Title: The Hymn to Dionysus
Author: Natasha Pulley
Pages: 416
Rating: 5/5
Spice/Romance level: ❤️

I'm already telling people how good a book this is and that they need to read it as soon as it's released.

I've adored Natasha Pulley as an author since I first read The Watchmaker of Filigree Street and wanted my very own katsu!! ❤️

This book did not disappoint. The opulent descriptions of the beautiful world and madness that's created. The twists and turns of storytelling. The slow intensity of the romance Vs duty.

It's also made me want to reread the bedlam stacks with descriptions of the mechanical gods to see if they're interlinked. (She has been known to do this in the past)

As someone who hasn't read the story of Dionysus, I couldn't tell you how close to the retelling of the story it is.

The book was heartbreaking in places. It offered hope and understanding. It showed kindness in a world of hate and restriction. And like her past books showed consequences of actions and how we treat other people.

You'll love this book if you like
- greek mythology
- found family
- queer romance
- slow burn
- duty and honour
- crown politics

Natasha Pulley’s best work so far. Poetic, romantic and full of tension and drama. I was a particular fan of the Ancient Greek Easter eggs scattered throughout.

The synopsis of this book felt like it was absolutely written for me. I’m a Classics graduate (I actually taught Classics, Latin and Ancient Greek for a while!) who wrote her dissertation on the evidence to support a mysterious cult to Demeter and who read and loved Greek tragedies in their original languages. The Bacchae, which this is based around, was always one of my favourites after reading it at “Greek camp” (an intensive 3 week Ancient Greek summer school).

We are introduced to Phaidros as a young knight who rescues a baby from a burning palace and then is commanded to leave him at a temple. For the majority of the book, he is a "Sown" commander, training new young recruits in Thebes, a city now ravaged by drought and famine, while a strange madness overtakes the knights. Meanwhile, he is guided by the witch Dionysus to help find the crown Prince, Pentheus, who has shirked his duty.

Rather than mythology, which is what many are expecting from this novel, for me it felt exactly like a crossover between a Greek tragedy and an epic Greek poem. Because I know The Bacchae, it felt a bit like I was reading with spoilers as I knew what was coming - I’m not sure how well known Dionysus and Pentheus’ backstory is. But this didn’t hinder my enjoyment of it at all.

It was cleverly written with fun little insights where the author breaks the fourth wall and speaks directly to the audience who are reading this in the future - it’s almost like a little nod to us to say: “Hey, isn’t it funny that they’re referring to something that you now know is true!” These were some of the highlights of the book for me as it had the feel of a real Greek tragedy where the characters would occasionally make little moves like this, letting the audience in on a secret, a nudge nudge, wink wink, sort of thing. Fans of Greek tragedy will love the nods to its classic storytelling techniques.

For example:

“And after all our world is gone and there’s no trace of us or marvels or Pylos and nobody knows if the war in Troy even happened, there it’ll be, and priests thousands of years from now are going to have huge gatherings about whether or not their ideas about us are supported by fourteen oxen and three barrels of apples to Poseidon!”

I enjoyed the use of words like deinos and xenia which threw me right back into the days of learning about these concepts at school - things that I had forgotten but were so integral to these cultures and storylines. It was nice to see them well explained and the importance placed on them to explain the motivations behind the storyline.

Some of the culture and themes are so different to ours that it’s hard to understand the motivations, but I loved how it threw you into a world that was similar but also so far removed that it feels alien. It’s a good eye opening experience to know that, even in the modern world, our culture can be so different from others.

I know some reviewers are not all that hyped up about this book being sold to fans of Madeline Miller, and I can see why the similarities have been pointed out by publishers but not understood by fans. I do think it is a very different style altogether, just like mythology and Greek tragedy would be. But personally, as a big Greek tragedy fan, this appeals to me even more than mythology based books.

And I know reviews have also said that it’s disjointed between the real world and the magical - tipping into magic realism - but that’s exactly what a Greek tragedy/epic poem/myth is. The writing is immersive, oppressive, and brilliantly evocative.

