{"id":4512,"date":"2025-10-20T09:39:47","date_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:39:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4512"},"modified":"2025-10-20T09:39:47","modified_gmt":"2025-10-20T09:39:47","slug":"book-review-gods-of-glenhaven-by-stephen-statler","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/?p=4512","title":{"rendered":"Book Review: Gods of Glenhaven by Stephen Statler"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Gods of Glenhaven<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

by Stephen Statler<\/p>\n

Genre:<\/strong> Fantasy \/ Myth \/ Humor<\/p>\n

ISBN: <\/strong>9798888247396<\/p>\n

Print Length:<\/strong> 342 pages<\/p>\n

Publisher:<\/strong> Koehler Books<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong><\/strong>A family drama with a mythological twist, Stephen Statler\u2019s Gods of Glenhaven transcends the humor of sex jokes to imbue everyman\u2019s life with meaning.<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Christian Orr, a high school counselor with a failed PhD, is in crisis. His wife Sloan has cheated on him, and as they discuss their impending divorce with their daughter Francesca caught in the middle, Christian begins struggling with erectile dysfunction. Everything changes, though, when a seductive woman named Ari presents Christian with her son, Maron, a high school football star who wants to start over at Glenhaven High.<\/p>\n

Enter the Greek Gods. While Ari flirts with Christian, bringing the anxiety-ridden, weak man new confidence, Sloan begins courting her new neighbor Dee, who seems to hold some mystical, sexual power over all the women of their small town. At the same time, Francesca and Maron try to figure each other out, unsure of where to start their relationship while first the cheerleaders, then the football players and students\u2019 mothers are driven to wild orgies in the background.<\/p>\n

In a wise move, Stephen Statler doesn\u2019t disguise the fact that Dee is actually Dionysus and Ari is Ariadne. He allows the reader to play along with the gods of Glenhaven as they fool and play with the weakling human characters. Of course Ariadne, the powerful Greek god, falls for Christian, the aptly named failure of a human. And of course, Maron, the son of two gods, falls for Francesca, the virgin nerd who feels awkward inside her own body.<\/p>\n

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But as Christian and Francesca miss the signs of otherworldly intervention into their lives, the plot evolves with plenty of humor at the humans\u2019 expense. While Francesca attempts to intervene in the gods\u2019 unhealthy relationship, Christian stumbles through his own virility.<\/p>\n

To add to the humor, Statler inserts single panel cartoons between chapters which, aside from egging the reader on to scan the scene that the drawing references, draw laughs of their own. Images like a urologist with his hands beneath Christian\u2019s gown or Christian flying off a balcony are not only exciting, but funny to see. Not to mention that these scenes add to the characters themselves, making them more real.<\/p>\n

While Gods of Glenhaven<\/em> is fairly predictable overall, there are some outlying scenes that add nuance, even if they are a bit disturbing. One such scene involves sexual conduct between the high school football team and the mothers of students. While much of the sexual conduct in the book is consensual and appropriate, if not at times laughable, this scene of inappropriate sexual conduct feels a bit awkward to read, stretching beyond the joke into an area that feels, frankly, icky.<\/p>\n

Gods of Glenhaven<\/em> is, without a doubt, an adult novel. An extended sex joke. But it is also the story of a weak and impotent man finding his meaning and succeeding in life. While Christian lacks strength and resolve, he endeavors to be caring and appropriate, a genuinely good guy in spite of the powerful people around him always getting what they want. To see the good guy succeed isn\u2019t just a comedy trope in Statler\u2019s book, but also a call to kindness. Gods of Glenhaven<\/em> is a fun, fast-paced, even hilarious read, but it is also filled with heart, kindness, and model human behavior. It\u2019s a good book that just happens to leave the reader chuckling to themself as much as rolling their eyes.<\/p>\n

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Thank you for reading Nick Rees Gardner\u2019s book review of Gods of Glenhaven <\/em>by Stephen Statler! If you liked what you read, please spend some more time with us at the links below.<\/p>\n

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The post Book Review: Gods of Glenhaven by Stephen Statler<\/a> appeared first on Independent Book Review<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Gods of Glenhaven by Stephen Statler Genre: Fantasy \/ Myth \/ Humor ISBN: 9798888247396 Print Length: 342 pages Publisher: Koehler Books Amazon Bookshop Reviewed by Nick Rees Gardner A family drama with a mythological twist, Stephen Statler\u2019s Gods of Glenhaven transcends the humor of sex jokes to imbue everyman\u2019s life with meaning. Christian Orr, a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4513,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bookreviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/4513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=4512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bookloves.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=4512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}