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#gods
Fiction. A radical new myth about sex, faith, and those of us who will never die
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an unorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case ('breathes new life into the relationship between art and life' --New York Times), the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir--with a dose of deadly serious, internet-inspired satire--#GODS is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world.
"#GODS is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory--and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature-it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance." --Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
"Matthew Gallaway's #GODS is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn't stop writing OMG WTF I Yoga Bitch
"Matthew Gallaway's storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry."--Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
"If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #GODS is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming."--Jacob Bacharach, author of The Doorposts of Your House and on Your Gates and The Bend of the World
A young boy wanders into the woods of Harlem and witnesses the abduction of his sister by a glowing creature. Forty years later, now working as a New York City homicide detective, Gus is assigned to a case in which he unexpectedly succumbs to a vision that Helen is still alive. To find her, he embarks on an unorthodox investigation that leads to an ancient civilization of gods and the people determined to bring them back.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case ('breathes new life into the relationship between art and life' --New York Times), the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir--with a dose of deadly serious, internet-inspired satire--#GODS is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world.
"#GODS is a mystery, an excavation of myths, an index of modern life, a gay coming-of-age story, an office satire, a lyrical fever dream, a conspiracy. One of the most ambitious novels in recent memory--and a wild, possibly transformative addition to the canon of gay literature-it contains multitudes, and seethes with brilliance." --Mark Doten, author of The Infernal
"Matthew Gallaway's #GODS is a novel so brilliant, so funny, so full of strange and marvelous things, I couldn't stop writing OMG WTF I Yoga Bitch
"Matthew Gallaway's storytelling manages to be both dreamy and serious; lean and luxurious. His words carry an incantatory power of mythic storytelling where beauty and savagery wrap around each other like bright threads in a gorgeous tapestry."--Natasha Vargas-Cooper, author of Mad Men Unbuttoned: A Romp Through 1960s America
"If the ancient gods were just like us, only more so, then the same could be said for this strange, wonderful book, in which the mundane sorrows and small triumphs of very ordinary lives glow ever so slightly around the edges, sometimes quite literally. At once an oddly romantic send-up of dead-end office culture and an offbeat supernatural procedural, #GODS is terrifically weird, melancholy, sexy, and charming."--Jacob Bacharach, author of The Doorposts of Your House and on Your Gates and The Bend of the World
464 pages, Paperback
First published August 22, 2017
4 people are currently reading
109 people want to read
About the author
Matthew Gallaway
4books79followersMatthew Gallaway is the author of #gods and The Metropolis Case, which was praised by the New York Times for being “driven by exuberance and morbidity, fatalism and erotic energy.� He lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City with his partner and many cats. Previously he worked as a record-store clerk while earning a law degree from NYU and was a member of the indie rock band Saturnine.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 8, 2024
CW: homophobia, pedophilia, sexual abuse, sexual assault, child sexual abuse, adult/minor relationship
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
This book really said, What if when someone asked you, "do you know X queer person?" you could answer YES AND I'm in a weird gay, pseudo-Grecian cult with them.
Actual rating: 4.5 stars
This book really said, What if when someone asked you, "do you know X queer person?" you could answer YES AND I'm in a weird gay, pseudo-Grecian cult with them.
December 23, 2017
This was so much fun to read! It's been a while since I read a book that was this different to what I expected, and it was like a sip of cool water when you didn't even know how thirsty you were.
One of the downsides of my job is that so much I read feels really predictable - I chose all the books I read as freely as I can, but I can't lie and say the question "who can I sell this to?" is never on my mind. That is why I it's always fun to read things where the answer to that is "I don't know and I don't care; this is why I read books."
The description of the book made me expect something different, but to be honest now that I've read it I don't know how I would describe it. It starts straightforward enough, with a detective involved in a weird case of what seems to be ritual killings that may also connect to the disappearance of his sister forty years ago. Gus thinks she was taken away by a god - the Greek gods who have presumably returned to earth.
Now, you'd think this would turn into some sort of queer urban fantasy, like a gay version of American Gods, but it thankfully doesn't. It becomes a lot more, and everything culminates in a really quite wonderful retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
I made sure to pace myself so this would last me until the last day of Christmas in retail - my daily dose of joy that reminded me how much fun reading can be. It's smart and funny and imaginative and has both focus and a wide scope, if that makes sense, and funnily it even has a hockey player in it.
One of the downsides of my job is that so much I read feels really predictable - I chose all the books I read as freely as I can, but I can't lie and say the question "who can I sell this to?" is never on my mind. That is why I it's always fun to read things where the answer to that is "I don't know and I don't care; this is why I read books."
