Due to a sudden, unexpected passing in the family a few years ago and another more recently and my subsequent (mental) health issues stemming from that, I was unable to download this book in time to review it before it was archived as I did not visit this site for several years after the bereavements. This meant I didn't read or venture onto netgalley for years as not only did it remind me of that person as they shared my passion for reading, but I also struggled to maintain interest in anything due to overwhelming depression. I was therefore unable to download this title in time and so I couldn't give a review as it wasn't successfully acquired before it was archived. The second issue that has happened with some of my other books is that I had them downloaded to one particular device and said device is now defunct, so I have no access to those books anymore, sadly.

This means I can't leave an accurate reflection of my feelings towards the book as I am unable to read it now and so I am leaving a message of explanation instead. I am now back to reading and reviewing full time as once considerable time had passed I have found that books have been helping me significantly in terms of my mindset and mental health - this was after having no interest in anything for quite a number of years after the passings. Anything requested and approved will be read and a review written and posted to Amazon (where I am a Hall of Famer & Top Reviewer), Goodreads (where I have several thousand friends and the same amount who follow my reviews) and Waterstones (or Barnes & Noble if the publisher is American based). Thank you for the opportunity and apologies for the inconvenience.

The writing style to this book just felt so off-putting that I never managed to get into it and I kept putting it down and only reading little bits when I picked it back up. Just really not my cup of tea. Really cool concept though.

As a lover of mythology of all kinds I adored this book and got through it one sitting. The blend of prose and poetry is so wonderful, and though sometimes it can prevent you from getting emotionally engaged, it is still incredibly well done.

I love how it melds together the ancient and the modern and it was a very enjoyable quick read for anyone who loves myths.

I had no idea what to expect with this book, and it really blew me away. It’s set into different ‘books’ and reads as one big poem that tells the story that weaves African and Greek mythology together. There’s also a lot of contemporary context which was interesting to read as it weaved with the two mythologies. It ended up being a truly enjoyable read.

There is so much packed into this short book, with a moving storyline that follows the abuse and sexual assault from Zeus. We see how it affects and changes the life of Modupe. It’s harrowing and hard-hitting, but a reminder that these things continue to happen. It’s very much reflective of the #MeToo Movement; the head of Greek Gods, the ultimate patriarchy figure, continuing to get away with his actions, untouched because of his immense power whilst his victim experiences PTSD.

"Always wandered if I should have worn more.
Too much flesh in that vast forest, too much life. My fault? I must have glimmered like a star to him."

Inua Ellams interweves the Grecian and Yoruba Gods spectacularly, and introduces the Yoruba mythology in a way that is enjoyable to those who know little (or like me; none) about it and their gods. There’s another interesting power dynamic between the two, despite the Yoruba Gods immense and incredible power they still bow down and fear the power of the Greek Gods.

There are so many layers to this epic poem, and so many things that can be read further into. It is so incredibly well written and the characters felt truly alive on the page. Some scenes were powerful and moving, and were some of the most emotional scenes I have read in poetry. The ending is a scene that I will never be able to forget.

"Zues who is old as stars thinks Earth spins for him, that he is entitled to our bodies. He will never learn. Vengeance is ours."

I would highly recommend to any, especially if you enjoy mythology. I’d also say this would be a great read even for those who aren’t keen, or are wanting to dip their feet into poetry. This is definitely an adult book and does go into a little detail into the sexual assault and is a repeated theme throughout the book.

Disclaimer - I received a free digital download of this book by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

My first impressions of The Half God of Rainfall are imaginative, easy to read and intriguing. The book surrounds Demi - the half God of Rainfall and how he came to be. This book takes you on a journey starting with a group of boys and their love of basketball and the excluded young boy - Demi. We then learn of Demi’s parentage and an oath his grandmother made with the Goddess Orun that her daughter should be protected from men.

I’ve found the prose to be wonderfully written and I am intrigued by what the other works the author may have published contain.

One sentence to summarise why this book is not only worth reading, but must be read: Overlooked and abused women of mythology unite to take down Zeus, with a black woman, mother and rape survivor as their champion.

INSTANT favourite! I'm struggling to find words worthy of expressing how much I thoroughly adored this. Inua Ellams weaves words as effortlessly as the gods wield air and water, with a beauty and finesse to rival the greatest of them. I adore everything about this book, and I cannot wait to get my hands on a physical copy one day!

