March Reading!
Apr. 7th, 2024 09:39 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kpopwinemomIn March I continued my spiral, my descent, my unhinged rat behavior. I have no regrets and no remorse. I have made a nest.
We're going to talk about the Percy Jackson books first, and if I were smart and knew how to use cuts better, I would cut so you could skip this part, but I don't, so I'm sorry, you can scroll.
I flew through Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. This was by and far my favorite of the Percy Jackson series. It consists of The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus.
These were great. Unlike the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, they follow a group of heroes and are in third person limited instead of first person. Percy doesn't appear at all until book 2, and then essentially as another character - he's been missing for 8 months, and his memory has been wiped.
You do really have to read Percy Jackson and the Olympians to read these, but they are so, so good. I loved how they expanded on the universe, showing what life is like for others who weren't seen in the limited scope of the previous books, and opening possibilities for a much larger world. I also loved getting POVs from more characters! I loved Annabeth's chapters, and I was also particularly excited when Nico got a few chapters! I wasn't expecting him to, but he's easily one of my favorites, and I loved his POV.
I like, loved loved loved reading these. My copies (because of course I bought them) are flagged and sticky noted all to hell. I'm in deep now, there is no getting out.
While I was reading these, I also read The Demigod Files, Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo, and The Demigod Diaries. Here is my ONE COMPLAINT, and I made the same exact complaint about Felix Castor in February: During House of Hades a reference was made to a character I hadn't been introduced to. It was clear from the text that this was something that had happened in the canon, and I knew that there was a collection of short stories I had skipped. So I stopped, read the collection (The Demigod Diaries) and then hopped back in. It turns out that The Demigod Diaries contains a short story that...really needs to be read before you read House of Hades or the book's not going to be as complete. I...don't love this? (Note: I just realized it's included in the paperback copy of House of Hades, so! That helps.)
It makes sense, to refer back to a bit of continuity that came from an added story, but it also means that in order to get the whole narrative you have to have read the little side story. At least, unlike with Felix Castor, this wasn't a limited run $40 special print, it's an $8 activity book/short story collection. I don't think it's worth buying, unless you want the short story, but I did grab it from the library and then made copies to do all the puzzles, because WHY NOT.
Then I made a point to read all the OTHER short stories in the best order possible. They were all Fine, none of them have really been as critical as The Sword of Hades. The Singers of Apollo has been referred back to a few times in The Trials of Apollo, but mostly in the form of talking about the VERY cute date Annabeth and Percy go on. (I am JEALOUS, someone should take ME on a date to Paris, what the hell, why are these fictional teens getting a better dating life then ME!)
I have also started The Trials of Apollo, which I have mixed feelings about. I think Apollo is hilarious, and I love how these books have gotten increasingly queer - Apollo is open about his ex boyfriends AND girlfriends, and the book talks about how he got himself pregnant with one of his daughters. Kinda loving how Riordan's books start you off with a young straight white boy and then get increasingly diverse. You're trapped now! Excellent for young readers, I think.
Anyway, Trials of Apollo follows Apollo who has been turned into a sixteen year old human (Apollo says he is sixteen, because his children are fifteen and Apollo is actually fifteen) by Zeus. He HATES this, and it makes for a lot of comedy, particularly when he is forced to interact with his children. I liked book 1 a lot, book 2 was fine, I struggled with book 3 but really did like the ending, but I only finished The Hidden Oracle and The Dark Prophecy in March, so I'll talk about this series more in April's post!
Moving on to NON Rick Riordan books!
I am really having a mythology and middle grade moment, and that covers a lot of what I liked in March. The next book I read was Daughters of the Lamp by Nedda Lewers. It follows a young Egyptian American girl as she goes with her father to Egypt for the first time, and finally meets her Egyptian family. She discovers her family has been entrusted to protect magical items for generations, and something else is trying to steal them away. This was a really cute and charming read! I listened to it for work, and I do highly recommend this to young readers. It's part 1 of a duology, and I believe part 2 will be out this summer, though it does actually stand on its own.
Then I read Medusa by Katherine Marsh, kicking off my Medusa independent study. You guys, at one point we have 5 different Medusa books in the store. This is why I decided to read them all. So far, Katherine Marsh's is winning. Marsh's book is a cross between Percy Jackson and Disney's Descendants. It follows a young girl as she realizes she is descended from Medusa. She's forced to attend a school with all the other descendants of Greek Myth Villains, and learns that the stories are often more complicated then she's been lead to believe. I LOVED this book. It was SO charming, and a really good introduction in the power of storytelling and the importance of believing women's stories. It. lacks subtlety, but it's for kids, and felt perfectly appropriate. I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to book 2, whenever that is announced.
