Percy Jackson and the Chalice of the Gods (Finished)
March 6, 2024
It feels almost sacrilegious to begin this book without rereading the entire Percy Jackson and the Olympians series before diving in. I remember most of the old plot points, the main characters, and were we left them, but without a crystal clear memory of what happened in the two previous series, I am worried I will go through this book saying “Wait when did that happen?”, “Who is that again?”, and “Where did we meet this character?”. But Mal went through his entire book despite never reading The Lightning Thief so I think I will be alright.
One of my biggest critics of the Heroes of Olympus was the constant changing in POVs, especially from books 3-5, so I am looking forward to a single viewpoint into this story.
Page 1: “Look, I didn’t want to be a high school senior.” Oh we are so back.
Page 4: “My ADHD was pinging around under my skin like billiard balls.” I don’t like this explanation. I don’t know why but it feels wrong?
Page 6: “The taste of salt water got sharper in my mouth.” Rick, I beg you. Please give me a different spidey sense. I know Percy is constantly worrying about monsters and being attacked, but don’t make his entire thing salt water.
Page 9: I LOVE Rick Riordan’s chapter titles. They always loop into the chapters without ever actually explaining what happens. The chapters are never “My Dad and I have a talk about my future”; there is always a humor in the titles. “My dad helps me out* (*No help actually occurs)” is hilarious, but also keeps the mystery of what is to come. They also give off the vibe that Percy wrote these chapters himself.
Page 10: I can ignore many things for the sake of enjoying a good story. I can know in my heart that the Greek gods are serial assulters that never receive consequences for their actions, so they never really evolve. But I will NOT forgive Poseidon for committing the most atrocious thing to ever reach my eyeballs. Poseidon needs his kingdom revoked, and his palace carpet bombed. Who the fuck where crocs and socks….
Page 11: “ ‘Percy.’ ‘Hey.’ We have deep conversations like that.” Damn he just like me and my mom Fr. Although, my mom would never offer to flood a school for me.
Page 19: “We both had ADHD, but I couldn’t stayed like that for hours…” Mr. Rick, let me let you in on a little secret. ADHD people can in fact sit down with our favorite person for hours. Either hyperfocusing on the same thing or in the same room. I do not know why these ADHD references are rubbing me the wrong way.
Page 24: Sometimes, a book will reach out its pages, wrap them around you, and say “welcome back.” That’s what this is starting to feel like. We are back to where you started. It isn’t a life or death situation (yet); just three kids going on three quests so Percy can go to college and be with his girlfriend.
Page 28: “I… I have some unresolved trauma about eagles.” Bro don’t we all. Also I am happy to be back with Annabeth “I can put two pieces together and know exactly how to respond” Chase. Her immediately cheesing up a god to calm him down is amazing.
Page 32: I am starting to remember why this series took up my entire childhood. The books move at breakneck speed without ever sacrificing character building moments or important dialogue. In fact, most of the book is dialogue unlike the typical Adult Fantasy novel that is 75% exposition and 25% dialogue. You can absolutely lose yourself in the Percy Jackson books for hours and only think a couple of minutes have gone by. I am 32 pages into this book and already we have the main quest starting with clear character motivations established.
Reading/Listening to game of thrones while reading this book is putting my brain into a spin. How quickly could be have gotten through a Song of Ice and Fire if Martin just wrote what needed to be said instead of a borderline historical documentary???
March 7, 2024
Page 40: One of my deepest concerns with this book was the fact that I wouldn’t remember a lot of the deeper intricacies of the previous series, but it is clear that this book is going to be more of a “Hey remember that time we went into a labyrinth. Ha Ha! Good times.” And then moving on with the current plot. I appreciate that so so much.
March 8, 2024
Reading Percy Jackson, at my best friends house with my boyfriend, while we all watch Starship Troopers together is truly a little slice of heaven that I didn’t feel like i deserve. Safe. Cozy. Warm with laughter. Smiling at both book, movie, and friends. God I am lucky.
Anyways sappy shit overwith!