I listened to the audiobook as well as reading it and I was hooked from start to finish! The narrator is the talented poet and author of the book. I was swept by the journey from Nigeria to Olympus to America to London to space and back again.

This was a story of wars between gods (men) that leave women and children as collateral damage. It comes alive with the righteous anger of women who turn their pain and oppression into power. They are no longer the victims but the heroes who would do anything for their children, and take their power back without fear when men fail them. It is rife with symbolism and the optics of a white god and a black woman's anger, the women who enable their husbands (Hera), the men who stand aside and watch while women suffer for their pride (Sango), the view of sports players as gods.

This is a book that unflinchingly takes on the violence perpetuated against women so a content warning is necessary, but subverts what is usually a lazy trope and delivers justice.

I really didn't expect the story I got! This is a war between Gods and mortals. This introduces feminism into mythology and the scarred and used women used by God's owning their narrative! This is such an amazing story that people should read the way in which it's written is beautiful and emotional! This was amazing!

I’m not sure what I was expecting from this book, but it wasn’t what I got. Told entirely in free non-rhyming verse, this is a tale that spans the ages and pits Gods against mortals in a war that has been waged since man began.

There is an amazing amount packed into very few words here and Ellams packs quite a punch with evocative and harrowing descriptions. It will take many Western readers out of their comfort zones, relying heavily on Nigerian and Ancient Greek mythology yet despite my unfamiliarity with the names and places, it still drew me in and carried me along.

Free verse not being my forte, this is not a book I would ordinarily pick up and yet I am glad I did. Simultaneously telling a tale of love and of vengeance, the female perspective of the ravages of God and of man are striking and harrowing. This is a quick read, but I suspect it is one that will stay with me for quite a time to come.

Many thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for my free copy of this book.

Demi, born to a Nigerian mother after she was raped by the Greek god Zeus, rises to fame as a basketball player. If you love Neil Gaiman, you will enjoy reading The Half God of Rainfall. Demi's mother Modupe finds herself at the mercy of the gods. There are Yoruba vs Greek deities, conflicts between mortals and gods, disagreements between women and men, and basketball matches. This is a quick read and an enjoyable one. I loved how it is a bit of old and a bit of new in verse format.

"Orunmila, the God of vision and fiction, whose unique knowing is borderless, whose wisdom is unmatched, who witnessed the light of all creation,
to whom all stories are lines etched in his palms,
from the heavens above Nigeria, read the qualms of oncoming conflict, shook his head and looked down."

I read this paragraph and felt like I had come home - I am obsessed with mythology, particularly stories about the gods in the Yoruba and Greek pantheons and this brings them together so well.

The Half-God of Rainfall, play, poem, and prose all at once, is the story of Demi, the Nigerian demigod who can make basket while laying on the ground and can cry a river - literally - when he is angry. Demi is the star in the middle of the show, but this story begins and ends with his mother, Modupe, the chosen one of the river goddess. Endowed with a beauty that makes men and gods act out of turn, Modupe becomes the proverbial grass in the field where elephants fight, a pawn in a battle of egos. She lives out her fate as graciously as she can manage, but when the elephants return to trample on the only living thing in her field, there will be plenty to pay to appease her rage.

Pride, power, feminism, and revenge are all in this melting pot, but I also chose to read it as an omen, a warning to kings and men alike who think they have power over women's bodies; nothing is as vast as a woman's heart, and when she fights from pain and love, not even Zeus stands a chance.

Inua Ellams has been making waves in the theatre-world recently, most notably with his astonishing play, Barber Shop Chronicles, so I wanted to get to know more about the writer, hence me landing upon The Half God of Rainfall, an adaptation of which has also recently finished on the London stage.

This is a wonderful piece of epic poetry that blends the Greek legends and myths of Zeus, Hercules and the gods with a contemporary story of a young black boy wanting to fulfil his potential as a breath-taking basketball player.

Only his talents come from the gods – his beautiful mother having been raped by Zeus – and so the gods have forbidden him to use his celestial talents against humans. But he rebels and the gods seek to take vengeance against both him and his mother.