Next in our Myth Retelling series is Neon Gods b Katee Robert. This book was abominable. It's a Hades and Persephone retelling where Hades is more of a mob boss, the Olympians are the incomprehensible political system, and Persephone's sisters include Eurydice, and a whole ton of other girls who apparently made 0 impression on me because I cannot recall their names. It was so bad. After her mother arranges her marriage to Zeus, Persephone runs away: Zeus's last few Heras have all died mysteriously. She doesn't want to end up like them. She crosses the river to find that Hades, thought to be a children's story, is real, and sexy, and likes Public Sex.
The premise - of the Olympians being a political system - IS interesting, but unfortunately this is never explored or gone into. Instead, the focus is on the Kinky Public Sex Hades likes to have, and the sex is boring. I don't know how this book managed it. Hades and Persephone have no chemistry. The smut sucks, and the political plot is resolved when Zeus falls out a window. At which point I burst out laughing. This book is TRASH. Don't read it.
The last myth book I read in March was The Shadow of Perseus by Clair Heywood. This is currently in second place of all the Medusa books I've read and I also thought it was not great, but I did finish it. It follows all the women in Perseus's life, and how they shaped and colored him, and in turn, how he affected them. It starts with his mother, talking about her life before his conception, and then up to his leaving her to adventure, before pivoting to Medusa, then to Andromeda, and then back to Danae. Pros: it does a good job with negative space, and telling these women's stories. Focusing on only three women means we really do get their narrative, and get to know these women. Cons: this REALLY wanted Perseus to be a clear-cut villain. It stripped all magic and fantasy from the tale, and makes the events that happen to each woman WORSE in order to tell a tale where Perseus is an unprecedented asshole ala Hercules. I just particularly do not love the lack of complexity and nuance, and the increased violence against women to make a feminist retelling. I am always a fan of letting female characters have MORE agency, not less. So this was MEH for me.
Finally, I read Annie Bot by Sierra Greer. This was incredibly mediocre, and felt very nothing new here, check out something else. Annie Bot is about a sex/companion bot named Annie. She was modeled after her owner's ex-wife, and has been put in auto-didactic mode, so now she's learning. When her owner's best friend proposes that she sleep with him and keep it a secret from her owner, she begins growing and learning far past what anyone expected of her. I don't know, this book was fine. I don't care. It just felt extremely Nothing New Here.
Anyway, that was March's reading! I'm reading more Trials of Apollo now, and I'm gonna finish my Medusa reads - I have two more books left!
We're going to talk about the Percy Jackson books first, and if I were smart and knew how to use cuts better, I would cut so you could skip this part, but I don't, so I'm sorry, you can scroll.
I flew through Rick Riordan's Heroes of Olympus series. This was by and far my favorite of the Percy Jackson series. It consists of The Lost Hero, The Son of Neptune, The Mark of Athena, The House of Hades, and The Blood of Olympus.
These were great. Unlike the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series, they follow a group of heroes and are in third person limited instead of first person. Percy doesn't appear at all until book 2, and then essentially as another character - he's been missing for 8 months, and his memory has been wiped.
You do really have to read Percy Jackson and the Olympians to read these, but they are so, so good. I loved how they expanded on the universe, showing what life is like for others who weren't seen in the limited scope of the previous books, and opening possibilities for a much larger world. I also loved getting POVs from more characters! I loved Annabeth's chapters, and I was also particularly excited when Nico got a few chapters! I wasn't expecting him to, but he's easily one of my favorites, and I loved his POV.
I like, loved loved loved reading these. My copies (because of course I bought them) are flagged and sticky noted all to hell. I'm in deep now, there is no getting out.
While I was reading these, I also read The Demigod Files, Percy Jackson and the Singer of Apollo, and The Demigod Diaries. Here is my ONE COMPLAINT, and I made the same exact complaint about Felix Castor in February: During House of Hades a reference was made to a character I hadn't been introduced to. It was clear from the text that this was something that had happened in the canon, and I knew that there was a collection of short stories I had skipped. So I stopped, read the collection (The Demigod Diaries) and then hopped back in. It turns out that The Demigod Diaries contains a short story that...really needs to be read before you read House of Hades or the book's not going to be as complete. I...don't love this? (Note: I just realized it's included in the paperback copy of House of Hades, so! That helps.)
It makes sense, to refer back to a bit of continuity that came from an added story, but it also means that in order to get the whole narrative you have to have read the little side story. At least, unlike with Felix Castor, this wasn't a limited run $40 special print, it's an $8 activity book/short story collection. I don't think it's worth buying, unless you want the short story, but I did grab it from the library and then made copies to do all the puzzles, because WHY NOT.
Then I made a point to read all the OTHER short stories in the best order possible. They were all Fine, none of them have really been as critical as The Sword of Hades. The Singers of Apollo has been referred back to a few times in The Trials of Apollo, but mostly in the form of talking about the VERY cute date Annabeth and Percy go on. (I am JEALOUS, someone should take ME on a date to Paris, what the hell, why are these fictional teens getting a better dating life then ME!)
