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Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Nice Shot Cupid review

Nice Shot, Cupid!
by Kate McMullan
Stonearch Books
August 2011

This fast-paced, breezy slang-filled version of the Cupid and Psyche myth changes plenty of details, but actually stays fairly true to the basic plot arc of the original myth. First, we get a quick rundown on who all the major players are. The story is narrated by Hades, who in this version, is more of a misunderstood good guy who's been given a bad rap. Cupid is an awkward teenager with pimples and braces, accidentally scratching himself with one of his arrows causing him to fall in love with... himself! He sounds like a surfer, peppering his speech with lots of phrases like, "dude" and "man." His mother, Aphrodite, is a bossy, funny woman prone to speaking in Italian, since she rose fully-grown out of the Italian sea. In the meantime, Psyche has been promised to marriage to Cupid, and is goaded by her sisters Muffy and Buffy into finding out what, exactly, her invisible husband looks like. In doing so, she angers Aphrodite, and must out-perform Hercules' labors to get back in Aphrodite's good graces again. The silliness level in this book is easily amped up to 11, what with Hades calling Psyche by the nickname, "P-phone," and plenty of anachronisms like motorcycle riding, WWF-style wrestling and so on.

This reprint (first published in 2002) is sure to cash in on the Percy Jackson excitement with a lot of young readers. In terms of tone, and reading level, this will appeal to readers who are right on board with goofy humor like Diary of a Wimpy Kid, but may find Percy Jackson just a skoche too challenging at the moment.


I borrowed this book from the library.

3 comments:

  1. This looks like a funny V-day read for younger kiddos - they can celebrate the day of love without a romance novel :) I like the PJ tie-in too. Thanks for the tip!

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  2. My daughter love these series of books! I picked up one last year at BEA and ended up buying the entire series for my daughter.

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  3. Good February book. Thanks for sharing it.
    -FABR Steph@FiveAlarmBookReviews

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