What I would have given for this work to be longer. It’s so short, takes less than thirty minutes to read, yet Inua has weaved so much into this – racism, misogyny, vengeance and justice. I adored it. I just wish I had seen the stage adaptation now!

I honestly completely forgot that this was a long poem and not a novella/short story!! It definitely has more flowery language and more of a rhythm to it than most prose I've read. Anyway, it's a really interesting story about ancient gods from Greece and Nigeria who have a hand in the conception and birth of a demi-god, as well as the power familial love has, and the rage and power of abused women. I don't know if I would have bought this myself, but I do think it's worth reading if you're a fan of myths, especially the ancient Greek kind.

https://hercommonplaceblog.wordpress.com

A very enjoyable book that kept me engaged all the way through. The fantastic writing grabbed meand the story was easy to follow. Its an intensely poetic work yet it carries some big ideas and thinking. Highly recommended

This is Percy Jackson for grown-ups. ⚡
Inua Ellams does it again with an outstanding novella about heartache, motherhood and abuse.
I was enamoured from the very first line:
Portrait of Prometheus
as a basketball player.
Every word in this collection was perfectly chosen. Its concise writing style makes for an easy read despite the difficult topics that the author is discussing and this is largely thanks to his ability to craft relatable characters despite some being Minor Gods. I felt the rise and falls of these characters with an amount of emotion I didn't know I felt for them.
Character crafting in poetry can be especially difficult. However, I found it easy to distinguish one character from another because of how different they were. Petty female vs female hatred did not exist in the pages of this novel and considering some of the characters involved and how they are portrayed generally by other writers, I found to be very refreshing. Not only this but the format of this novel- free verse poetry split into books and acts, was something I had never seen for a book like this and very much enjoyed. I think this works very well here due to the influence Greek gods have on the story. The structure can be compared to a classic Greek tragedy and when you realise that it makes rereading the novel and an even better experience (especially as it made me realised that this was more the story of Modupe, Demi's mother before the perspective switched back to her).
This is a diverse multi-generational exploration of sexual assault that should be missed by no one.
⚠Trigger Warning: Sexual Assault, PTSD

*I received an ARC via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. Thanks for the free book!*

This poem/prose/mixture of things deals with mythology. Zeus - as always - can not keep it in his pants and rapes Mosupa, a Nigerian woman. Product is Demi, a half god of rainfall who becomes a successful sportsman, challenging his father and his powers.

As already indicated, this is sort of an epic poem, mixing various mythologies though mainly Nigerian and Grecian ones. I found it entertaining and a bit weird - but not in a bad sense. It was very poetic.

Due to format problems it was sometimes hard to read though. Furthermore, it was a bit short for me and the story progresses too fast.

3,5 Stars because I'm all in for mixing mythologies!

Excellent book. I found it a quick read yet it was so full. It almost like there was not a chance to breath. Fantastic writing.

Three stars isn't a bad review, it's just an uncertain one.

I'm the first to admit a free verse poetry novel is in no way my wheelhouse, and I'm not the intended audience, knowing little about classical and Nigerian mythology and less about basketball (!). However, there was much to enjoy here.

Telling the story of the conception birth and life of a half god, Nigerian basketball player combined with the power and rage of sexually abused female role models is challenging and surreal.

The language is precise, evocative and at times harrowing , the imagery clear and in places very disturbing. The ending in particular crackles with power and excitement.

3.5 stars if it would let me, and a welcome complete departure from something I would pick up for myself.