Page 51: “The last thing the world needed was boomers aging backward, like, We enjoyed monopolozing the planet so much the first time, we’re going back to do it again.” Rick, you are right… but also this wasnt slick. Like, yes you are right. But also we don’t need to say it word for word? I’ll think about how this line makes me feel later.
Page 58: “‘Sorry, sorry!’ Grover rubbed his horns. ‘I - I need to play. I’m practicing social dominance in the herd.’” This made me laugh but it is dumb.
Page 63: What do you mean Riptide has a child proof lock?!
Page 75: I do love how much appreciation we are giving Sally Jackson. She is living her best life with her boyfriend and his son who loves her.
“(I’d also like to point out that when I type chorus just now, it initially autocorrected to curse, which seems right.)” I don’t like that. It reminds me that sometimes the Caine kids would remind us that they are typing everything out? I cannot imagine Percy ADHD Jackson would sit down and write all this out.
Page 79:
Oooh Annabeth gets scary.
Annabeth “poop yourself” Chase
Page 90: “‘Is this the part where I threaten your life if you fail?’ ‘No,’ I said. ‘That comes later.’” Aha!
Page 100: Blanche using indifference to her benefit when dealing with her mom is amazing. “I am gonna wear black and white and have my mom do what ever I want.”
Page 101: This book is reminding me that Rick is on Disney’s payroll… lets not do that.
Page 124: Five years ago?! The Lighting Thief was five years ago?! These poor kids cant catch a break.
Page 128: Annabeth “I’ll throw my boyfriend off a cliff because I know he can survive this one without me” Chase.
Page 129: Wait wait. Gods don’t undertatand sarcasm but Elisson clearly does!
March 11, 2024
I read from pages 129-166 while I was donating plasma and I almost passed out because I wasn’t paying attention to my vitals. I was too focused on Elisson’s sassy attitude.
Page 137: “I was a scared kid again, screaming for the big bad world to leave me alone.” Same Percy.
Page 139-140: Ok, I don’t know what it is. Maybe women have had to use silent signals to keep ourselves safe for years, but Annabeth telling Percy exactly where the Iris’s Staff is and he still can’t see it is very real. I can have an entire conversation with my sister using just our eyes and eyebrows. I don’t know. Boys stay cute.
Page 142: Annabeth “I brought herbal tea as an offering to the chill yoga god and it worked” Chase. My baby girl is so freakin smart. I will say, Rick writes his boy characters very well. Like they aren’t stupid, but they do miss things every once and a while.
Page 145: If Zeus spent as much time ruling Olympus, as he does bullying demigod kids, then maybe bad things wouldn’t keep popping up. That’s all I am saying.
Page 148: Every time Percy gets close to death he thinks of Annabeth and that is what propels him forward.
Page 156: I am starting to think that I don’t like when books mention pop culture events that are not eternal? Which is a weird way to describe it. I guess SpongeBob would be “eternal” but it is still so current that it feels like it will date the book.
Page 165: Grover having the emotional intelligence to know that what’s bothering him isn’t Junipers bloom day present but the reality that his friends will be leaving him soon is so freaking sweet. Poor baby boy.
March 12, 2024
Page 167: “I have seen her shrug off compliments from gods, but my mom’s praise really got to her.” WE JUST WANT TO BE APPRECIATED FOR OUR EFFORTS. And when a maternal figure says, “I see your hard work and I appreciate you for it.” Duh I am gonna cry! | Stopping at the word marrying because duh she thinks about marrying you. Stupid boy.
Page 168: I LOVE that Annabeth knows that blue food is sacred between Sally and Percy and does not invade their space. Again Annabeth “I know my place and I don’t overstep boundaries” Chase.
Page 169: Damn, these (word for homestead, homely, cozy) moments with Percy and his family are making me hella nervous. | “Annaeth had already seen my baby pictures…””-I had no dignity left.” AHAHA!
Page 170: “My mom was drinking sparkling water.” SHE IS PREGNANT I AM CALLING IT NOW. Sally Jackson is pregnant.
