Rick Riordan first published a book about a young demigod in the book Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief in 2005. Almost two decades, two movies, a broadway musical, and most recently, a Disney+ TV series later, Riordan is still writing books following Percy and his friends. In his most recent book, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Wrath of the Triple Goddess, Percy is a senior in high school and his biggest goal is to attend New Rome University with his girlfriend, Annabeth. To do this, Percy must receive three recommendation letters… from Greek gods.
As a huge fan of Riordan and the entire Percy Jackson series— I’ve been reading these since middle school — I was so excited when I heard that Riordan was writing new novels about the demigod. So, it was no surprise when I hurried to read the newest additions to the series. And since I have to wait at least another year before I get another installment, I thought I would use the time to write a review and maybe convince others to read the newest novel or maybe to read the entire series if they haven’t before.
The newest novel is the seventh novel in the series in which Percy is looking towards his second godly recommendation letter. The goddess, Hecate, offers him a letter if he petsits her two mythical pets—Hecuba the Hellhound and Gale the Polecat — while she is away during the week of Halloween. Now, this review isn’t going to focus on the Greek Mythology aspect of the novel, I trust Riordan to give us the most accurate depiction for Greek Gods in the 21st century. Yet, as someone that has never heard of Hecate before, he does a really good job of explaining who she is in a way that is informative but not lecture-y. Throughout the story, Riordan comes up with clever ways to explain other mythology aspects. For example, Mr Brunner— or more famously known as Chiorn, Percy’s centaur mentor— makes a reappearance and explains the origins of Hecuba, the Hellhound. It’s really great writing, making it much easier to follow along even when you’re not an expert in Greek mythology.
Something else that I love about this book is how true to the characters these books continue to be. The last time Riordan wrote a book where Percy was a main character was ten years ago in 2014. Yet, while reading this book, it felt as though almost no time had passed. Percy, Annabeth, and Grover feel the same as they did the first time I read the original books. Even though they are a lot older than they were in the first books, they are still the trio that I fell in love with so many years ago. What I love the most about this is that they are still as thick as thieves. In one part of the book, Grover makes a huge mistake that threatens Percy’s mission. Yet, Percy is calm and gentle with Grover, who feels incredibly guilty, remembering all the times Grover stood by him when he made mistakes.
I only have one itty bitty tiny issue with the novel: I wanted Percy and Annabeth to act a lot more coupley than they do. While understanding that yes, technically, this story is a children’s novel, it just doesn’t make sense to me that they wouldn’t at least act a tiny bit more like a teenage couple. After all, in Heroes of Olympus, they act pretty coupley; kissing, cuddling, holding hands, etc. But in this novel, it seems like they’ve lost their spark. In one scene, they are spending the night in Hecate’s living room and they sleep in separate sleeping bags. Like c’mon, given the fact that they’ve been dating for two years at this point, have saved each other’s lives multiple times, and have even been through literal hell together, it makes much more sense to me that at the very least they would cuddle. Or at least, mention cuddling but instead it’s completely ignored, which is not the Percy and Annabeth I remember. Yet, this is truly my own issue with the book and it’s honestly just because I love their relationship so much and want more of it.
This novel makes me excited to continue reading Percy’s journey to college. As a college student that has been reading these books for so long, I feel as if I’ve grown up right alongside these characters. I’m so thankful that Riordan felt the itch to follow Percy yet again and give his loyal readers more about everyone’s favorite demigod. This book was so good, I genuinely could not put it down and I have no idea how I’m going to survive until the next book is released.