The Half-God of Rainfall has been an exercise in the unexpected for me, though perhaps it shouldn't have been. First, I'd been rather dense in picking up that this title, by poet and playwright Inua Ellams, is in fact in verse. On that discovery, I had the standard concerns about whether I was really qualified to read this book I'd committed to review, or whether daring to have an opinion on some words that sometimes rhyme is inherently beyond me as . Then I calmed down and opened it up and had a great time. "Cool," I thought, "now time to review something new and interesting that expands my horizons beyond the world of prose". I am just starting said horizon-expanding review when an idle google search teaches me that The Half God of Rainfall is not just a poem by a playwright, but a poem that was about to be staged in my city. In the spirit of "why broaden one horizon when you can broaden two", what follows is therefore my thoughts not just on The Half-God of rainfall in its written form, but of the performance that brought it to life in the Kiln Theatre, Kilburn in May 2019.
The Half-God of Rainfall is a story of ancient deities and their impact on the lives of mortals, told through a distinctly modern lens. Its hero is Demi (Kwame Odoom), the child of Zeus and a mortal woman. His mother, Modupe (Rakie Ayola), was given the protection of Osún, the Òrisà of rivers, only to have that protection fail due to a contest between the Òrisà's God of Thunder and Zeus, with a mortal of the winner's choice as a prize. Demi, Half-God of Rainfall, is born immediately from his mother's rape and grows up with his mother's love and grief, and his own uncontrollable powers. We meet him by the side of a basketball court, barred from play because of his tendency to literally flood the land when he cries, at the moment he turns his ability to "make it rain" from a literal ability into a figurative one and begins his rise to the top of world-class basketball - and attracts the notice of both the Òrisà and the Greek pantheon. 
The language of Half-God is gorgeous and full of rhyme and flow that demands to be "voiced", even if you're just talking in your own head on a packed train carriage. On the page, it's subtle and fluid, and the transformation and feeling of "discovery" as each of those rhymes and lyrical moments appears in sound is one that I completely delighted in. Running through this is an exploration of dialect and narrative mode, from lines of dialogue that feel lifted from classical translations or myth retellings to more modern vernacular, like the exploration of "Nigerian tongues round American accents" on the children's basketball court. It makes for a rich reading experience that translates as well as you'd expect - even if the details are unexpectedly different - to stage, where it falls on just two actors to play out this range of voices and to differentiate the revolving set of gods and mortals of these various pantheons for the audience's benefit. 
Demi's journey from crying child to vengeful young man happens quickly, and it feels like his character gains most going from page to stage, allowing us to follow as he goes from from excited child to confident, self-assured demigod to an inevitable path to hubris and downfall. Of course, it's inherently quite funny to watch a tall adult man play a child on stage (see also Philip Schuyler Hamilton), and like the Hamilton character, our amusement at Demi's character is abruptly cut short when we realise he's grown up to match his actor's physicality, and we have to start taking his ambitions and their possible destructive results seriously. Because Kwame Odoom doubles as other characters, most notably Sàngó, Òrisà God of thunder, who is definitely not powerless (although he spends much of the story claiming he is), the ability to sell Demi's youthful journey is even more impressive.
While the title is ostensibly about her son, it's Demi's mother Modupe who (intentionally) steals the show. Unlike the older myths it riffs off, where women are included simply to be owned and use by men and to suffer without agency, this narrative galvanises her as a woman whose life has been shaped by male violence and impunity, but never taken from her. Despite all their powers and schemes, the male characters all ultimately end up as fuel for her arc, rather than the other way around. It's interesting to contrast the text, which puts her at the head of a chorus of similarly wronged women who were assaulted at the hands of Zeus or other men who used their power to take what they wanted from the women around them, and the stage show, which with just a single woman centres far more explicitly on Modupe's individual rage. It's reflective of Modupe's relative isolation throughout the entire play: because of the way the character doubling falls out, Rakie Ayola plays a lot of secondary characters at the point they intersect with Demi, as well as being the Zeus and the Osún to Odoom's Sàngó. It means that, at pivotal moments where Modupe interacts with these characters, she's in fact alone on the stage, her protectors and her attackers all embodied within the same actor and therefore, on some level, reflected in her own character. It's a powerful concept, well executed.
In poetic form, Half God of Rainfall took very little time to put me under its spell; on stage, it takes a little longer, with deceptively light-hearted initial scenes at the start; it's not until the gods take to the stage that the production really gets to show off its actors' talents and the versatility of its storytelling mode. The inevitable constraints of time and space are such that, for most of you reading this, it's not going to be possible to check out the Kiln's staging of this fascinating work - though if North London is in your radius before May 17, I urge you to check it out! - but for me it was an unusual opportunity to experience a text that already pushed me out of my comfort zone in a new way. Anyone interested in explorations of myth and epic form with a focus that goes beyond the well-trodden world of European legend would be well served by checking out Ellams' work, and if you ever get a chance to see it staged? Even better.

The Half-God of Rainfall is really excellent read. Short but packs a real punch. Inua Ellams is a real talent.