Page 171: BITCH I CALLED IT OMG I AM SO FUCKING HAPPY
Page 172: Aha. Baby Jackson and my father in law have the same birthday.
Page 174: Percy Jackson realizing that his life will not end if he “fails” this quest is such a comfort. Yeh dude. Would it suck to not make it to college with your girlfriend, yes. But there are good things that you can make do with. also, I hope this means he will be a bit more careful before running head first into life or death situations.
March 14, 2024
Page 180: Even Percy wants you to support your local library.
Page 181: “It felt like I was watching myself study more than I was actually studying.” Broooo what is that feeling called because that shit happens to me all the time!
Page 184: “It looks like radioactive honey.” “It’s not radioactive, honey.” Oh my god! Get a fucking room. And a nice house on the beach. With a library/study room. And a dog. And a fucking happily ever after you deserve the world.
Page 188: Remember friends, when it seems like your Athena’s kid friends start to get on you about your pace, they have an ten different invisible clocks going on in their head at all times trying to keep pace with their own internal schedules. Just listen and everything will be ok. I promise.
Also, I love that Annabeth showed up early at Percy’s house, not because she was bored or wanted to get the mission started. But because she KNEW that Percy wasn’t getting out of bed before school. She showed up to make sure the mission got started no matter what!
Page 191: “Always a terrible idea.” So we did exactly that
Page 193: PERCY WHY DID YOU TAKE THE TISSUES OUT OF YOUR NOSE!! God damn you!
Page 194: This sounds like a terrible time. Gears is explaining his entire plot.
Very interesting how we started with story, which of course is about the changing of times, with the goddess of youth and nastalgia, and then we encounter a goddess who still does most of the game job but has an appreciation for the past, and now a god of old age. This quest is directly tied to Percy’s current confilct of moving on from his past and trying to inch towards his happily ever after.
Page 195: Damn I should have explained my evil plan to Annabeth first, she would get it. AHA
Page 197: And there it is. It always loops back to Percy Jackson choosing to be mortal with his girlfriend over being immortal. But wait, did Ganymede have a choice in becoming immortal? It very much seems, like most people, he is a victim of Zeus’s desire.
Page 198: Considering the amount of help that Hercules needed to complete all his tasks, this does not bode well. Also, love Percy, but he isn’t the wrestling type?
Page 204: “If I chose to wreck his life for his own good, without his permission, I wasn’t much better than Zeus. I believed everyone should have the right to ruin their own life without anyone else ruining it form them.” LET’S GO PERCY
Page 208: Mid BAttle Theory with Kat: The trick to fighting old age is… you can’t. The more you fight it, the more you age/feel it. Sooo you have to be super soft.
Page 211: OH NO I HAVE TO STOP READING. I REFUSE to cry in a Starbucks. IN PUBLIC? No no no. I will not sob about Percy Jackson describing my life. I didn’t think I would make it to adulthood. The concept of growing old, even now is so foreign to me. It is always, the next job. The next living arrangement. The next step. But I am just making it up as I go. There is no master plan. I am still 16. I still don’t think I am going to make it to 21 years old. I read on anyways. Because… I love pain. And Mal should be showing up in a second so he will get it.
Page 214: God dammit. we are back to reading Percy Jackson and crying.
To be honest I am getting a bit nervous. Like, we have around 75 ish pages left and we have already gotten the Chalice. I am concerned something is about to go very wrong.
Page 216: “I look forward to wrestling you for many years to come, Percy Jackson.” Aww man.
Page 236: Dude I am STRESSED. Heart rate? Elevated. Teeth? Grinding. The next chapter’s title makes me want to jump out of my skin. The opening sentence? A banger.
Page 241: OH MY GOD. Athena is helping Percy? Holy shit what is happening?
Side note: I am reading the rest of this book while a crazy thunderstorm rages outside. Thematic.
Page 242: “I do like watching him walk away.” OH MY GOD I WANT TO KILL HIM.
Page 255: Ok… I LOVE Posideon saving Percy from getting expelled, but i didn’t need him spelling everything out. We got it Rick. Let a good thing be a good thing.
Damn that was a great book.
