The Chalice of the Gods: Book Review
In this article, Averie reminisces over the Percy Jackson series and gushes over the new spin-off book.
The Chalice of the Gods: Book Review
By Averie Black
*Content Warning* This article contains spoilers for The Chalice of the Gods by Rick Riordan.
The last adventure of Percy Jackson, Annabeth Chase, and Grover Underwood was published in 2009 as the fifth and final book of the Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. Since then, there have been many beloved series to follow such as The Heroes of Olympus, The Trials of Apollo, and The Kane Chronicles, but the original Percy Jackson series has always held the most nostalgia with its audience. With the announcement of the new Disney+ TV show, the author, Rick Riordan, also announced a spin-off book with the original golden trio. The Chalice of the Gods features a perfect blend of nostalgic adventure with the careful recognition of the shifting audience.
"Find someone who loves you the way my girlfriend pushes me off a cliff...Bonus points if you find someone with enough chutzpah to say Bon voyage while they do it."
The Chalice of the Gods is set after The Heroes of Olympus but before The Trials of Apollo. Percy finally made it to his senior year and is just trying to get good grades so he can get into New Rome University with Annabeth. However, after meeting with his counselor Percy finds out she works for his dad. Then, Percy discovers that, since he was not supposed to be born in the first place, Zeus did not want him admitted because of the pact the big three made to not have any more children. Poseidon was able to talk Zeus down from not allowing Percy in to requiring him to get three recommendation letters from Gods by completing quests for them. After so many years of saving the world and completing quests for Gods, Percy is upset, (to say it lightly) that he is expected to go even more out of his way just to go to school with his girlfriend.
The characters are, of course, familiarly wonderful. Percy is still funny, sarcastic, and the founder of the sassy man apocalypse, but he is also a little more done with the Gods and much more focused on his mortal side. Annabeth is, of course, brilliant, sweet most of the time, and picked up a new baking hobby. Grover is his usual mix of being the comic relief and sworn protector of his friends. However, there were a few expansions of beloved side characters, as well as some new gods introduced. Sally Jackson and Paul Blofis are living in cute, little domestic bliss, and the audience even gets some nice mother-son moments that were often lacking in the original series. The new gods that are introduced are Ganymede, the cupbearer, Hebe, the Goddess of youth, and Geras, the God of old age. Ganymede is a typical himbo God, worried about his missing chalice and issues Percy the quest to retrieve it. He provides a new, interesting perspective on quests and immortality, where Percy actually wants to help Ganymede. Ganymede was once a mortal guy who minded his business, when Zeus, in usual Zeus fashion, decided that he was so good-looking that he must have him. Zeus turned him into an eagle, brought him up to Olympus, and turned him into his immortal cupbearer--loving the bisexual representation here. Percy seems to understand that an eternity of serving drinks and being catcalled is more pitiful than anything, and really puts his heart into helping Ganymede out, which is a sweet contrast to the usual reluctance.
"'Farewell, my friends,' I told them. 'Be good to one another.'
Then I ascended."
Tone-wise, this book is very different from the Percy Jackson series readers are used to. However, the change is actually quite welcome. The original series was pretty dark for a middle-grade series and held a big adventure element that took up most of the story with traveling and epic battles. Of course, Percy Jackson books always hold on to a bit of humor. It is a side-effect of having Percy as the narrator, but this book was just straight-up campy. For a nearly 60-year-old, white, cishet, Southern man, Riordan does a phenomenal job writing this style of humor. Annabeth convincing Percy he has to skip to get Iris’s staff to work, Poseidon not showing up for all of Percy’s life but calling the school to excuse his absence, Percy having to hide under a serving cart and being annoyed about how cliche he is, Grover having a black and white artsy photoshoot, Annabeth comforting a God from Percy’s wrath with herbal tea, Percy and Ganymede getting smoothies at Himbo Juice, its camp. All of it is camp, and it is fabulous. It is not just the campiness that changed tone-wise.
Overall, this book had a lot more breathing room than previous Percy Jackson books. Since the golden trio was not on an ongoing quest where they had to go from place to place and kept getting attacked or trying to keep up with the hijinks of Camp Half-Blood, there was room to see Percy at school, Percy with his family, and Percy with Annabeth. As much fun as the formulaic quests are, it was a nice change of pace and matched Percy’s more mature voice as a high school senior. Another different, but welcome, change is the slang. The original series was published in the early 2000s so there were often references to stuff such as BlackBerry phones and other painfully 2000s items and slang. However, this new book includes modern-day slang, which is a bit soul-shaking to see in a Percy Jackson book but is funny anyway. Some words that were used throughout the book were “boomer”, “deepfake”, “himbo”, and references to TikTok.
