Electric Idol: Book Review
a spicy Eros and Psyche retelling ❤️
Behind the Review
I’ve always loved Greek Mythology, so when I found out that there was a more adult retelling series with one book that follows my favorite Greek couple, Eros and Psyche, I had to read it. I bought the book months ago before I actually found time to read it, and I made room beside my Percy Jackson collection to dive into the Katee Robert Mythology world!
˗ˏˋ⚡︎ˎˊ˗ Quick Stats ˗ˏˋ⚡︎ˎˊ˗
★ ★ /5 (2.5/5)
🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️🌶️/10
Physical Parent Abuse
Trauma
Explicit Sex Scenes
References to Toxic Relationships
Please keep yourself safe! If you’d like to learn more about potential triggers in this book, check out the author’s website or Goodreads page for content warnings!
𝓡𝓮𝓿𝓲𝓮𝔀 - Electric Idol
Overview
Electric Idol is the second in a standalone series written by Katee Robert, a multi-genre author whose series, “Dark Olympus” focuses on an overarching plot but several unique subplots within each character and relationship. While Roberts creates an investing world and unique idea, the characters of Eros in Psyche in Electric Idol fall flat and the plot loses much of it’s action right where it needs it the most. That being said, I adored the relationship between Eros and Psyche, and I’m excited to read the next in the series. I may also read the first book, Neon Gods, which follows Hades and Persephone.
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⋆༺𓆩⚔𓆪༻⋆ The Characters ⋆༺𓆩⚔𓆪༻⋆
PSYCHE: Psyche is the protagonist in the dual-POV story. She’s the daughter of Demeter and sister to Eris, Persephone, and Eurydice. Psyche is a plus-sized influencer who’s confident in her body, but struggles to reconcile the perfectionist within her and live up to her mother’s expectations. After Persephone’s marriage to Hades, Psyche carries the brunt of Demeter’s expectations and her character is challenged by her budding romance with Eros and her desire to make her mother happy.
I loved Psyche’s independence and that she wasn’t afraid to be herself. She was unapologetically sassy, and while I found her at times to be annoying, I loved how she both made sure Eros was aware of his patriarchal confessions while also allowing herself to be taken care of. I love a good “you’re mine” trope, but Psyche’s responses were hilarious!
Her moral dilemma was appealing to many readers, myself included, and I loved her relationship with Eros. That being said, I found that even though it’s stated that Psyche is very close to her siblings and described as sweet, she seems a bit standoffish with them, if not, aloof. It’s not so far that she’d be considered selfish, but she doesn’t quite live up to the description that various other characters give about her. Her relationship with Eros, while beautiful, confused me at times, because even though she often claimed she knew how to resist him and wanted their fake agreement to be professional, she gave in quite easily when there was nothing set up for her to give into him. The pattern of her development just jumped at random moments and there was nothing done to evoke such extreme responses, such as agreeing to marry Eros or wanting to sleep with him — or even marry Zeus. It all felt a bit rushed, like an afterthought just to keep the story moving.
EROS: Eros is the second protagonist. He’s Aphrodite’s son and Psyche’s husband. He’s the hit-man of Olympus, but what I lament is that we didn’t actually get to see him in action. All his power and fearsomeness is only alluded to by other characters. Much like how many people say Psyche is kind and sweet, a lot of them say that Eros is dangerous and cruel, but we’re not shown that side of him, which is something I wished I could see more of.
That being said, I love a man who’s soft for only his wife. Eros is Psyche’s number 1 fan and I love how their relationship develops. I wouldn’t say it’s necessarily an enemies-to-lovers situation because from the start, Eros is head-over-heels in love with Psyche. He’s possessive and completely adores his wife, and I love how him falling in love with Psyche encourages him to fight against the people who have been controlling his narrative.
࿔*:･📖˙ᵕ˙ The Plot ࿔*:･📖˙ᵕ˙
Each story is a standalone, but there is an overarching plot about the politics of Olympus, which I felt came up at random times and was kind of jarring. The main focus was on Eros and Psyche’s relationship, but even then, it formed quite quickly with very little opposition. Any enemies were quickly quelled and I can’t say I found much drama apart from a little bit with Zeus, which doesn’t make any sense either since he wasn’t interested in Psyche in the beginning of the story. I’ll admit that I found myself growing bored as I reached the second act because there weren’t any stakes. Psyche and Eros had internal battles, but there wasn’t anything external that kept them together, apart from gossip and drama. It’s arguable that the whole issue with Zeus is what kept Psyche with Eros, but he wasn’t a major player in their relationship until the end of the story. Even Aphrodite wasn’t mentioned a lot until the end.
˚ʚ♡ɞ˚ The Spice ˚ʚ♡ɞ˚
There was quite some spicy scenes in this book, though it didn’t really live up to what I was expecting. The plot promised intimacy that would make the reader swoon and clench their legs, but really I found myself skipping the pages where Eros and Psyche got intimate once I’d read the first few intimacy scenes. They became repetitive and there wasn’t much depth added to the story with each extra intimate scene. I think of Robert drew more attention to Eros’s scars and history, then the scenes could hold some importance, but it was mainly just…sex.
That being said, the intimacy scenes were intense and palpable. It was easy to see how their chemistry flew off the page, and Eros’s dominance to Psyche wasn’t to control her, rather to shape her into something that he knew she could become.
✘-✘ The Triggers ✘-✘
There are scenes of violence and assault, as well as pages of parental abuse and neglect. Aphrodite and Eros’ relationship in particular can be triggering because of how Aphrodite treats Eros. Please keep yourselves safe when reading and check the author’s list of triggers before taking up this book! ❤️
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🎧✮✍🏻 Overall Thoughts 🎧✮✍🏻
Overall, I thought this book was okay! I genuinely enjoyed Psyche and Eros’s relationship, but for me, the plotline fell flat. I had some difficultly reconciling the Psyche from the original myth to the Psyche in this story, where I felt like she had a lot of internal growth, but externally nothing quite changed. The plot was charged in the beginning, but fell off toward the end, where I felt like nothing really happened, and drama was being added just to allude to the next book. In particular, the whole fake marriage between Eros and Psyche just felt like it didn’t need to happen, as there were other avenues to bypass the scandal.
Despite this, I’m particularly curious about Eurydice’s story as well as Zeus and Hera. I know the new Zeus is Perseus, so I was expecting the new Hera to be Andromeda. I’m curious to see what happens!
AUTHOR’S NOTE: What did you guys think of this story review? Is it being added to your TBR? If you read it, what do you agree/disagree with in my review? What book should I read next?