Saturday, July 20, 2013

Review: Demigods and Monsters: Your Favorite Authors on Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians Series

ISBN: 9780979233142
Released: January, 2008; re-released July 2, 2013
My copy: Ebook (Netgalley)
Publisher: Smart Pop
Series: No, Stand-Alone
Page Count: (roughly) 288 pages

     GOODREADS.COM SYNOPSIS:


"Spend a little more time in Percy Jackson’s world—a place where the gods bike among us, monsters man snack bars, and each of us has the potential to become a hero.Find out:Why Dionysus might actually be the best director Camp Half-Blood could have, How to recognize a monster when you see one, Why even if we aren’t facing manticores and minotaurs, reading myth can still help us deal with the scary things in our own lives.Plus, consult our glossary of people, places, and things from Greek myth: how Medusa got her snake hair extensions, why Chiron isn’t into partying and paintball like the rest of his centaur family, and the whole story on Percy’s mythical namesake."

     REVIEW:
WHAT I LIKED:
  • I loved Elizabeth Rees' piece that referenced our firefighters and police officers who died trying to save people during 9/11 as heroes just like demi-gods. I loved her piece as a whole, but I loved her idea that regular people can be heroes just as big or sometimes bigger than Riordan's demi-gods.
  • The whole things wasnt praise to Riordan's works. Some authors criticized where necessary and I thought that was great, and an honest, truthful thing to do.
  • This book is like one giant collaborative review. As a reviewer, how can you not appreciate and admire that

WHAT I DIDN'T LIKE:
  • I was super excited about this book, and then it was kind of just OK. I was kind of let-down by it being just essays basically about each author's personal experiences and how they relate to Riordan's stories.
  • Some of the essays were way too long, and those particular authors kept repeating the same thing over and over. I mean, I love Greek mythology as much as the next obsessed-girl, but give me a break.
  • Its probably not the best book for the young reader, such as those who would be reading the actual Percy Jackson books. This is probably more marketed toward the older crowd, but it wouldve been cool to have some things written that younger kids could get into, too.

RATING: (3 stars)

Overall, I found this collection interesting more than anything, and I appreciated all of the insight it provided to the books. It really made me want to revisit the Percy Jackson series, and as soon as I'm done with my Harry Potter re-read, I'm definitely delving back into PJ, and possibly will re-read this one too. I absolutely love Greek mythology, so my favorite part about this were all the facts and comparisons to actual Greek mythology and how many new things I learned. It was pretty good, if a little disappointing, and I'd recommend it to anyone who is interested in mythology itself and wants to get a deeper look into what makes the Percy Jackson series tick.

Have any of you read this book? It was re-released to come out right before the second movie (which I cant wait to see!), but originally released back in 2008. Did you read it before or now, or are you planning on reading it? What did you think!?

A.

*Disclaimer: I was given this book by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.*

2 comments:

  1. There were definitely some good parts of the book, but a few entire sections were just painfull to read. One reads like a fanfiction of Percy and Myan mythology, which is an interesting idea, but the two authors wasted it by not making a point. It was an unnecessary segway, to say the least. Another section talked about which Olympian parents would you choose, and instead of talking about the individual god's personalities, parenting style, or even the danger of being the demigod child to certain gods, the author goes on about how she would be a "badass" princess (of the Big Three). On top of that, a lot of the time, the authors put in pointless cutesy throwaway jokes about the characters that don't fit there personalities, get facts wrong about the book, and even spell a character's

    ReplyDelete
  2. name wrong. I feel like some of the authors didn't want to give legit insight into the books and characters and just wanted to fangirl about them. Personally, I feel like some wasted perfectly good subjects and ideas. I've read fanfiction more insightful.

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A.