I have also started The Trials of Apollo, which I have mixed feelings about. I think Apollo is hilarious, and I love how these books have gotten increasingly queer - Apollo is open about his ex boyfriends AND girlfriends, and the book talks about how he got himself pregnant with one of his daughters. Kinda loving how Riordan's books start you off with a young straight white boy and then get increasingly diverse. You're trapped now! Excellent for young readers, I think.
Anyway, Trials of Apollo follows Apollo who has been turned into a sixteen year old human (Apollo says he is sixteen, because his children are fifteen and Apollo is actually fifteen) by Zeus. He HATES this, and it makes for a lot of comedy, particularly when he is forced to interact with his children. I liked book 1 a lot, book 2 was fine, I struggled with book 3 but really did like the ending, but I only finished The Hidden Oracle and The Dark Prophecy in March, so I'll talk about this series more in April's post!
Moving on to NON Rick Riordan books!
I am really having a mythology and middle grade moment, and that covers a lot of what I liked in March. The next book I read was Daughters of the Lamp by Nedda Lewers. It follows a young Egyptian American girl as she goes with her father to Egypt for the first time, and finally meets her Egyptian family. She discovers her family has been entrusted to protect magical items for generations, and something else is trying to steal them away. This was a really cute and charming read! I listened to it for work, and I do highly recommend this to young readers. It's part 1 of a duology, and I believe part 2 will be out this summer, though it does actually stand on its own.
Then I read Medusa by Katherine Marsh, kicking off my Medusa independent study. You guys, at one point we have 5 different Medusa books in the store. This is why I decided to read them all. So far, Katherine Marsh's is winning. Marsh's book is a cross between Percy Jackson and Disney's Descendants. It follows a young girl as she realizes she is descended from Medusa. She's forced to attend a school with all the other descendants of Greek Myth Villains, and learns that the stories are often more complicated then she's been lead to believe. I LOVED this book. It was SO charming, and a really good introduction in the power of storytelling and the importance of believing women's stories. It. lacks subtlety, but it's for kids, and felt perfectly appropriate. I really enjoyed this book, and I am looking forward to book 2, whenever that is announced.
Next in our Myth Retelling series is Neon Gods b Katee Robert. This book was abominable. It's a Hades and Persephone retelling where Hades is more of a mob boss, the Olympians are the incomprehensible political system, and Persephone's sisters include Eurydice, and a whole ton of other girls who apparently made 0 impression on me because I cannot recall their names. It was so bad. After her mother arranges her marriage to Zeus, Persephone runs away: Zeus's last few Heras have all died mysteriously. She doesn't want to end up like them. She crosses the river to find that Hades, thought to be a children's story, is real, and sexy, and likes Public Sex.
The premise - of the Olympians being a political system - IS interesting, but unfortunately this is never explored or gone into. Instead, the focus is on the Kinky Public Sex Hades likes to have, and the sex is boring. I don't know how this book managed it. Hades and Persephone have no chemistry. The smut sucks, and the political plot is resolved when Zeus falls out a window. At which point I burst out laughing. This book is TRASH. Don't read it.
The last myth book I read in March was The Shadow of Perseus by Clair Heywood. This is currently in second place of all the Medusa books I've read and I also thought it was not great, but I did finish it. It follows all the women in Perseus's life, and how they shaped and colored him, and in turn, how he affected them. It starts with his mother, talking about her life before his conception, and then up to his leaving her to adventure, before pivoting to Medusa, then to Andromeda, and then back to Danae. Pros: it does a good job with negative space, and telling these women's stories. Focusing on only three women means we really do get their narrative, and get to know these women. Cons: this REALLY wanted Perseus to be a clear-cut villain. It stripped all magic and fantasy from the tale, and makes the events that happen to each woman WORSE in order to tell a tale where Perseus is an unprecedented asshole ala Hercules. I just particularly do not love the lack of complexity and nuance, and the increased violence against women to make a feminist retelling. I am always a fan of letting female characters have MORE agency, not less. So this was MEH for me.
Finally, I read Annie Bot by Sierra Greer. This was incredibly mediocre, and felt very nothing new here, check out something else. Annie Bot is about a sex/companion bot named Annie. She was modeled after her owner's ex-wife, and has been put in auto-didactic mode, so now she's learning. When her owner's best friend proposes that she sleep with him and keep it a secret from her owner, she begins growing and learning far past what anyone expected of her. I don't know, this book was fine. I don't care. It just felt extremely Nothing New Here.
Anyway, that was March's reading! I'm reading more Trials of Apollo now, and I'm gonna finish my Medusa reads - I have two more books left!
