Percy Jackson's Greek Gods (2014 original; edició 2016)

Two words: informative and funny. ( )

This book was on my friend's 11-year-old's summer reading list and she was having a really hard time getting through it, so I offered to read it with her. First of all, I cannot believe this is required reading for that age group! Most of us know that the Greek myths are extremely messed-up with tons of rape and gory killing and gods cavorting and hey did I mention RAPE? Yeah, so, Riordan kind of glosses over the rapey parts of the myths and I'm not sure that makes it better. As a narrator, Percy acknowledges how extremely messed-up all of this is, and it must have been quite an effort for Riordan to present this material in a way that even approaches appropriateness, but that's not actually even possible. Once I informed my friend of this, she told her daughter she didn't have to finish the book and I believe she even went to the school about it. ( )

I would give this book 3.5 stars. While I’m glad I read it and will probably reread the Percy Jackson series at some point, I doubt I’ll reread this. It is written as if Percy is the author, so has the feeling and style of having been written by the stereotypical white male American teenager. Which, makes the Greek Gods a bit more fun and approachable for some, but will be annoying to others. Things that are known in modern American culture are consistent throughout the book: Craig’s List, US sport’s teams, reworded common idioms, etc. There are also lots of times, for comedic effect, within a list of horrible things, something that is on a very different level is included. Sometimes I chuckled along and other times I paused and felt a bit uncomfortable.

On the whole, Riordan does a good job of calling out the actions of the gods and saying: yeah, this obviously does not follow our moral code, but that’s how things were then. And at least to me, it didn’t come across as an excuse, but more as just a statement of fact. Though, sometimes word choice did seem to play a bit into gender stereotypes, but it didn’t feel strong and I didn’t notice it through the entire book, just certain parts.

One other thing I enjoyed about the book was that it gave me new perspective on The Song of Achilles and Lore Olympus, Season 1. Though, because of the mix of comedy and putting things into modern terms, there are some things that I would definitely want to look up in a second source before telling someone: I learned this thing about Greek gods...

If you are interested in the Greek gods, I would say see if you can read the first chapter before deciding to get it. If you like the style of the first chapter, you’ll probably enjoy the rest of the book. ( )

Just another day where Percy introduces his paternal family to us!! ( )

A great romp through the pantheon of Greek gods as narrated by Percy Jackson. A perfect compendium to the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. ( )