down.

Ok let's start with the stuff that drove me nuts.
This book is 150 pages too long. There are parts of this story that don't need to be in here. There are filler scenes that don't move the plot and don't capture the attention. Pulley's writing can get bogged down and downright confusing at points.
The worldbuilding is flimsy. Pulley can't decide whether the setting is fantasy or science fiction. The blending of the two would make for an interesting narrative but she was unable to neatly pull that off. On top of that the contemporary British slang was jarring and pulled me out of the fiction.
The liberties she takes with the Greek myth of Dionysus isn't the most interesting. Not only that but when the "big twist" is revealed at the end it kind of falls flat because the writing makes the audience already figure it out.

Ok the cool stuff.
The characters are funny, flawed, and very human. Phaidros is an incredibly likeable character despite his bad temper and melancholy nature.
The morals in this are incredibly well fleshed out. The themes of over-consumption, corruption, misogyny, and the way that Dionysus's madness combats them is refreshing in our current political climate. The way that Phaidros is constantly at war with himself over sense of duty vs. the sense of human nature is incredibly empathetical.
The story really picked up at the last 50 pages and I'm really happy with the ending. It's hopeful and strange and fresh.

Overall, this book is definitely cool and worth reading, but I think needs to be marketed differently and also I wish it was edited down more.

As someone who enjoys reading books about Greek mythology, this caught my attention. Dionysus is usual only mentioned in other tales, so I loved that Pulley gave us a story focused on him through the eyes of Phaidros. This book was a wonderful journey about duty, honor, doing what you’ve been told. Can't wait for others to enjoy this story.

Have you ever been nervous to read a book due to how much you've hyped it up in your head? That was me with The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pulley. My thoughts on this are complex and also there's a lot of them, because I am such a fan of Dionysus. But honestly, no books ever paint him well. They make him hyper-masculine, basically like he's one of the other greek gods– which he's not. And even if he was, I'm not interested in reading one of a thousand greek myth retellings that is just Circe in a different font.

I can happily, with much relief and joy, say that I really think this book GOT Dionysus. The characterization felt complex and rich, and it didn't put Dionysus into a modern day box by any means. The character of Phaidros was a really fantastic foil to Dionysus, as well as being a wonderful character in his own right. Their romance swept me off my feet and made me feel just magical. This was a really fascinating reimagining of Euripides' Bacchae, which is already a work that I love. Despite this, I think my biggest issues with this book comes in the form of the pacing and the worldbuilding. I don't think Natasha Pulley could decide whether or not she wanted this book to be set in a magical world or a realistic one, so instead of blending it, she oscillated between the two. Sometimes the world we were understanding was a wholly realistic one, sometimes it was wholly mythological and magical. And my final, very nitpicky, critique, is the consistent use of names that exist in other myths just as normal characters. Helios and Circe are two characters that come up a few times, and these are not gods or witches or anything like that, they're just people. It feels as though Pulley sacrificed the storytelling for historical / mythological accuracy. But I loved this book and I really hope others find it and enjoy it even more than I do.

In the best greek mythology retelling since Madeline Miller's Circe, Natasha Pulley takes on Bacchae, a play by Euripides, with expert artistry. Readers will get lost in the ecstasy that is Dionysus and become caught up in the world Pulley paints that it will begin to feel truer than reality.

4.5 stars!

One thing about Natasha Pulley is that she can write a story like no other, and boy is The Hymn to Dionysus like nothing else.

Usually I try to give a quick summary of the premise of the book here in my review but I could not tell you the plot of this book if I tried. Another reviewer summed it up well saying that you have no idea what's happening for the first 2/3rds but when it clicks, it clicks. I appreciate that I can be made to feel totally lost for so long, and yet when it counts I know I've caught everything I needed to. This is a haunting, honey-soaked, gear-clicking, heatwave of a book and I devoured it. Phaidros is quite different from most Greek myth retelling protagonists but his struggle with duty and fate fits right into a classical text. I really like how Dionysus was depicted as well and the parallels with color in different languages made my little linguist heart soar. Of course, you get your standard brand of Pulley magic with divine clockwork, viral madness, and reflective masks and they blend seamlessly with the blistering setting.

God, this was awesome. I stand by my belief that Natasha Pulley cannot write a bad book.

Thank you to Natasha Pulley and Bloomsbury USA for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

Oh glory, I loved this! I delighted in coming back to it each day and didn’t want it to be over. I’m going to have a book hangover after this.