Her writing in this book has been described by others as modern and British, however I disagree. Pulley’s writing feels distinctly Ancient Greek, with its asides, satire, and rich world-building. As I've mentioned, the little asides to the audience, but also there are some fun, sometimes satirical, digs at the Athenians which the audience is meant to enjoy, and little passages which take the reader away from the main story for a moment or two to describe a situation as being alike to another situation - this had the epic Greek poem feel about it rather than a tragedy (or even comedy - with the digs at the Athenians!) play.

The setting in a drought and famine ravaged Thebes was oppressive and very well written - you could feel the desperation through the page. In addition to that, the characters themselves were well built - Phaidros is ravaged by guilt, he is a flawed character, but the relationship between him and Dionysus, how it grows and changes, is brilliant.

While I loved this, the book felt a little too long - at 60%, it felt like I’d been reading it forever, but that’s when it really got gripping and you felt like you got the meat of the story! There was a chunk of the book in the middle that seemed to drag on, where Phaidros and the story just kind of seemed to be meandering somewhat aimlessly. There were of course important parts in this for adding to characters’ personalities or storylines, little hidden references here and there, and these need to be interspersed with, for want of a better word, filler so that you’re not bombarded with important detail after important detail, but like I said, it felt a little longer than necessary. However, the writing was excellent enough and the world so fascinating that it didn’t make me even consider stopping reading it.

Thank you to Netgalley, the author and the publishers for an advance copy of this book.

The Hymn to Dionysus was a refreshing new reimagining of the Dionysus myth, and the genre of mythology retellings as a whole.

As a long-time Natasha Pulley fan, I went into this book with a certain set of expectations based on her previous books, and the works of Madeline Miller, Jennifer Saint etc. The Hymn to Dionysus was nothing like those expectations. This was tonally unlike anything Pulley has written in the past, in a way I really enjoyed. Writing from the perspective of Phaidros, Pulley captured his rough personality masterfully. His sardonic tone and way of seeing the world made for a quirky and unexpectedly funny reimagining, while still delicately handling heavy, and often devastating themes.

The Hymn to Dionysus was a true reimagining of myth rather than a retelling, and I enjoyed the way Pulley wove in additional chapters of Dionysus's mythology. That said, this did mean I found myself questioning the exact timeline, especially in relation to the Trojan War, and the way the events of the Odyssey were treated as distant mythology despite being reasonably current. As someone with a passable but not expert knowledge of Greek Mythology, I found myself unsure whether this meant Phaidros fought at a different Trojan War, or if these were legitimately errors. Ultimately I just decided to treat it as part of the reimagining, but I fear other reviewers will be less generous.

I'd probably hesitate to recommend this book to true mythology experts without some heavy caveats, but I would definitely recommend this to anyone with a casual interest, or to fans of Pulley's work.

A knight in the Theban army, Phaidros lives by the motto his beloved commander taught him: duty is honour, and obedience is strength. He never questions his duty or obedience to his commander or to his city and he never questions the dangerous path that life has given him. Until he meets Dionysus. Dionysus is a wilder kind of danger than the familiar dangers of war that Phaedros has grown up with. The closer the two men become, the more Phaedros begins to question everything about the world around him. When it comes down to it, can he really put his duty before the freedom of others? Before his own freedom? Before his own life?

The characters in this book are exactly the kind of deeply realistic and conflicted characters that I have come to expect from Natasha Pulley. Their relationships are complex, their emotions are bottomless wells of intensity, and their views of the world are varied and wide-reaching. Dionysus and Queen Agave are polar opposites, representing the two extremes that Phaedros finds himself torn between. This conflict is mesmerising to read as you are constantly alert for any subtle changes to his character that signal a softening towards one extreme or the other.

My favourite aspect of this book is the way it picks apart our understanding of the ancient world. It explores how the ancient religions might have functioned in the absence of real divine power, whilst at the same time exploring the affect that divine power could have had on the world. In one chapter we are escorted behind the curtain to see the mundane explanations of magic and marvels, yet in the next we are presented with very real evidence of magic and gods. This pendulum of contradiction comes to a crescendo at the end of the book in a most spectacular literary feat.

(3) As a classics student and long-time Natasha Pulley fan, I RAN to request this book as soon as it was added. I tried to put my training aside. I tried to get into the awfully flat MC’s head. And yet I still couldn’t truly get into the world of this book like I could get into Pulley’s previous books.

