Tigerpetal Press : Book Review: The Chalice of the Gods

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Senior Years Book 1: The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan

4 stars – I really liked it

I can’t believe that Rick Riordan came back to this series after everything! And it looks like we’re getting two more in this set of stories!

Read: February 5 – February 9, 2024

Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Middle-grade
Book contains: threat of death, aging, murder chickens

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

Couldn’t Put It Down!

After saving the world—twice—Percy Jackson can finally relax and finish high school, then go to college with his girlfriend, Annabeth, in New Rome. If only things could be that easy. As it turns out, since he is a forbidden child, Percy is not even allowed to apply to New Rome University unless he has three letters of recommendation from the gods—for new quests. The first to request his help is Ganymede, cupbearer of the gods.

I was super excited to get back into this world. It lines up perfectly, because my mom and I just finished watching the Percy Jackson and the Olympians TV series on Disney+, so I was already immersed in the world.

As we return to the roots of the Percy Jackson series, we get back into Percy’s first-person perspective. It’s casual, humorous, and some of the time, Percy is speaking directly to the reader as if he’s recording the story after the fact, even mentioning autocorrect and “writing this down”.

The quest is undertaken by Percy, Annabeth, and Grover, with some help from his father Poseidon and his new school counsellor, a Nereid named Eudora. We get to meet new gods and monsters in the world of the Greek myths, and revisit some old known characters like Zeus and Athena, though only briefly.

Annabeth and Percy’s relationship is as strong as ever, and I love the way they support each other. Percy even has some semi-decent relationship advice for his best friend Grover. It’s hilarious how Percy can either be favoured by the gods or royally mess up while talking to them. His words are constantly getting him in and out of trouble with immortal beings.

Another thing to note—I understood the theme of this book clearly. Lately, I’ve noticed that Riordan is adding quite obvious themes to his books for readers to pick up on and learn from. The Chalice of the Gods is all about growing up, something Percy never thought he’d do. Ever since becoming a demigod, Percy came to terms with the fact that he might not live to adulthood. Once he learned the first great prophecy, he thought he’d die at sixteen. Now, here he is preparing for college. All steps in this quest bring the message closer to home, but it wasn’t until about chapter thirty (of thirty-five) that it really sunk in for me.

The pacing was quick; it’s almost hard to believe this book was over 250 pages! It’s about the same length as The Sea of Monsters word-count-wise. Riordan does incredibly well setting up the plot for the trilogy right at the beginning, and bringing the reader along on the journey/investigation.

I’m super pumped for the next book in the series The Wrath of the Triple Goddess which comes out September 24, 2024. I can’t recommend Riordan’s books enough for parents to read to their kids. It’s the series that truly unlocked reading for me and inspired me to join this business.

Percy Jackson & the Olympians, The Senior Years Book 1: The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan

Couldn’t Put It Down!

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