The description of the book made me expect something different, but to be honest now that I've read it I don't know how I would describe it. It starts straightforward enough, with a detective involved in a weird case of what seems to be ritual killings that may also connect to the disappearance of his sister forty years ago. Gus thinks she was taken away by a god - the Greek gods who have presumably returned to earth.
Now, you'd think this would turn into some sort of queer urban fantasy, like a gay version of American Gods, but it thankfully doesn't. It becomes a lot more, and everything culminates in a really quite wonderful retelling of the story of Orpheus and Eurydice.
I made sure to pace myself so this would last me until the last day of Christmas in retail - my daily dose of joy that reminded me how much fun reading can be. It's smart and funny and imaginative and has both focus and a wide scope, if that makes sense, and funnily it even has a hockey player in it.
January 16, 2022
very good
very funny
very different
4.5 stars 🌟
very funny
very different
4.5 stars 🌟
April 25, 2019
We loved this book, which is why we were so proud to publish it.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case (“breathes new life into the relationship between art and life”—New York Times), the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet-inspired satire�#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world.
In this colossal new novel from the author of The Metropolis Case (“breathes new life into the relationship between art and life”—New York Times), the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice collides with a new religion founded by three corporate office workers, creating something beautiful, illogical, and overwhelming. Part sex manifesto, part religious text, part Manhattan noir—with a dose of deadly serious, internet-inspired satire�#gods is a sprawling inquest into the nature of faith and resistance in the modern world.
January 10, 2018
An interesting and well-written book that is purportedly about immortals walking the Earth, this novel by Matthew Gallaway feels like several books in one: an LGBT coming-out story, a New York City office procedural, a look at a mysterious organization where people disappear to study the gods, and a retelling of the Orpheus and Eurydice story. It's a lot to pack in one book, but I happily obliged in reading it. I sort of wish Gallaway had stuck to one or two storylines, but overall, I enjoyed this thoroughly original novel.
October 11, 2017
Hilarious, gorgeously written, thought-provoking, and a page-turner all at once, this novel makes an important contribution to the canon of contemporary queer literary fiction. If you've ever wondered if being queer could be conceptualized as a superpower, or if corporate limbo could somehow be lived as a subversive, enriching experience, or if you've found yourself speculating about what would happen if we could shed our whateverness as a culture and really believe in something, you'll find a cheeky kindred spirit in Gallaway and his vividly memorable cast.
December 30, 2017
7/10. Never would have read this without the Read Harder Challenge 2017, but glad I picked this for my final task (book published by a micropress). There was A LOT going on but I enjoyed the complexity and the way it was written.
February 25, 2018
Enjoyed this while binge-watching "American Gods"... an interesting alternative mythology. I felt portions about the religion created by the office workers was an overlong distraction, although perhaps there is a sequel in the works?
January 15, 2020
Well....where to start.
Unlike anything else I have read. So definitely original, and with Mr. Gallaway's excellent storycraft, this makes for a really engaging cannot-put-down effort. Funnily enough, I am kind of at a loss to explain the plot and even while being slightly annoyed with some detail, hanging loose-ends, I feel satisfied by the resolution that I sort of know what happened --- although don't misunderstand, this is not a "what happened" type of book at all.
We have 4 books, Helen, Asla, Gloria and Payson. The first 2 and the last one were fabulous. Gloria was a bit absurd, and long, and I simply could not garner the same enthusiasm. Maybe that's just me. Nonetheless, this was a super original effort and a very creative book.
Highly recommended....but The Metropolis Case was better!
Unlike anything else I have read. So definitely original, and with Mr. Gallaway's excellent storycraft, this makes for a really engaging cannot-put-down effort. Funnily enough, I am kind of at a loss to explain the plot and even while being slightly annoyed with some detail, hanging loose-ends, I feel satisfied by the resolution that I sort of know what happened --- although don't misunderstand, this is not a "what happened" type of book at all.
We have 4 books, Helen, Asla, Gloria and Payson. The first 2 and the last one were fabulous. Gloria was a bit absurd, and long, and I simply could not garner the same enthusiasm. Maybe that's just me. Nonetheless, this was a super original effort and a very creative book.
Highly recommended....but The Metropolis Case was better!
January 26, 2021
I ran the gamut of ratings throughout this book. At one point the plot kept me going at a solid four stars, at another the creative experimentation with style lifted it to five, but then the confusing detour into Greek mythology dropped it to a two. In the end, at least a short connection was made with the other parts of the book which redeemed it to a three. I wanted to love it more.
April 13, 2018
Too many different narratives trying to tie up with the same story, never really cohesive and the characters not fully realised. There are interesting ideas, but they get buried in a convoluted story with a style that tries a little too hard to be hip.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
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