Marketed as a Greek-myth retelling, this book is NOT for the Greek myth lovers. Pulley attempts to weave the Iliad into the Bacchae, and there are even Odyssey and Oedipus references which I found strange, given that the Trojan War takes place a good hundred years after Pentheus’ death. I’m all for a bit of flub and fun foreshadowing when it comes to myths, but there is a canonical myth timeline, and by disregarding this, it just feels very pick-and-mix like. Something that really annoyed me was the constant explanation of basic Greek myth. I’m all cool for some explanation with terms that are central to the themes (deinos is one) but do you really need to explain who Artemis is? I was a bit disappointed at this, as Natasha tends to be very good as subtlety.

Another thing I found strange was the use of names from the Iliad?? Call me stupid but I did spend half an hour wondering whether Polydorus was the same Polydorus from the Iliad. The world as well felt a bit patchy, with a sort of indecisive atmosphere to the use of magic and the gods.

As for the characters, I simply did not care for Phaidros. In my head, he’s basically Pentheus except Natasha realised that it would be incestuous so she tweaked his name a bit. Phaidros just kind of walks around. Eats. Bakes. He has trauma from the Trojan War which makes him react violently, which could have been explored further. When Natasha pulled out the lavender forced marriage trope for the FIFTH (??) time I genuinely had a little scream into my pillow because I hate it that much. The character of Dionysus was interesting, if not a bit bland. When you’re writing a character as complex and complicated as Dionysus I want to see you truly explore his character. I also wanted to see mind-messing and flirting. There was very very boring mind-messing, and no flirting. The issue of Dionysus’ race, which is a central theme in the original play is discussed once. Natasha loves her racially ambiguous love interests so that wasn’t surprising at all.

Agave was well. Agave. I found it interesting that Natasha put her in a position of power, but I would have loved to see more tension between her an Semele, and just more of her struggles really. Also there was one line that was word-for-word quoted from Horrible Histories: The Incredible Incas which really threw me off for a while. Pentheus was a little wet rag, but he and Agave barely affected the plot anyway, so I simply didn’t care.

Overall this was okay I guess. Technically the writing was good. The characters were okay. I didn’t feel very obliged to keep reading, but I also didn’t really feel like DNFing. The thing that really let this book down is the lack of chain reaction and effect on the lot. Nothing happens when events happen until someone decides that hey maybe we *should* care about this. The best part was the slander of the Athenians. I liked those parts.

“Another triumph from Natasha Pulley”
It’s taken me a while to write this review because this book left me speechless. I’ve always loved this author’s work, but without a doubt this is my favourite yet. I found myself reading every page twice just so I wasn’t speeding through the book.
The characters are complex yet relatable, the dialogue is witty and engaging, the plot is unique and well-paced. There are some absolutely heartbreaking and haunting moments but ultimately the book is joyful, even through tragedy. As a (very) former classics student (who usually avoids anything set in Ancient Greece), I’m not exaggerating when I say this book reminded me why I fell in love with Ancient History in the first place. I think if you’re a fan of myth retelling you would enjoy this book, but I hesitate to class it solely as such - the book is a historical, fantastical, and character driven story about love, duty, grief, and how sometimes we all need to be a little mad just to survive.

I always look forward to a new Natasha Pulley book. This one promised to be something new and original. Certainly it has Natasha Pulley's inimitable style but unfortunately I found it difficult to read. The pace was slow I didn't get a feel for the world it was set in and the story was confusing. It was hard work reading this, far too much padding out and inactivity. Pulley's books can be a bit hit and miss. Sadly this was a miss for me.

As a fan of authors like Jennifer Saint and Natalie Haynes, I was really excited to delve into Natasha Pulley's "The Hymns of Dionysus." I'm fascinated by retellings of Greek myths and was eager to explore this collection. However, despite my enthusiasm and the intriguing subject matter, I unfortunately found the writing style quite confusing and I didn't fully understand what was going on. While I appreciate the historical significance, the style ultimately prevented me from enjoying the book in the way I had hoped.