We’ve all seen a lot of ancient-Greek-world stories covering the regimented military and royal side, and the tragedies therein. And this book does include that side of things. This novel, however, also smashes all of that regimentation and brings wild nature rioting back in. Which is far better, if you ask me, and exactly the type of theme we need in our current political era.

I love how Dionysus is portrayed here. His characterization sticks close to the delicious Greek mythology I grew up with—tales of ivy and grapes growing wild around him, sailors turning into dolphins, masked drunken revelers wreaking havoc, the works—but also makes him a thoughtful, compassionate being who neatly straddles the line between man and god. We, along with narrator Phaidros, are constantly suspecting he’s lying, but he brings such magic and life and sincere love that we want more of him anyway. We probably need more of him in our lives.

And I loved Phaidros too! His irreverent, snarky first-person narrative is a delightful voice I would follow around for a whole book no matter what was going on. I’ve seen some reviewers comment that it feels too modern, but I strongly disagree. I believe those people are missing a couple key points. First: the whole thing is in translation, so to speak. These characters are speaking a pre-Ancient Greek of some sort, which I sure can’t read and you probably can’t either, so Natasha Pulley considerately translated it all into English for us. And if someone is being informal and snarky in their own language, how else to translate that into English but into informal snarky English? Second: Phaidros’s honesty and earthiness dovetails nicely with the central theme of what Dionysus stands for, which is being true to nature—both one’s own nature and the greater Earth as a whole. If we’re going to smash the regimented, miserable life of soldiers and nobles and slaves and give everyone a sweet release filled with honey and wine, we’re sure not going to do it in uber-formal classical language. That wouldn’t fit.

Does it feel like The Song of Achilles? Somewhat, certainly, but I definitely liked the ending better and spent a lot less time feeling sad than I did with Achilles. It actually reminds me somewhat more of the Queen’s Thief series by Megan Whalen Turner, which has a similar dazzling blend of tricksy gods, ancient-style civilization, political intrigue, brutal shocks, and adorable relationships.

Pure magic all around. Loved it. Will be buying a hard copy.

This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite books of the year.

The publisher comps it to Song of Achilles and to a degree, I agree, but I also think it's, dare I say, better. In typical Pulley fashion, the whole book is subtle and wind-y and confusing and sad and sweet absolutely lovely. I can't comment on any accuracy to standing mythology or stories, but it was as immersive and wonderful as the Watchmaker of Filigree Street with the typical Pulley sense of dry wit and humor (that I absolutely adore). I will certainly be ruminating on this book, and then re-reading it in a week to tease apart more and more of it.

(If you were personally victimized by Mars House, this book is absolutely without a shade of doubt, redemption.)

All in all, I am obsessed with this book and I will talk about to anyone misfortunate enough to be in listening distance

The Hymn to Dionysus by Natasha Pully was such a fantastic and beautiful read. I am always amazed by Pulley's writing and think they do a fantastic job of creating the perfect atmosphere. I think it does a great job of exploring human connection. The characters were engaging and I just really enjoyed my time reading it!

4.5 stars for this.

I really really didn’t want this one to end.
I want to live inside the ivy covered labyrinth with lemon honey cakes and the bees and just never crawl out.

This was such an unexpected story. When it started I thought I could see where it was going but that fell apart pretty soon into it. Seeing the truth unravel and be revealed chapter by chapter really kept me holding on and intrigued. At no point did I guess correctly what was happening and I soon fell in love with these characters.

There was such small moments of true intimacy between so many people in this story it felt almost like an invasion of privacy. To open yourself up and be so vulnerable to someone all the while fearing they might see you as too much is such a real experience and Natasha Pulley does a phenomenal job at conveying this on paper.

I have a list of things that give me an existential crisis and at the very top is that we will never know how advanced society grew in lost civilizations and this story definitely triggered my brain lol

It would have been a perfect 5 but I had to take off a half point because of the way the dialogue went into random British vernacular and it would take me totally out of the story.

Thank you to Bloomsbury Publishing for this digital ARC via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

This was marketed as a read-alike for The Song of Achilles, one of my favorite books, so I just had to check it out. This story was interesting, although I didn't find the characters as relatable as The Song of Achilles. A definite read-alike though. That was spot on.

My only complaint was that the writing style was extremely colloquial, which would have been fine for me if this was a contemporary fiction. But it was a little jarring for a book set in 1200 BC.

I did enjoy it though. Thank you!

Picking this up, I was wondering how many more takes on Greek mythology in general and Dionysus in particular I can possibly manage, but as far as mythology takes go, this was on the more unusual side.

