Guest Writer // Camryn Lehr
I first picked up a Percy Jackson book, The Lightning Thief, when I was in third grade. I was instantly hooked from the first sentence: “Look, I didn’t want to be a half-blood.” I’ve read the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series three times. I’ve read The Heroes of Olympus series twice. As a kid, I had a custom-made Camp Half-Blood T-shirt, and from ages seven to thirteen, Rick Riordan was my favorite author. I can say with full certainty that I was a Percy Jackson fan, and to some extent, I still am today.
This January, I re-entered the world of Percy Jackson through the new television series starring Walker Scobell, Leah Sava Jeffries, and Aryan Simhadri. As I re-entered the intense fandom that is Percy Jackson, I realized that Riordan had recently published a new book in 2023 featuring the one and only Percy Jackson as its narrator. This book was titled Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Chalice of the Gods. Of course, I had to buy it. I needed to see if this new book lived up to the hype.
After reading The Chalice of Gods, I was unsure of my feelings about the book. I couldn’t decide if I liked the book or if it was a disappointment. Nonetheless, there were certain aspects of this book that I loved. For instance, Percy’s characterization is still as strong as ever, and Percy still makes one of the best narrators, in my opinion, of all time. Percy stays sassy, sarcastic, and silly. This is reflected in the funny chapter names such as “I Face a Dangerous Predator Who Is Possibly My Future Mother-in-Law.”
Another positive is that Percy is still hopelessly in love with Annabeth, and he can finally admit it (Yay!). There is a detailed scene where Percy and Annabeth roll towards each other to do a fake, but somewhat real hug through an Iris message. It is super sweet and incredibly cute.
Needless to say, I was incredibly happy that Percabeth was in full form and blooming. In addition, I also loved the fight scenes in The Chalice of the Gods. Say what you want about Riordian, but he can write a good fight scene. Part of the magic of a Percy Jackson book is an engaging action scene that is the perfect balance between being realistic and exciting. Riordan uses enough descriptive language for the reader to picture the scene and become heavily invested. The action scenes are what drive the plot and keep the reader wanting more. Riordan was still able to pull off this impressive feat in The Chalice of the Gods.
However, that said, the book did fall flat for me in a couple of ways. There were a couple of moments that felt very corny. For instance, Riordan writes “As Annabeth had often told me, I drool when I sleep” (184). Obviously, this is a very famous line, and although it’s fun for the fans to see this callback, it feels, in my opinion, like Rioridan is pointing to his famous line and hoping the reader will think he’s clever and cool for referencing it. This line didn’t land for me because of that. I don’t like when authors impose themselves into the text because it breaks the fourth wall. In order for me to enjoy a book, especially a fantastical book, I need the fourth wall to be up and heavily guarded. I need to be completely immersed in the fantasy world. Any lines that take me out of the story, like the one I just referenced, break my immersion into this world, and as such, make this world less believable. Chalice of the Gods doesn’t live up to the original five novels because there are moments where Riordan breaks the fourth wall.
Moreover, I heavily disliked the theme of college in this book. People love Percy Jackson books because they are fantastical and offer an escape from reality. The college theme felt too real and hit too close to home. A lot of students, which is the age demographic for this book, spend a lot of time worrying about getting into college, and I would infer that they probably don’t want to be reminded of the stress of college when reading a book for fun. I understand that
Riordan most likely chose this theme to emphasize the importance of college for students and to showcase how stressful and unfair the college process is. I think this is a really important topic to speak on; however, I don’t think a Percy Jackson book is the place for it. Most readers read Percy Jackson to be entertained and forget about the stress in their lives for a little while. Referencing college doesn’t accomplish this, which is frustrating as a reader. I would have enjoyed Chalice of the Gods a lot more if college hadn’t been mentioned. All that said, I would still recommend The Chalice of the Gods to other Percy Jackson fans because they would enjoy some of the references to older books and the Percy Jackson-styled narration.
However, I wouldn’t recommend this book to the same extent that I recommend the original five novels in the Percy Jackson & The Olympians series. It was abundantly clear to me when reading The Chalice of the Gods that the original Percy Jackson & the Olympian series books are superbly better. I don’t believe this just because I view the original five books as classics, but because it is the actual truth. Look at the chapter names in one of the original five books and compare them to the chapter names in The Chalice of the Gods. It will be clear from this comparison that not only are the original five novels funnier, but also more entertaining. Since I believe the original Percy Jackson & The Olympians series books are better than The Chalice of the Gods, my final opinion on this matter, and I say this with a heavy heart, is that the Percy Jackson franchise is going downhill.