“The Hymn to Dionysus” is a tale loosely inspired by Dionysus, an infamous figure for those who are familiar with Greek mythology. The story revolves around the Greek island of Thebes, where Phaidros had his first encounter with Dionysus. Thus begins Phaidros’s lifelong experience in search of something elusive as his encounters with the mystical witch-like figure seemed to end with strange occurrences in one way or another.

Those who have been here with me long enough will know about my love for Natasha Pulley because of her immersive writing and skills in infusing magical realism into her writing. Her latest novel offers much of the same captivating narrative where readers will most definitely get lost within the maze of clues Pulley loves to pepper in throughout her story. I also love how this has captured a different side to the Dionysus myth that typically seeks to define him by the cult & his band of followers.

That said, her works after “The Kingdoms” have fallen short of my expectations due to some issues with her narrative choices, especially when it came to her main characters, who seemed to follow very similar blueprints. In this, Phaidros & Dionysus fared no better; their dynamics and characterization followed Pulley’s previous characters so closely that the story began to lose its shine after a while. Couple that with the fact that the language she used feels very English in its vernacular & cadence, it doesn’t feel like Grecian in nature (I had the same problem with Pat Barker’s retellings). I feel like Pulley truly excelled when her characters & setting are rooted in the English soil (see: the Watchmaker duology, The Bedlam Stacks & The Kingdoms), but that’s just me.

Despite my minor complaints, I still enjoyed this a whole lot compared to The Mars House so: a win is a win. This book is definitely for Pulley’s fans first and foremost, and for Greek myth enthusiasts who are looking for an atypical retelling.

What a brilliant book! I had never read any of Natasha Pulley’s earlier books and am only vaguely interested in Ancient Greece, but WOW - this story is exquisite. Set in a time when gods lived amongst humans and daily life depended on their good humour, the author leads us on a story of honour, duty, love and madness. The language is modern and appealing, the relationship between the main characters, Phaidros and Dionysus, is tender and the politics of Ancient Greece are intriguing, I’m delighted to have found a new author and am off to read all of her earlier works.

A lyrical and well-sketched remaining of Greek myth, The Hymn to Dionysus is the latest offering from Natasha Pulley, she of historical Achillean romances with a high-concept plot enshrouding it. This time it's the turn of a God and a mortal, and Pulley deploys her usual charm and bittersweet whimsy, providing the reader with an epic romance and a delightful piece of Grecian historical fiction to boot.

I'm not very knowledgeable about things Greek, a few books, and a recent trip to see Hadestown leaves me with enough information to be sure I knew something, but never enough.
There were times I was confused in this book, so many characters, so many ideas!!!
However, I do like a bit of Pulley, and the wit and humour shone through a lot.
It's an enjoyable read, and I felt it justified every page.
There's magic, mayhem, madness, honour and duty aplenty in this book, and more besides.
Cracking.

The Hymn to Dionysus follows Phaidros who was raised in a Greek legion and has to fight. One day he rescues a baby at Thebes’s palace but is forced to abandon him. Years later Phaidros is drawn into the crown prince of Thebes’s issues as he wants to escape his upcoming marriage. Phaidros ends up searching for the crown prince and meets Dionysus who is a witch with rumours following him.

This was enjoyable. Phaidros was an easy character to follow and connect with. I can see fans of this author enjoying this work. I was a little bit confused by this though because at first I thought the Greek Gods were in this as the commander was called Helios but looking at other reviews it seems the author has used these names for mortals. Other than that the story was fine although it’s not a new favourite for me.

““He sounded like the ash glow looked; like the funeral pyre of kingdoms.””

“He's like wine. If you describe what he does, he seems awful, but if it's happening to you, it's lovely.”
"There speaks an intoxicated man."

Thank you to Orion and Gollancz for the early access to this book!

I have to start my review with the fact that Natasha Pulley is one of my favourite authors. I would have picked up anything she wrote next and devoured it, so when this was announced I could not wait to read it. Immediately upon starting, Pulley’s voice is evident. Her fantastic narrative and character crafting is unique and once you have read one of her books, it is like greeting an old friend - despite being in a wildly different setting to her previous science fiction world of ‘The Mars House’. or her debut “The Watchmaker of Filligree Street”. There is something fundamental and essential to her work that carries through and I cannot get enough of it.