"You're like our life source, dude. We can only be away from you for so long before we start to wither, you know?"
Percabeth was, of course, iconic throughout the book. Riordan was clearly doing a lot of fan service, which is great for the audience because there are a lot of Percy and Annabeth moments that were adorable. Whenever Percy needed the motivation to get through the mini-quests or do well in school he always thought about how nice life would be after he and Annabeth were able to safely go to school and start a life together. Overall, there were a lot of cute moments that deserve recognition such as Percy drawing “A + P” with a laser pointer, Annabeth climbing through his window for a late night visit, Percy talking about marriage and growing old together, Annabeth refusing to bake blue food, and Annabeth letting Percy borrow her cap. They are the staple, the bar, the original OTP, and the sole reason why so many young people grew up with such high relationship standards. Thanks Percabeth.
What was really interesting about The Chalice of the Gods was the themes. The themes could arguably apply to Riordan's regular middle-grade audience, but that is not what it comes off as. The Chalice of the Gods is about growing up and everything changing. This is quite a fitting theme, as Riordan wrote the book to celebrate the upcoming TV show and new beginnings for the Percy Jackson series. While Percy, Annabeth, and Grover were visiting Hebe, the Goddess of youth and a suspect of stealing the chalice, she changed the trio back into elementary schoolers. This not only created some funny antics, but a genuine heartbreaking moment of panic for Percy, thinking about going through all he endured a second time. This moment shot him into a moment of existential dread, and when they were finally changed back, Percy came back with an appreciation of where he was in life. Percy had been feeling a bit down about finishing his last summer at Camp Half-Blood. Still, despite the nostalgia he had for the place where he had all of his adventures, he recognized that he did not want to go back and instead wanted to continue to move forward with the rest of his life. The little shop Hebe runs, Hebbie Jeebies, was often referred to as a nostalgia trap, a place where older people would go to reminisce. It was a bit funny, considering this book was meant for the older generation reminiscing about their favorite childhood series.
"I believed everyone should have the right to ruin their own life without anyone else ruining it for them."
When it was finally revealed who actually stole the chalice, Geras, the God of old age, Percy had to wrestle with him to get the chalice back. It is a subtle metaphor for Percy wrestling with growing older. After realizing there was no trick to defeating Geras like every other bad guy they have encountered, Percy began accepting his death and mourning what could have been. Then, Percy has a realization. Geras is upset about humans not accepting old age. Percy finally understood what he had been learning throughout this adventure, the two options are growing old or dying young, and Percy had been fighting against a young death his entire life. To finally defeat Geras, Percy hugged it out with him, thanking the god and visualizing all the good memories he, Annabeth, and Grover will make while growing old together. While this book is labeled middle-grade like the rest of Riordan's books, it is not hard to see that it was not meant for middle schoolers. The Chalice of the Gods was meant for all of the original fans of the book series who are now in their last years of high school or early years of adulthood just as Percy. This sweet sentiment is the perfect spin-off as fans anxiously await the new TV series.
The Chalice of the Gods currently has 4.42 stars with 32k ratings on GoodReads, which is ridiculously high. To put in perspective just how high that rating is, the sweetheart of Booktok, Fourth Wing, has 4.63 stars. That is a .21 difference between a 200-page middle-grade book and the biggest book on the internet right now. The reviewer Paige puts it best when she says, “I've had a pretty tough week, and boy was it perfect timing to be able to go on an adventure with Percy Jackson again. He was my very first best friend, and the comfort I felt turning every page of this will not be forgotten. Even if it feels like Rick will never leave me alone, his words will always be something I pine after.” Even if no book is perfect, it is undeniable that The Chalice of the Gods has had a special emotional impact on all those who read it. Although the book was short and readers were clambering for more, there is good news over the horizon. The second spin-off book about Percy’s next recommendation letter, Wrath of the Triple Goddess, will be coming out next September.
"Reader, she flushed me."
The Chalice of the Gods was a nostalgic masterpiece with beautiful themes of growing up and moving on. Riordan never fails when it comes to humor and charismatic characters that brighten up the story with so much magic. Readers worldwide will be holding their breath for Dec. 20th, so bake some blue cookies, grab some tissues, and get ready for the next era of Percy Jackson and the Olympians.
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The Chalice of the Gods
