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A review by sarah2438
The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan
3.5
I'm torn on this one. How do I weigh the joy of returning to the world of Percy Jackson, against the obvious cash grab that this book is? How do I balance my critical reading while remembering that this is literally a middle-grade book, and that I would have been obsessed with it if I'd read it at that age?
One of the first gods that our favorite crew encounters is Hebe, goddess of youth, and I had what felt like an absolute revelation as I read that section. At the time I wrote a full paragraph around the chapter title and I'll summarize that here: This whole nostalgia / return to youth theme is an interesting choice for this book because that's exactly what Uncle Rick is going for and why I and everyone else pre-ordered it. It's almost a comment on itself. This is a sequel series meant to suck us in just like this bizarre arcade. It's all very intentional. All of the repeated references to previous books adds to this point too, trying to pull us back in and get us to read them again just in time for the TV series as well. Very cleverly done, Uncle Rick.
(It was 10pm and I was binge-reading this, so I've tidied up some of my language.) Anyway, it's very interesting to mull over how Percy has a subplot of nostalgia and anxiety about moving on from something (in this case, high school and going to college), while at the same time, a lot of us had moved on from Percy Jackson, and yet we are again being pulled in by these new books. Nothing really ends, does it?
Anyway, this was fun. The nods to the previous books started to feel gratuitous, which is really saying something given how sentimental I am. But Uncle Rick writes in his signature style that's been endearing us to him for the last 18 years (brb having a crisis over how old Percy is) and I may just have to acknowledge that my own taste has changed in those years; there's a reason I haven't followed up with any of his other series. Of course I'll still read the rest of the books in this sequel series, but just as Percy experiences the bittersweet nostalgia of growing up, I find that while he'll always have a special place in my heart, but I'm just not as perfectly aligned with him as I once was.
((Cackling over the contrast in critical thought between this middle grade review and the adult dark academia review I wrote earlier today lol see The Cloisters for reference))
One of the first gods that our favorite crew encounters is Hebe, goddess of youth, and I had what felt like an absolute revelation as I read that section. At the time I wrote a full paragraph around the chapter title and I'll summarize that here: This whole nostalgia / return to youth theme is an interesting choice for this book because that's exactly what Uncle Rick is going for and why I and everyone else pre-ordered it. It's almost a comment on itself. This is a sequel series meant to suck us in just like this bizarre arcade. It's all very intentional. All of the repeated references to previous books adds to this point too, trying to pull us back in and get us to read them again just in time for the TV series as well. Very cleverly done, Uncle Rick.
(It was 10pm and I was binge-reading this, so I've tidied up some of my language.) Anyway, it's very interesting to mull over how Percy has a subplot of nostalgia and anxiety about moving on from something (in this case, high school and going to college), while at the same time, a lot of us had moved on from Percy Jackson, and yet we are again being pulled in by these new books. Nothing really ends, does it?
Anyway, this was fun. The nods to the previous books started to feel gratuitous, which is really saying something given how sentimental I am. But Uncle Rick writes in his signature style that's been endearing us to him for the last 18 years (brb having a crisis over how old Percy is) and I may just have to acknowledge that my own taste has changed in those years; there's a reason I haven't followed up with any of his other series. Of course I'll still read the rest of the books in this sequel series, but just as Percy experiences the bittersweet nostalgia of growing up, I find that while he'll always have a special place in my heart, but I'm just not as perfectly aligned with him as I once was.
((Cackling over the contrast in critical thought between this middle grade review and the adult dark academia review I wrote earlier today lol see The Cloisters for reference))