*This review was written before the release of Percy Jackson and the Olympians on Disney+.
In the arrival of the Percy Jackson series airing on Disney+ this year, I knew that there would be a select hype surrounding the already cult-classic, dearly loved series by Rick Riordan. Apart from a small and unserious review I made on Goodreads last year in 2023, I have never really discussed the series in full before; I thought that the general hype for the series would no doubt be accompanied by diehard fans, fans I cannot associate myself with or force myself to become.
While I definitely saw the appeal of the Olympians series, I have to confess that I was slightly disappointed by the first book, which is possibly why I have had little interest in diving into any of the following additions.
Previous reviews from myself (see Stone Blind, for example) have described how I was never really a fan of Greek myths or retellings or anything of that genre when I was younger. I know that this series is aimed more at “younger people” (not specifically children, but also not exactly adults, although the writing does not trap itself in a box that is limited to younger readers – anyone can enjoy the story, and many people above the age of 12 do); however, I felt that this first book didn’t speak to me as a reader, despite it having so many themes and features that I typically like within a world and a story.
Until last year (and after reading The Lightning Thief), I had never engaged with Percy Jackson media, and all I knew about the series was that it was 1) well loved, 2) revolving around the Greek gods and 3) that Logan Lerman defeated Medusa with an Ipod. I can’t even blame the movies’ deviance from the books as the reason for my overall lack of interest.
For the most part, I had a difficult time relating to Percy and most characters in the first book. I can’t for definite say that this lack of understanding is an issue that carries across the series, because I haven’t read any of the others and have no concrete or urgent plans to do so. But, I still found that Percy and I functioned so differently in terms of how we respond to problems that it did feel annoying at times, despite the grievances I know Percy faces throughout the book. I did, however, like the visibility of kids with dyslexia, and I actually learned something – that kids with dyslexia excel at ancient languages like Greek. Thanks for the fact, Rick!
And I know that Percy is twelve in this book, and considering I am a twenty-two year old woman who has no dyslexia, I tried to see how and why Percy acts the way he does. He also has an attention deficit disorder, which actually explains a lot. I loved, actually, how these things remain central to his character without making him appear weak or vulnerable; they became things that made Percy entertaining and interesting, things that made me empathise with him. But there were so many occasions where Percy did incredibly dumb and stupid things – things I’d expect a twelve year old to do, only those things didn’t really harm Percy too much. To be honest… Percy has incredible plot armour!
I get that this book is supposed to sound a little bit corny because it is from the perspective of a child. Rick Riordan did a good job at making the writing feel like it had been written by an actual twelve year old, but there were occasionally sequences where I kind of sat and scratched my head for a little bit. In some places, I felt that the myths of some of the Gods and whoever were a bit warped, retold in a way that kind of made them either more or less dark, but the book did not struggle sounding dark in other places.
For example, the myth of Medusa and Poseidon is written here as Medusa being Poseidon’s “girlfriend”, meanwhile the original myth refers to Poseidon luring Medusa into the temple and raping her. The book obviously skims those details since it’s for children, yet it has no issues with referencing “gangbangers” on page 276. I can’t help but wonder if this was an intentional thing (as in, Annabeth just said that to diminish what her mom did in regards to her role in turning Medusa into the creature she became). Either way, sometimes I was a bit put off by the writing despite its occasional realism to the mind of a pre-teenage boy, but I guess that’s a subjective, personal preference.
That being said, there were things I did really like about the story, surprisingly. I liked how (in contrast to the movie, which came as a surprise only after I’d read this book) Percy actually feels somewhat emotional about what happened with his mom; in the movie, Logan kind of just goes “oh man, that happened” and nothing else, but in the book, the grief of losing her is so palpable and central to Percy’s decisions that I actually understood why he does some of the things he does, why he takes so many risks.
I also really love Camp Half-Blood – if I had grabbed this book when I was younger, I know I would have eaten it up! There’s something special to me about a space where those who are lost or without any real understanding of who they are can come to create a found family.
At times, too, the story amused me with the writing and the interactions between the three main characters (Percy, AB, Grover), but more often than not, I just found myself not necessarily caring about their discussions and dialogue sections. Maybe it’s just me – maybe I can no longer relate to kids. Maybe I’m a boomer!
I wanted to have fun with Percy Jackson and his story, and perhaps I still can in later books. I know that the fanbase holds this book series high, and while I am intrigued by the development of the story and also the string of side stories created also by Riordan, I’m just not necessarily jumping at the chance to read the rest of the series yet.
But what I can say to win me brownie points with PJ fans is that the book was a lot more interesting in terms of plot than the movies. I cannot understand why certain aspects were just blatantly ignored for the big screen. I haven’t seen the Disney show, but one can only hope that it remains true to the story that unfolds in The Lightning Thief’s 375 pages.
holly can read 