When it starts out, you think you understand what’s happening: Thebes, Semele, the baby, all that jazz. Except it doesn’t quite go the way you expect, leaning into other origin myths, introducing a plot twist that’s basically a long-term shell game and raising the question of what makes humans human. Center stage is taken by Phaidros - an experienced soldier raised in a legion and now raising young soldiers to follow the same mantra he’s been taught: “Obedience is strength, austerity is freedom, and duty is honor.” The mantra works well enough, occasional PTSD aside, until a terrible drought arrives and on its heels - political turmoil, uneasy alliances and a witch who seems to literally drive lots of people mad at his parties. Phaidros, drawn into the thick of it by the virtue of having been the ward (and later husband, very dicey point tbh) of the reigning Queen, is generally resigned to his fate and tries to do whatever will benefit his city and his ruler/sister-in-law. It goes about as well as you’d expect when the supernatural gets involved.

I definitely liked this book more than Valery K and Mars House, but I’m not sold on a number of things here. Plot-wise, it’d be the flashback from the ship that Phaidros is so hung up on and the flashback to Dionysus becoming, well, Dionysus back in whatever olden days. While the former explains some of the motivation, it’s given too much attention in my opinion, and the latter just felt a bit random and inserted there for the sake of sad-and-beautiful kind of writing that Pulley is good at - and maybe for the sake of leaving no questions unanswered, which, again, in this particular case I don’t get the need for.

Concept-wise I have my objections to the line of thinking that duty makes automatons of people and only a little (or a lot of) madness might fix that. I’m oversimplifying here, and of course being totally bound by duty has never been a recipe for a healthy life and mind, but in some cases (like at the very end with the Queen and her son), I felt like it was overkill and I couldn’t get behind it. And honestly from the blurb I assumed that “veterans losing their minds” would be more PTSD chalked up to divine influence and less actual divine influence, but in the end I suppose it turned out to be both.

I did enjoy the mystery with the baby, it was a great twist, and I think the idea of “wear a mask too long and you become it” was powerful and executed extremely well here, with just the right shade of creepy and inevitable. Phaidros’s head was mostly an interesting place to be in, and his loss and grieving that came closer to the surface from time to time felt like a very natural thing, easy to sympathize with.

So, not my favorite of hers, but certainly more enjoyable than the last.

If you're a fan of reimaginings of Greek and Roman mythology, you will enjoy this book. It's a sweeping tale of the soldier Phaidros Heliades, the ward of Helios, and his encounters with Dionysus, the god of revelry, madness, and wine.

The story takes place in Thebes, mostly, as Phaidros is in charge of a battalion of young soldiers. Thebes is undergoing a drought and famine, and just as they are at their most vulnerable, a bewitching man (who we later learn is Dionysus) shows up to stir things up. Many of the citizens fall to madness, including the Queen's son, who is meant to be traded for a delivery of grain from the Egyptians.

The author does an excellent job developing each character and the relationships between them. It's a story about power, love, loyalty, duty, and madness.

Absolutely excellent.

Thank you Netgalley and Natasha for the arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

The story intertwines mystery, queer romance, and Greek mythology, creating a compelling narrative that explores human and divine connections. I know other people may criticize the comparison to if you loved Song of Achilles you will love this book but I think anyone who just loves rich reimagining's of Greek Mythology will enjoy this story and I believe Natasha is a mastermind at mythic storytelling.

I loved this book! The prose is beautiful and descriptive of both places and people. This book is absolutely for people looking for queer stories in Greek mythology, but I wouldn't come here looking for a traditional romance. Phaidros' emotional journey and their growing relationship is gorgeous, and I would definitely call it a love story, but not a romance.

I love me some brutal fantasy and this absolutely delivers. Dionysus' godhood makes him simultaneously very human and very inhuman and capable of both great kindness and great cruelty. He's a human but More, with everything that entails. I would read more about him and Phaidros forever. I feel like I need to immediately read it again because I must have missed something the first time, not because it's impossible to understand but just because there's so much here to roll around in. (As soon as I have a physical copy in my hands, I will be reading it again to be sure.)

If you want beautiful prose, emotional healing, and a blast of divine intervention, this is absolutely a book that's well worth your time. I have a lot of feelings about this book that I can't get into without speaking specifics (all positives, and all full of love), so you're just going to have to read it.

I absolutely loved this novel and can't wait for it to be out in the world so I can tell everyone to go read it.

I think Natasha Pulley is a very gifted writer and I have loved what books I have read of hers in the past. This one unfortunately just wasn’t for me and I struggled to get into it.