In terms of setting, readers should be mindful that this is a ‘reimagining’ of Greek myth and story, not a retelling. Although marketed for fans of ‘The Song of Achilles’ and ‘Elektra’, and they certainly will enjoy, any readers looking for a classic, close to original myth story will not be finding this here. Instead, Pulley’s Greece is unique and surreal, with fragments of recognisable figures but perhaps not where we expect them to be. Later in the novel, our narrator comments that records have been lost and the present doesn’t remember these events the same way. I loved that - the idea that this is a different, alternate Greece we don’t know.

Pulley’s strength is character. Her protagonist and first person narrator, Phaidros is an excellent. Warped by his experiences, there is a tight tension to her prose that mirrors the emotional turmoil and repression that Phaidros experienced, revealed through his PTSD and reactions to events. This tight, tense narrative only relents when we encounter Dionysus who is the strange, surreal witch who may or may not be a figure from Phaidros’s past and may or may not be a god. Dionysus as a character is wonderfully characterised and I found myself, like Phaidros, straining for the next moment he would appear.

The plot was well paced, and events are unexpected without feeling bizarre. Things are strange - the god of Madness may be in Thebes after all! I loved the descriptions of the ivy growing and the plague like singing that bleeds into the city. My favourite Greek reimaginings and retellings have the gods as primal, inexplicable things. There were some points, however, where I had to reread sections to check I was following but once I was used to the surreal and lyrical magic of moments, I was sold. The mystical is well balanced with Phaidros’s blunt approach to the world, which I really enjoyed.

Overall, this is a great read and although I would not say that it was Pulley’s best work, it is a refreshing new world to have been given. I’m excited to see what Pulley does next!

In The Hymn to Dionysus, Natasha Pulley offers a spellbinding reimagining of the myth of Dionysus, the Greek God of ecstasy, madness, and ruin. This book, aimed at readers who loved The Song of Achilles and Elektra, is a richly woven narrative that captures the timeless allure of Greek mythology while exploring the deeply human struggles of its characters.

The story follows Phaidros, a soldier raised in a Greek legion with a fierce loyalty to a homeland he has never seen. His life takes a fateful turn when he rescues a baby from a fire at the palace of Thebes. After this act of heroism, he is forced to abandon the blue-eyed boy at a temple and keep the child’s existence a secret. The trauma of this event lingers in Phaidros’s mind, and years later, after the death of his battalion in a mysterious incident, he has become a training master for young soldiers. He is tormented by panic attacks and flashbacks, and he is not alone—his fellow veterans are similarly losing their grip on reality.

Phaidros’s struggles, however, are compounded by his entanglement with Thebes’s young crown prince, who wishes to escape an arranged marriage. When the prince vanishes, Phaidros is drawn into the search for him, a quest that leads him to a blue-eyed witch named Dionysus. As Phaidros spends time with this enigmatic figure, he begins to witness strange events—riots, unrest, and rumours of a new god, one sired by Zeus but lost in a fire. Dionysus’s guidance becomes crucial, as Phaidros is confronted with the unraveling of both his own sanity and the world around him.

Pulley’s storytelling is masterful, and she does an excellent job of developing both the plot and characters. The pacing of the book keeps you on the edge of your seat, as Phaidros’s journey takes him down unexpected and thrilling paths. The author immerses the reader in a world where the lines between madness, divinity, and humanity blur, and the twists are as unpredictable as the god at the heart of the story.

While the romance that develops between Phaidros and Dionysus adds depth to the emotional arc of the book, I would have liked to see more focus on this relationship, as it could have further enriched the dynamic between the characters. That said, the overall story is so compelling and well-crafted that this minor quibble doesn’t detract from the book’s greatness.

The Hymn to Dionysus is a truly captivating read. Natasha Pulley has created a world where myth and reality collide, offering a powerful exploration of grief, identity, and the search for meaning. It is a story that lingers long after the final page, and for anyone drawn to mythology and complex, unforgettable characters, it is not to be missed.

Read more at The Secret Book Review.

A burned out soldier in Thebes tries to save the city and himself from the god of madness, only to realise the god might save him instead. An absolutely stunning novel - subtle, witty, full of heart and humour. I could have read another 500 pages; without a doubt this will be one of my top books of 2025.