Like many high school seniors, the infamous and beloved Percy Jackson has a few college recommendation letters to score in Rick Riordan’s new book: The Wrath of the Triple Goddess. Published on September 24, 2024, the book follows Percy on his quest to earn three recommendation letters from the Greek gods of ancient mythology to get into the college of his dreams along with Annabeth, his girlfriend.
The Wrath of the Triple Goddess is the second book in Riordan’s new spin-off series, The Senior Year Adventures. The first book in this series was released on September 26, 2024 under the name Percy Jackson and the Olympians: Chalice of the Gods. This spin-off series takes place during Percy’s senior year of high school.
Before the book begins, Percy has already succeeded in receiving one out of the three required recommendation letters for his college application by performing a quest for the cupbearer of the gods, Ganymede. This time, Hecate, the Greek goddess of magic, crossroads, and necromancy, requests that Percy perform a quest for her in order to receive a recommendation letter. Hecate’s unusual request requires Percy and his friends to pet-sit.
Towards the beginning of the book, Hecate states the task and how to perform it, starting the story off in a strong yet concise way. I really liked that Riordan introduced the basic storyline for the book at the beginning. I think, even if it was rushed, it allowed the reader to get started on the story rather than dragging the plot out from the very beginning.
Then, during chapters 8-9, the main conflict is introduced where Hecate’s pets run off because of a magical disaster. From the beginning of the book, when Hecate states her requirement to earn the recommendation letter, to chapters 8-9, where we are introduced to the conflict, the book seemed to have little to almost no events at all, and was a little dull. There were parts that foreshadowed the conflict and told us more about the task Percy and his friends have to deal with. However, generally speaking, the chapters in between 1 and 8 could be summed up into one or two chapters and shouldn’t have been expanded to such length.
After Hecate’s pets run off and out of the house, which would be the main conflict being introduced, chapters 10 through 23 are all about how to solve the problem. In my opinion, these thirteen chapters were bland and not as exciting as I had expected. There were parts that I think were unnecessary and didn’t exactly contribute to the plotline. There were certain chapters that had some parts of the climax and seemed important to me, but these chapters should have been the only ones included rather than the full 13. I was really disappointed by the other chapters since they did not contribute to the plot and were uninteresting. They also seemed to drag on by including parts that were really confusing and not very important to the storyline.
Following chapter 23, a second conflict is introduced relating to the damage of Hecate’s property. I personally think that the book would have been better off without this added issue since it doesn’t really seem connected with Hecate’s orders and requests. The rest of the book could have been written better and more compelling if the second conflict had not been included.
In general, Riordan’s books are super captivating and hard to put down, but this book made me wish for the ending to arrive sooner. Even the Chalice of the Gods, the first book in this spin-off series, was pretty enjoyable and funny. On the other hand, the humor in this book seemed eminently forced and not enjoyable. There were places that were genuinely hilarious, but those were rare, unlike other Rick Riordan books which make you crack up at almost every chapter. I had high expectations for this book and was a little disappointed that it could not meet some of them. However, I did love how the original characters were included and not other, unnecessary characters from other books. It felt nostalgic in the best way. I was reading this book as if I was reading the original series again for the first time. Overall, I was disappointed and unimpressed with this piece of work by Riordan. I had really expected more. This book is something that can be summed up in a short story and did not require a whole novel.
If other readers enjoy mythological, fantasy, and children’s books like Percy Jackson, I would most definitely recommend Keeper of the Lost Cities series by Shannon Messenger, or the Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling. For Young Adult readers, I would suggest the Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins, for more dystopian novels. If readers want to delve further into Percy Jackson’s world, I would recommend The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, The Kane Chronicles, and the Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series, all written by Rick Riordan.
5/10
