Review: Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods by Rick Riordan (illustrated by John Rocco)

Publisher: Disney Hyperion Books
Release: August 19, 2014
Format: Hardcover
Source: Purchased
Pages: 320
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A publisher in New York asked me to write down what I know about the Greek gods, and I was like, Can we do this anonymously? Because I don’t need the Olympians mad at me again. But if it helps you to know your Greek gods, and survive an encounter with them if they ever show up in your face, then I guess writing all this down will be my good deed for the week.

So begins Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods, in which the son of Poseidon adds his own magic–and sarcastic asides–to the classics. He explains how the world was created, then gives readers his personal take on a who’s who of ancients, from Apollo to Zeus. Percy does not hold back. “If you like horror shows, blood baths, lying, stealing, backstabbing, and cannibalism, then read on, because it definitely was a Golden Age for all that.”

Dramatic full-color illustrations throughout by Caldecott Honoree John Rocco make this volume–a must for home, library, and classroom shelves–as stunning as it is entertaining.

MY THOUGHTS

How could I not give this book 5 stars?! This whole book was perfection! It was incredibly funny and entertaining, but also contained a lot of great information for any fan (or beginner) of Greek mythology! Everything was written in a way that was so easy to digest and it just made learning about the Greek Gods really fun! The only downfall, really, is the weight and size of this book. At least, you’ll get a good work out? 😀

This entire book is written from Percy’s voice, which was the highlight of the book. If you loved Percy’s voice in Percy Jackson and the Olympians, you will not be disappointed with Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods. It was hilarious to read about all of the gods from Percy’s point of view because he gives little anecdotes about his experiences with the gods and there are lots of jokes too. Everything is presented in a way that is easy for the audience to understand and there’s so much information in this book that it needed to be easy to understand.

We learn about how the world began, the primordial gods and the Titans at the beginning of the book. We also learn about how the Titans defeated Ouranos, and then later on, how the Gods defeated Kronos. We then get in depth chapters about the twelve major gods, as well Hades and Persephone. While there was a lot of information presented, I never felt overwhelmed or that I was reading a textbook. There are lots of different theories and explanations when it comes to mythology, and Percy Jackson’s Greek Gods only presents one side of the story (Rick Riordan’s side). But what’s great about only getting one side of the story is that it’s usually the best received or most reasonable side. Sure, you can find all of this information on Wikipedia, but here you have all of the information condensed into one book that all makes sense together. It also includes some weird stories about each of the gods that might take you a while to find if you had to dig through the internet.

What I appreciated most about this book was how it was put together and the order that everything was presented in. Obviously it’s difficult to present everything chronologically because lots of things happen simultaneously or have no obvious order to them. But this book read so logically and everything felt like it was in the right place. There were instances where Percy, the narrator, would introduce an event or a character and say “we’ll come back to this later” or “you’ll meet him a little later in the book” but they were few and far between. I didn’t feel like I was being jerked all over the place and everything made sense together.

The illustrations in this book were amazing. There was one full page illustration in every chapter, as well as smaller illustrations throughout. I thought they captured the personality and attributes of each of the gods perfectly and they were beautiful to look at. I mean, just the cover of this book itself reflects how amazing the illustrations inside are.

I highly recommend this book if you love Percy Jackson and want to know more about the Greek Gods. Even if you’re not interested in Percy, I’d still recommend this because it’s a very clear and concise story about the Gods and how they came to be. And the book is truly beautiful and I’m so glad to have it in my possession!